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Center photo courtesy of Cateline La Broderesse, others by Doroga Voronin
In late 2016 I was very honored to be told that I would be receiving my Laurel (an award within the Society for Creative Anachronism) for my work in fiber research and recreation, and once the shock wore off I knew exactly the style of dress that I wanted to wear. While I had not done any 16th century pieces for myself I have always planned to play with the period and had been planning on creating something in this style for my next project already.
Inspiration:
Alessandro Allori, Isabella de' Medici Orsini with a Dog, early 1560s, private collection, England (found in Medici Women, Langdon). Alesandro Allori, Isabella de' Medici Orsini with her son Virgino, 1574. Wadsworth Athaneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. Attributed to Alessandro Allori, "Portrait of a lady, possibly Bianca Capello de'Medici, half-length, in an embroidered gold dress and pearls," thought to be 1580s, private collection, New York.
When I was first doing research for my 1480's Florentine Gown I came across the first image of Isabella and fell in love with the style of women's portraits painted by Alessandro Allori. I was also very intrigued by the character of Isabella and her life as one of the wealthiest and most influential women of Florence in her day. I decided I would work from several portraits of her as well as paintings of other wealthy Florentine women to put together an outfit in a similar style (my Pinterest board for this project is here).
1. Camicia. (take photo)
The camicia (shift/smock/chemise) is a simple one in 3.5 oz linen inspired by one in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion vol 4 (115). It is entirely handsewn, but only because I threw my back out and sewed most of it in bed while recovering. This was the most simple underwear I have made in ages as there was no pleating or structure to it! Sewn with silk thread and the seams were flatfelled as that tends to be my preference but both are very documentable too!
2. Sottana.
After Francesco Brina, Eleonora di Don Gazia de Toldedo di Pietro de' Medici, late 1572. Private collection, Florence, (found in Medici Women, Langdon).
Federico Zuccaro, Scenes from the Life of the Artist's Family, 1579, Casa Zuccari, Florence.
The sottana is the layer that provides the bust support and structure, and as such it's very important to get the fit correct. I hadn't made anything in this style since my early Renaissance Faire costuming attempts when I was in high school, so I decided to work from the pattern of Eleonora di Toledo's burial gown seen in Arnold's PoF vol 3 (102-104). I reshaped the side seams and shoulders slightly as I have a dramatic difference in my bust/underbust measurements, and it took 2 mock-ups and then substantial tweaking of the bustline to get it to a place where I was happy both with the look and with the comfort. Made of silk, two layers of canvas that I quilted together, and lined in linen. I sewed on the trim by hand to match styles seen in various paintings and the Red Pisa Dress from Florence.
3. Sleeves.
Alessandro Allori, Portrait of Grand Duchess Bianca Capello de Medici, after 1580, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas. Photo by Phaedra de Vere. Attributed to Alessandro Allori, "Portrait of a lady, possibly Bianca Capello de'Medici, half-length, in an embroidered gold dress and pearls," thought to be 1580s, private collection, New York.
I love ridiculous sleeves (like the slashed and poofed ones I made for my lord Doroga's 1560s Nobleman's Outfit) so I knew I wanted to do something exciting for the sleeves on this outfit. While the primary portrait I was working from (the first one of Isabella with a dog, shown at the top of this page) had what looked like slashes throughout and gold trim going down the sleeve, I wanted a bit more pop for these. I decided to make them slashed on alternating diagonals with gold cord couched down in bands, to emulate several other paintings.
The silk is 12mm silk from Dharma Trading and I was very happy with the way it reflected the light! The gold was couched every inch, and then the sleeves were handsewn so that I could be certain that the gold cord matched exactly at the seam lines. The pattern is based on the sleeves in Arnold's PoF vol 3 (114), but I then tweaked it to match my own measurements to created the more tailored lines in the painting. The slashes were done every half inch on the diagonal with the sleeve matching the grain of the fabric so that the pinking would be on the bias so as to not fray. I did the pinking with a rotary cutter as it was the best result from what I tested, but if I were to do this again I would want to pick up a chisel just for fabric and try a more period method.
I am so incredibly happy with how these turned out. When worn on the body the slashed areas "puff" up beautifully, giving amazing texture, and the gold on the silk gives a stunning effect in the sunlight.
4. Underskirt.
After I had already made my patterns for the sottana, sleeves, and veste, I purchased a copy of the The Modern Maker Vol. 2: Pattern Manual 1580-1640 and was really intrigued. I adore both of the ladies whose work appears in the book (both are talented researchers and tailors!) and had only heard lovely things about the author. After reading it I wanted to include something from the work, so I decided to use the pattern for the Vasquiña/Skirt (Style A) (pages 161-164) as my underskirt to wear over the sottana and under the veste.
I normally don't use much in the way of modernly published patterns/tailoring guides as I find I can draft easily enough from Arnold or extant patterns directly without the need for extensive notes/advice, and with less tweaking than starting with a purchased pattern, but I was very happy with both the methods of explaining pattern drafting as well as the extra information and explanations included in the text here. I now want to try drafting a doublet for my lord based on the patterns in this book. I drafted a woman's doublet pattern on paper using the instructions in the text as a test and found it was almost identical to the pattern I had made and fitted by scaling from Arnold and doing a test fit, while taking a lot less time. If you haven't created/scaled your own patterns before this would be a great way to get started in it.
I cut the pattern in 2 pieces, cutting on the fold and using the scraps to complete the shape of the skirt, as seen in the drawing. I got a very wide skirt with almost no wasted fabric and with only 4 gores and 2 main seams! I padded the hem to give the hem a strong structure and to make it match the bell-like curve seen in many of the paintings. I then applied the thick gold trim over the finished skirt. Finally I gathered and bound the waist on each skirt panel.
5. Partlet and cuffs.
For the partlet I just took a rectangle of linen roughly equal to where I thought I would want the folds to lay, cut a very narrow neck hole, added two small triangular neck gores, then added a rounded collar to try to emulate the shapes seen in the paintings. This worked out surprisingly well and is very comfortable.
I used the depth of the ruffles compared to proportions on the faces in the paintings to try to get a rough idea of the pleat depths and ended up with a little shorter than 1.5 inches. I wanted to trim them to give the outfit a little more pop and to match the gold edging seen on several Italian portraits, as well as to stiffen them to make it so that I wouldn't have to starch the ruffles. I made the metallic/blue/black cord to match the color themes of the gown and couched it to the hemmed edge. I then couched down gold thread on each side of the hem to add a bit more gold and to further stiffen the edge. I really like the effect and feel that it pulls the colors of the outfit together quite well.
I was originally planning on making these using the method from Noel Gieleghem's article "How To Create A Stand-Alone 1570s-Style Linen Ruff", but after trying a test version I realized that my hatred of using irons or anything else to reset fabric after washing (I iron religiously while sewing, and then never again it seems, and I really didn't want to have to get and keep a hair curler for my ruff) meant that it was probably a better idea to use the more theatrical method that isn't accurate, but makes me hate it less (I have a dress that I love, but never wear because it needs to be ironed after washing and I just can't make myself do it). I instead pleated the ruffles onto a band to create the shape seen in the paintings. It does slightly change the look, but it also means I am willing to hand wash the partlet if it gets dirty.
Once I finished pleating the ruffles onto bands for the collar and cuffs I then sewed the collar band onto the partlet to complete the piece.
6. Veste.
Alessandro Allori, Isabella de' Medici Orsini with a Dog, early 1560s, private collection, England (found in Medici Women, Langdon). Alesandro Allori, Isabella de' Medici Orsini with her son Virgino, 1574. Wadsworth Athaneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. Alessandro Allori, Portrait of a Lady in Black and White, date unknown, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, MA.
The veste is the sleeveless overgown seen in so many formal portraits in this period, especially for younger women. I drafted my pattern by starting from the woman's doublet in Arnold, PoF 3 (106) and then tried it on over my sottana. Where the sottana provides all of the bust support the veste bodice required little structure, simply a layer of linen for lining and canvas for the collar. The base fabric is cotton velveteen in place of silk velvet, which means I can wash the skirt if needed (something I really wanted to be sure I could do as the event I would be wearing this at is an outdoor early Spring event and often very muddy!). I faced the collar in black satin as I knew it would be slightly visible at the edges when worn open. For buttons I couldn't find any that I liked that seemed to have the correct shape, so I bought some wooden beads and used metallic thread to make thread-wrapped buttons. The metallic thread was not great for this as it does not want to lie flat and smooth out the way most fibers do and was an absolute pain to work with, but the finished effect is lovely.
The skirt is cut using half widths of the velvet pieced with gores, inspired by the proportions of the Eleonora di Toledo gown. I trimmed the edges with more of the gold, blue, and black cord that I had made for the partlet and cuffs.
For the baragoni (the sleeve poofs at the edge of the shoulder) I decided to work more from the primary Isabella painting to work out something different. Most paintings show the more typical loops over white fabric, but a few paintings such as the one of Isabella with a dog and the unknown lady from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum shown above show a different shape that gave the effect of a zig-zagging line. I tested a few patterns in paper before finding the spacing that seemed to best match the look of the paintings. Then I added the cord and gold beads to emulate the decoration on the Isabella portrait. I sewed it up, tacking the back seam to give the rounded shape to fit over the shoulder. I stuffed it with a white linen roll, scaling the pattern up by about 150% to allow for enough poof out of the diamonds cut in the velvet. I love some of the less common sleeve options that you see and I want to try a braided one at some point, but I was so very pleased with how the baragoni came out.
I really love this gown. Most of my photos were taken at the end of the day as the sun was starting to set and don't get the full effect of the way the light glints off of the many bits of gold from the cord, buttons, and beads.
Conclusion:
Overall I am so happy with this dress! I have wanted to make it for more than 2 years and while there are still a few changes I would make if I did another one I still think it is a lovely style to wear and I felt so very grand in it. The number of hours that went into this project, even with extensive use of machine sewing for non-visible seams, is slightly terrifying. The partlet, collar, and cuffs alone were almost 60 hours total (though much was creating the trim, hemming all by hand, and applying the gold and trim). While it was a bit of an adventure to try to complete it all in only a couple of months, I really love the feel and look of this piece. I am so excited to try more 16th century pieces in the future!
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