I have always loved keeping up with dress diaries by other costumers, and I am just so
excited to be finally able to give it a try myself! I plan on this being a very long-term project,
and my main goal is to just have at least one or two of the versions completed by the spring. I want to spend
a large amount of time researching this field so that I might be able to post information and construction
techniques for others who are also interested in this region and period of costume history. Thanks for
your patience... I hope you enjoy the jouney!
When researching a particular style or period of dress, I start by spending several months just looking at artwork from that region and time-period to get a better understanting of the distinct fashions. This process never really stops, and I am constantly searching for more examples to broaden my understanding of the subject. I have put together two galleries of Florentine dress to help me organize the images, and also to provide a resource for others. The first one covers the dates from 1500-1525 and focuses on the specific style of gown that I will concentrate on the most for this project. The second gallery covers a wider range of fashion from Florence and also includes similar styles from various Italian regions during the years 1525-1550.
From the moment that I come up with a new idea for a gown, I start sketching. Most of these early versions are just doodles to help me visualize different designs, but they are a very useful way to try out different combinations of dress construction and embelishment. I you look here, you will find a motly assortment of these working sketches that I have dug out of various notebooks and sketchbook from the last six months.
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| an alternate design |
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| Portrait of a Noblewoman |
After doing a bit of research on the types of fabrics used in early 16th century Florentine gowns, I discovered that they would have all been constructed from either fine wool, silk, or possibly velvet (although velvet appears to be more common for sleeves or trim than for the whole gown). Since wool and silk are both really hard to find locally, I did a little shopping at some great fabric stores in Houston last weekend to get a better grasp on my options. I found that there is a large variety of silks available, but the only type that was really within my price range was doupioni. Unfortunately, the slubs and irregularities in this weave of silk would not have been acceptable during the Renaissance, which makes it a somewhat historically inaccurate choice. I really fell in love with the wools, which were thin and soft and draped just beautifully, but the average price per yard was $20-$35... so unless I find some extra money in the next month or so, the wool is probably out of my price range as well. But just when things were starting to look a bit glum, my mother-in-law gave me a box of wonderful old fabric when I saw her for Thanksgiving, and in it was a length of pale peach silk that I might be able to use for my gown! It is a similar weight and texture to Thai silk or a thin taffeta, but it is extremely narrow--only 20 inches wide! But luckily, there are 13 1/2 yards of it, so I think there would still be enough if I made the skirt out of 6 or 7 panels. The color is very pretty as it is, but I am thinking about dyeing it to create a slightly richer color. I am currently reading up on natural dyes, and if I can work up the courage, I would like to try dyeing it with madder to get the final hue.
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| Original color on the left and a possible shade after dyeing on the right | |
One of the first things that attracted me to Florentine dress was the brilliant range of colors that they used in their wardrobes. While trying to decide on colors for my own gown, I thought it would be fun to create a little chart showing the range of hues represented in the first Florentine dress gallery. Florentines were known for a love of brilliant colors in their dress, and by the looks of the spectrum shown below, almost any color could be used when re-creating this style of costume. However, the finest and most expensive fabrics were made with red or purple dyes, and you can see the amazing range of plums, reds, and pinks that dominate the color spectrum.
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| Range of gown colors from the 1500-1525 dress gallery |
The sleeve colors on Florentine gowns cover an equally impressive range. When they are worn, they could either match the fabric in the dress body, or be made of a complimenting color, but there seems to be no rules for color combination--pretty much, anything goes! The color chart below shows a more even distribution of color choices for the sleeves, with blues and greens appearing more often here than in the gown colors. You can also notice that black is much more common for sleeves than for the dress fabric.
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| Range of sleeve colors |
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| madder test swatches |
For the past two weeks, I've been working on an article covering the style and construction of Florentine dress from 1500-1525. Maybe it was just a form of procrastination while waiting for my Christmas present (a digital camera--woohoo!), but hopefully, it might possibly prove to be useful or interesting to other costumers out there studying Italian dress as well.
Other than that, I've also been trying my hand at natural dyeing... with a bit of mixed results! :-/ At first, I came up with some beautiful test swatches, but when I added the 13+ yards of silk, the madder just kindof fizzled out. I eventually realized that I didn't buy enough roots to get it to that darkest red shade since there was so much fabric sucking up the dye. My silk is now somewhere around the 45 minute hue, but it never would go beyond that, even after two days in the dyebath. Although I originally wanted a pinkish salmon, this is just a bit too orangy for my complexion and hair, so I decided to go for red instead. It's actually kind of weird though... the color I have now looks really beautiful inside, but it turns into a flaming orange in the sun! Or as my husband so eloquently put it: "Oh my God! You'd look like a Tibetan monk!" But anyhoo... I'm just going to order some more roots and try again in a week or so. I'll have photos and a full report about my madder experience as soon as I get a chance to finish up the process.
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| swatches for the guards, gown, and lining |
I finished dyeing my silk, and the color is fantastic!!! I wrote up a separate article about my experience with natural dyes, which you can now read in The Costuming Idiot's Guide to Basic Natural Dyeing. I also ordered some linen for the dress lining and camicia and found some great dark brownish-burgundy velvet for the trim (although it looks a lot like black when not in direct sunlight). You can see the scan of the swatches to the left, but please excuse the wrinkly silk... it will look much better after a bit of ironing! ;-) All I have left to find is some contrasting fabric for the sleeves (I'm looking for a rich cerulean blue silk or wool), but I can still start working on the body of the gown right away!
I am currently trying out various solutions for the bodice stiffening, and pictures of my first trial
bodices should be up later this week.
