Portrait of an elegant lady

I'm going to paint a verbal portrait of an elegant lady I met at the Village Improvement Association Arts and Craft Show in Rehoboth last April. This is a very enjoyable and refined gathering held by the ladies of the VIA in their clubhouse at the north end of the Rehoboth Boardwalk, but let’s focus on Jo Ann Legates Currey, whom I was fortunate enough to meet at this event.

Her sister Anna Legates approached my table. She is a fan of my columns in the Cape Gazette. "You have to meet my sister Jo Ann," she told me. "She's a lot like you." I thought – Who in the world could be a lot like me? "She'll be along in awhile." said Anna. "It takes her awhile to get ready."

And so it did, and the shadows in the room were getting long. The show is an afternoon to early evening event with wonderful and bountiful refreshments. Finally, Jo Ann made an appearance, and it was well worth the wait. Dressed meticulously and artistically from head to toe, she was a vision of a modern-day grand lady of the gilded age.

Only the flamboyant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo took such great care with her well-curated outfits by starching and ironing petticoats, layering materials and adding carefully selected jewels. Jo Ann's trademark is her earrings – one long and the other half pinched off to add the interest of asymmetry. She wears an armful of bracelets, but makes sure they don't rattle, in addition to large rings made from antique buttons.

She is slender and can carry off several layers of skirts, another trademark of hers. All fashionable ladies have a trademark, as my mother used to say (hers was a hair bow). Jo Ann loves necklaces dangling like the sculptor Alexander Calder's mobiles around her neck, talismans of jeweled wonderment. The whole picture extends downward to boots from another romantic century when they become well worn and soft, dusted by her skirts. She even paints the toes with brushmarks of silver and gold paint. Lastly, she tilts a witty hat of her choice on her well-coiffed head.

Although we seem to be soul sisters, I can't brag that I am always as meticulous as Jo Ann. I'm one extreme or the other. Going out to dinner, an art show or on a cruise ship, I like to dress up. My husband knows how heavy my bags are on a trip. However, I can go in the opposite direction day to day. I've been spotted at Food Lion in a ragged assortment. I often turn my outfits inside out to keep the paints I apply with brushes large and small from staining the front. I have a favorite soft red sweater with a cowl-style turtleneck that I pull over half my face at night and continue to wear into the daylight hours. The buttons have pulled and popped off of both sides, and I have it held together with safety pins.

It's often turned inside out, but now both sides have been spotted with paint. I always think, wrongly, that I won't get paint on it this time. A lady in the line at Food Lion would usually tell me that my sweater was inside out after spotting the tag at the neck. I finally cut it off, leaving a hole, but I still get compliments on it from passersby when I step outside to fetch the newspaper in the morning.

Jo Ann has mentioned Funky Lady as one of her favorite shops. I happened upon it the other day along Route 1 upon visiting the Rehoboth WSFS Bank drive-through window. "Oh, there it is!" I exclaimed excitedly. I called the owner, Madge Paterson, and she graciously agreed to meet me and show me her wondrous store. It really is my kind of place! Colorful and exotic with a bit of the bohemian and ethnic, and even a splash of Lilly Pulitzer color combinations and prints.

I now know where Jo Ann found her sculptural Jeff Lieb necklaces, for they are displayed up front. It's a place you should really visit without your husband (as a sign hanging on the wall advises), or it states wrongly, "Your husband called and said to buy anything you want." Not a chance. There's also a Funky Lady's Closet in Lewes at the Brush Factory, 830 Kings Highway in Lewes.

Madge offered to dress me in Funky Lady fashion. She's the only woman I'd let advise me on how to dress, after the dressing-room showdowns with my mother in my teenage years, but Madge seems to "get me," so it was fun to see what she would come up with.

Jo Ann gave me a list of her favorite stores in the area where she hunts (shopping is a woman's way of hunting, after all) to find her treasures. These are in2soles (for boots), Quiet Storm, Funky Lady, Boutique W, and the new Sty.Lishh in Rehoboth Beach, and Twila Farrell in Lewes.

Happy hunting to all of you fashionistas out there! You can have fun when your menfolk are playing golf, hunting or watching football all year long!