Fabric. My gamurra is made of red cotton velvet, based on research from Frick's Dressing Renaissance Florence. While silk velvet would have been what was used in period, cotton velveteen has the short, dense pile that is associated with the period velvets, and 100% silk velvet is not available to me (Frick 2, 96, 98). I chose red because, well, red is my favorite color, but also "Red was by far the favored hue of the clothing of this Renaissance city . . . being used in Florence for silk velvets, damasks, and the best quality woven fabrics" (Frick 101). While many of the period velvets incorporated brocading or voiding to create a pattern, an undergown of "plain crimson velvet" is still described in Frick, confirming the more simple fabric and color as appropriate (194).

Pattern. I started with the bodice by modifying my current 4-panel bust supportive gown pattern. By the 1480s the waistline was near the natural waistline just a little on the high side, so I will set the waist somewhat higher than I normally do as I find the positioning of the waist tends to make a substantial difference in the final period "look" of a recreated gown (Birbari, Dress In Italian Painting 1460-1500. 21). I also cut the neck lower in back to match the period paintings better, and took out 3/8ths of an inch off on each side of the bust to account for the 1.5 inches or so to show the camicia. This took a good number of mock-ups, and I still ran into some issues part way through the process and had to make some substantial fitting changes after I had started the sewing.

Stiffening. It is hard to determine exactly how bodices were stiffened in this period. As best as I can tell the period method would have involved quilting (possibly pad-stitching) using cotton fibers. While a few decades post period, Orsi-Landini in Moda a Firenze states regarding the techniques found in the bodices of undergowns that "the padding of the garment was obtained by an internal layering of the fabrics, the doppia, made up of a felt and two types of cloth, one stiffened the other finer" and then cites sources for both linen and cotton (84). This bears a strong resemblance to Frick's description in period of the required supplies for a late 15th century bodice except there instead of wool felt you see " cotton wool for quilting the bodice" (127). As the details can be found across multiple sources and periods in the same location, this seems like a likely method for recreating the period technique so I used a combination of a damask lining, a canvas layer, and wool felt pad-stitched together, to create my stiffener. While "cotton wool" is referenced in Frick (cotton batting), I could not find 100% cotton batting in time for this project, and as the more detailed (though post period) Moda a Firenze is quite similar to Frick's description, but uses wool instead of cotton, I decided to use wool felt as my padding. I did adhere to Frick's listed materials though and only using three interior layers and the velvet fashion fabric - velvet, felt, canvas, damask (listed from exterior to interior). I have found references to silk, wool, and cotton being used as lining so I used cotton damask as my take on the lining fabric boccaccino (Frick 127, Herald 210, 220). I choose pad stitching as my quilting method based on advice from my mentor and also after seeing it in several garments in Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 3 (18, 39, 106). Once the 4 bodice pieces were pad-stitched together I then added the velvet fashion layer on top, hemming the exposed edges together. This left only the velvet and the lining visible.

Based on the paintings where I was able to get a close-up view of the lacing I decided to go with lacing rings (which Herald refers to as magliettes (224)) instead of my usual eyelets - another first for me which was exciting. I picked up some jewelry fittings and stitched them on, using the paintings as my guide for location and spacing. While offset, spiral lacing is common, I saw a large percentage of evenly spaced lacing rings as well and decided that would give me more options for styles of lacing and I sewed on one every inch.

Skirt.For the skirt I wanted to wear as much fabric as possible, as Frick states "the more cloth one wears (thus enhancing one's volume), the more serious and indicative of high social status one's outfit is" and I am attempting to replicate the gowns worn by the highest classes (90). There seems to be some debate over how the skirts were cut - rectangles, rectangles with gores, trapezoids, etc. but looking at various paintings and playing with draping my fabric I decided to go with 4 panels, each with one selvage edge and one slanted, with a top edge twice the length of the bottom. According to Birbari, skirts were either gathered or pleated onto the bodice (21). I used slightly flared pleats to give a triangular effect to achieve the profile seen in many of the Ghirlandaio paintings as as documented in Birbari (52, 53). I did not line the skirt as they seem not to have been lined in period (Herald 217, Frick 127). I will hemmed the piece based on Crowfoot's finds that silk was often hemmed using a double fold

technique and using silk thread (157).