The bodice for the gown will be made from a very simple pattern. Although there are no extant Italian dresses from the first quarter of the 16th century, a gown worn by the Medici noblewoman Eleanora of Toledo does survive, and this at least gives us a good understanding of bodice construction for a gown worn by a Florentine woman in the mid-1500's. Since this is fairly close to my time of study, and because bodice construction appears to show few major changes during these 50 years, I decided to model my version on the outer and inner bodices from the Eleanora of Toledo gown featured in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion.
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| my bodice pattern |
The one issue that has been plaguing me more than any other with this project is trying to figure out a historically viable method for keeping the bodice free of nasty wrinkles. There are many modern short-cuts that could easily provide the right look, but I have become a bit obsessed with unlocking the mystery of how they would have actually tailored gowns during the Italian Renaissance. The amount of research that I have been able to find on this topic is painfully small, so unfortunately, I'm having to rely mostly on theories and experiments to come up with a possible solution.
What we do know is this: it is highly unlikely that any type of rigid, boned corset was worn beneath early 16th century Florentine gowns. Although I have been given some tantalizing hints about an early Italian quilted underbodice called a farsettino, I haven't been able to dig up any more evidence to back up this information or learn about its construction. Possibly reated to the theoretical farsettino is the velvet underbodice or "pair of bodies" found with the Eleanora gown, which could have originally made use of some sort of stiffening to slightly shape the torso. On the other hand, the bodice itself could have contained some sort of internal support to smooth out unsightly wrinkles and compress the bust. Some of the possible methods of stiffening that would have been available at the time include canvas, buckram, quilting, cording, straw, or reeds... all of which were known to be used for this purpose during the 16th century, but I have not seen documentation for any of these materials being used specifically in Florentine bodices from 1500-1525.
I started my experimentation with a simple construction of canvas sandwiched between two layers of heavy denim that was quilted over the entire front to hold the layers together. This ended up being really stiff and sturdy, but it collapsed under the bust when I moved around and produced fairly large, ugly wrinkles. The next version that I made was a quilted bodice created with cotton batting and linen. At first, I thought I had found the solution, since the quilting was a wonderful weight and provided excellent support for the bust. However, it too began to wrinkle in the same area, and soon this crease set in to form a permanent line that was visible even when I was standing perfectly straight. But even with this setback, I haven't entirely ruled out the quilting solution yet. If the style of bodice was like other period examples where the waistline was placed higher, the quilting alone would work wonderfully! This method ends up feeling like a great sports bra, and it might also be possible to wear a quilted underbodice mainly to support and compress the breasts, while relying on some other method to keep the outer fabric smooth through the rest of the torso. But for now, the experiments continue!
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| the quilted bodice... close, but not there yet! | ||
After talking to several other costumers who are interested in researching early alternatives to true corsetry, I decided to make a corded bodice to see how this would work as a lightweight form of support. Corsets and stays stiffened with cord instead of rigid boning were well known in later periods, and it is pretty easy to find surviving examples of 19th century corsets made with hemp cord. I have found references to quilted, sleeveless underbodices being worn early in the 16th century (referred to as a cuerpo baxo, basquine, corps pique, or farsettino depending on the country of origin), but I haven't seen very much evidence pinpointing what form of additional stiffening was or was not used in conjunction with the rows of quilting. However, a technique called trapunto, or quilting over cords, gained popularity in early 16th century Italy where it was used for decorative purposes, but possibly for stiffening as well. And finally, we do know that ropes or cord were used as an alternative to bents to stiffen 16th century petticoats, so it probably wasn't a foreign idea to use this material in foundation garments. However, I have not yet found one shred of trustworthy documentation to back up my theory that cording might have been used to stiffen bodices in early 16th century Florence. I'm still searching for that smoking gun!
But back to my experiment... I wanted to use materials that were easily available in Florence during this period, so I chose 100% hemp rope, which is a material that was very common during the Renaissance. The cord that I found was 1/8 inch in diameter, and cost $10 for 200 foot roll at Hobby Lobby. To construct the bodice, I first sewed vertical channels over the entire front of the bodice, which was simply made from two layers of linen. The channels were spaced using the presser foot of my sewing machine as a guide, and this ended up being the perfect width for two cords to fit snugly in each row. To thread the cords into the channels, I made a little tool out of floral wire with a loop at one end and a long shaft that would reach from one side of the bodice to the other. I then ran a long piece of cord through the wire loop and pulled the doubled thickness of hemp through the layers of fabric. The cord could then be cut to release the wire tool and adjusted to make sure it was not twisted in the channels.
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| the amazing wrinkle-free corded bodice! | |||
Now here are a few of the benefits of cording that I haven't been able to get with other methods:
But before I get too carried away with my cording crusade, I did stop and try out other suggested methods for comparison. Several costumers have told me that canvas alone worked fine for them, so I went back and added another layer of thick canvas to that first trial bodice to see if that would help. I also pinned a heavy skirt to the bottom of the bodice so that the weight would pull down on the fabric and possibly effect the amount of wrinkling. This canvas bodice definitely was a lot better, but it was very stiff and cone shaped, which I'm not sure is really as appropriate for Florentine styles before 1525, and I still had that stupid crease anyway.
I also stepped back to try 15th century techniques where the bodice contains no stiffening, and support comes solely from tightly lacing a soft fabric bodice on both sides. I made this with two, then three layers of linen quilted together over the surface, and actually, this looked better than anything I have tried other than the cords. I still was a bit unhappy about some small underbust wrinkles, but they weren't too distracting, and this would probably be a perfectly acceptable technique for women with smaller busts or for lower-class versions of the Florentine gown. Just as a side note though, I had to lace this bodice so tightly that it actually was more uncomfortable than the corded bodice! To better see the comparison of all of these styles, I have made a separate page with pictures of the corded, soft fabric, quilted and canvas trials.
Then just to experiment a bit more, I re-quilted the quilted one from the last update with horizontal instead of vertical rows of stitching, but that just made it crease in 2 or 3 places instead of one... and I sort of looked like the Michelin man! I also tried to make some heavy buckram by coating canvas with some thinned down Elmer's glue, but when I finally got it hard enough to not crease, it was extremely cone shaped and not very comfortable at all! The buckram bodice would probably be good for later periods, but it definitely was not a good option for what I am trying to make.
So anyway... I am pretty excited about my discovery, and I think I have decided to make this gown with hemp cording as a support for the bodice, but I'm going to give it another week to research and try out any other ideas that might pop up. If you have any suggestions of alternative methods that have worked for you, or if you have any information that would help to prove or disprove my cording theory, please feel free to email me and let me know!
To fill in all of the construction points I might have missed in the original diary entry, I have created a separate article giving more info about this form of boning. So feel free to learn "Everything you ever wanted to know about boning with hemp cord, but were afraid to ask!"
