Time Travelers

A few days ago with class we visited Palazzo Vecchio. The Palazzo was built between the 13th and 14th centuries. The interior is absolutely stunning with many gorgeous ceiling and frescoes. The Salone dei Cinquecento decorated by Michelangelo and Leonardo. Throughout you can feel the grandeur representing Florence. 

We then traveled back in time to meet Elenora of Toledo. She wore a red silk velvet dress as she had an important political event to attend after and was supposed to convey the wealth of Florence. Underneath she wore a few layers of undergarments, most notably a corset which she requested to be very tight. She had her hair up in a bun covered with a net to show that she was no longer a virgin. She wore what appeared to be extremely tall flat high heels yet we were informed they were quite short for the time. During this time the fashions of different countries start to distinguish themselves more. Italy style followed the Spanish yet there was a great use of color. Florence became one of the main centers for production of high style after the marriage of Casimo I to Eleonora.

Eleonora’s style was perfectly in line with her rule. She had a strong political consciousness that was capable and firm. Together with her husband she introduced court apparel and protocol. She personally examined many prestigious and luxurous items to show her power.

During our meeting Eleonora commented how no one in our group was married and how we were dressed like men. It was very interesting to compare and contrast the differences from now to Renaissance times. I think some of us were a bit intimidated by the Duchess yet overall everyone had a wonderful trip back in time and great learning experience.
By: Marisa Silber

When In Rome

When I was in Rome there were a ton of “Roman soldiers” in front of the Coliseum. The photogenic soldiers were dressed in red and gold outfits that comprised of a breast place, pleated skirt, helmet, and shield. This had me wondering what the actual dress of the Roman soldier was.

The Roman Army, at the peak of its power, conquered what we now call England/Wales, Spain, France, most of Germany, the northern coast of Africa, the Middle East and Greece. The lowest level of soldier in the Roman Army was the legionnaire. Between 5000 and 6000 legionaries made up a legion that was commanded by a legatus. Legionnaires were trained to fight in a disciplined and well coordinated manner. A whole legion could be punished for failing to fight well in battle even if they won the battle.

There were 3 main weapons that a legionnaire took into battle; the pilum, the galdius, and the pugio. The pilum was similar to the javelin today. This weapon was meant to be thrown at the enemy to disrupt their line of defense. The gladius was the main weapon during battle. The gladius was a very sharp blade sword. Lastly the pugio was a small dagger which was used a last resort. The legionnaire also carried a shield known as a scutum.

The basic clothing including the tunic or cloaks of the Roman soldier was either red dyed with madder or undyed material giving an off-white color. Braccae is the Latin term for trousers, a style of pants, made from wool, which became popular with soldiers in the colder climates of the Empire. The Military Tunic (Tunica) was a wide, shirt-like, undergarment made of a long piece of rectangular cloth usually made of wool, cotton or linen depending on the climate. The tunic was made with great care to the exact length considered correct for the rank of the wearer. Pteruges, (aka pteryges) from Greek word meaning feathers, refers to the decorative strips of leather (lappets) which hung below the waist and from the shoulders of Roman legionaries. The skirt or apron was made up of leather strips and heavily studded with metal. Offering little protection, the apron would have been used as a display and as a source of noise. The Roman Soldiers also used the apron / skirt as decoration by attaching tokens and discs to signify the campaigns he had fought in. The protective armor covered the clothes of the soldier and consisted of the helmet (galea) was made of metal (usually iron), shoulder, arm and leg guards. The socks (udones) were quite common apparel sometimes worn without a toe or heel. Leg wrappings or leg bindings (puttees) were strips of material wrapped from the ankle up to the calf of the leg.

While the costumes of the “Roman soldiers” outside the Coliseum are clearly not perfect replicas they definitely show elements of the true Roman soldier attire.

By: Marisa Silber

The Origins of Dress History and Cesare Vecellio’s ‘pourtraits of attire’

Reading 5A entitled, The Origins of Dress History and Cesare Vecellio’s ‘pourtraits of attire’, follows the creation of Cesare Vecellio’s masterpiece novel “ON ANCIENT and Modern Dress from Divers Parts of the World”.  This book is credited with being one of the first explanations of dress in modern history.

Cesare Vecellio spent the early portions of his life as a warrior for the Kingdom of Venice. After returning from war Vecellio noticed that many other cultures had begun to influence and change the traditional Italian dress, in particular France. Vecellio began to investigate the cause of this change. Vecellio was able to draw a parallel between political instability and the inconsistency of dress in Italy.

These discoveries were of particular interest to Vecellio, due to the fact that the average Venetian male dressed almost entirely in black outerwear. Venice, being a rich and powerful trading port was frequented by a large foreign and transient population. By wearing black the local Venetians were able to easily differentiate themselves from the non-locals with foreign garb. Conversely other cities were seeing a proliferation of foreign clothing into their societies.

Around the late 16^th century, Vecellio ran his own printing-press in Venice and began making his own volumes, print, and woodcuts on various styles that caught his interest. Unlike most of the descriptive books at the time, which only gave a small subtitle about what was being describe, Vecellio was known for going into explicit and exact detail about every part of what he was describing.

Eventually these woodcarvings and small volumes were brought together to be the first edition of his masterpiece work. The book successfully examined costume from Ancient Rome to Modern Italy, as well as some sides on costume in other distant civilizations. This book is today a cherished work for its unparreled insight into the costume of the 16^th Century. 


David Ojserkis

Paper #1 - Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione

             

While walking through the Louvre museum, I stumbled upon a painting in the Italian artists wing that featured a costume that very much intrigued me. Created between 1514 and 1515, the Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione is an oil on canvas painting by High Renaissance painter, Raphael. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, or Raphael, was a High Renaissance painter and architect who was considered one of greatest Italian painters of the time. He is best known for his Madonna paintings as well as his painting, The School of Athens, which is located in Vatican City. Although Raphael has an appreciation for feminine beauty which is visible in a majority of his artwork, the portrait I chose to write about contains a male figure instead.

The man in the painting is Baldassare Castiglione. He was born in Casatico in 1478 and spent most of his life living between Milan and Urbino, where he eventually met his good friend, Raphael. After becoming a diplomat in the court of Urbino, Castiglione, who was also an author, wrote an influential book called The Book of the Courtier that helped shaped the Italian Renaissance and the men of the time. Raphael painted this portrait of him when Castiglione was thirty six years old. Always known for his good manners and extensive knowledge in all things cultural, such as music and arts, Castiglione's book explained to men how to be a “Renaissance Man,” or someone who is well-educated, well-mannered, and has an extensive knowledge in a wide variety of subjects.

In the painting, Baldassare Castiglione is wearing traditional Renaissance fashion from the time period. During this time, men typically wore four main articles of clothing. The first was a chemise, or a linen shirt which was usually white and worn as the first layer of clothing. Depending on your social class, the chemise would be made of different materials. For the upper class, the shirt would be made of fine linen or even silk. The second item was a doublet. This article of clothing was a form fitting jacket that was worn over the linen shirt and could be worn with or without sleeves. Worn over all these pieces was the jacket. The jacket would sometimes feature fake, hanging sleeves that served served no functional purpose. Although not visible in this painting, hose was another key item of clothing for men. During this time hose was attached to the doublet and woven tightly as to remain a smooth appearance.

As a first layer of clothing, Castiglione appears to be wearing a chemise with a high neckline. It looks as though it has some gathering detail at the neckline because of the voluminous, billowing effect it causes on his chest. Baldassare Castiglione is also wearing a doublet on top of his white, linen shirt. His doublet is black with grey accents and a ribbon detail across the chest. Since Castiglione was apart of the Courts, it was said that grey and white squirrel furs were most popular amongst the courtiers. His doublet seems to have a higher neckline with large, puffy sleeves of squirrel fur, which suggests that this painting was done in the colder months of the year. The fur has quite a texture that is almost velvety-looking in the painting. The fur trimming can also be seen across the waist and chest area as well. As a headpiece, Castiglione is wearing a hat that features soft, round lines. It looks like a beret-style hat that features a sort of pleating detail which gives it more angles and structure. In addition, under this beret, Castiglione is wearing a chaperon, or a sort of turban. This was common headgear for upper and middle class people of the time. It is hard to distinguish between both the beret and the turban in part because both headpieces are black.

During the Italian high renaissance, clothing tended to be billowy and layered like those seen in the Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione. Materials used for producing these garments changed depending on your social class, so nobility and the upper class had garments made of the finest silks, linens, furs, and velvets. Baldassare Castiglione's clothing helps to clearly define is status in society. Just by looking at someones clothing, you can determine what time period they lived in, what social class they were in, and what role they played in society during that time. With this man being known for such good manners, proper behavior, and appropriate dress, it is clear to see in this painting that that garments he is wearing clearly shows these facts. His garments are nearly perfect and precise. They are clean, luxurious-looking, and have subtle details, like the ribbon across the fur on his chest, that make him elegant, yet natural and simple. Baldassare Castiglione clearly represents an accomplished and well-rounded Renaissance man.

By: Caitlyn Schultz

Story of a Shirt: a cautionary Tale with an Unexpected Ending

The article, Story of a Shirt: a cautionary Tale with an Unexpected Ending by Santina M. Levy, discusses the process that a group of people went through in order to unveil the history behind a linen shirt.  The process began in 1994 and wasn’t complete until around 2008. The mystery behind the shirt’s origin intrigued a number of people throughout those years, all of whom helped to uncover its history. 

Janet Arnold dedicated her time to discovering the history behind linen shirts from all different places and time periods. She died on November 2^nd, 1988. Her death occurred before she was able to complete her book, Patterns of Fashion 4, which explored all forms of linen clothing worn by men and women.  It wasn’t until 2005 that Millie Jaffe and Santina Levy were allowed to begin work on completing Janet’s book.

In 2006, Jenny Tiramani, Director of Theater Design at the Globe, took Millie’s place.  Jenny and Santina reviewed all of Janet’s notes, slides, drawings, and photographs that had been accumulated over the span of 20 years. The book was finally published in 2008; however a shirt from Platt Hall which was left out of the book particularly caught Santina’s attention and she was determined to uncover its origin.

The Platt Hall shirt had intricate lace trimming on the collar indicating it was for fancy occasions. This caused Santina to think back to her previous studies of lace and embroidery associated with Queen Victoria and Princess Charlotte of Wales. They enjoyed fancy-dress balls. She found that the balls were used to boost British manufacturers by having costumes made from British products. In 1851, the remodeling of old lace was significant for establishing a new-style antiques market. Lace merchants went abroad to collect lace and linens in order to create shirts for the Restoration Ball. The shirts were worn with colored stockings and long coats embellished with ribbon. Santina concluded that the Platt Hall shirt was likely bought by a wealthy owner in 1851. The shirt was converted for the ball with its historical lace on the collar and cuffs. The decorative motifs that are typical of High Renaissance suggested that the shirt was from Italy.

The next step was to try to find matching Italian portraits of the shirt.  Santina looked through Janet’s slides for similar alterations in the neck and shoulder areas of the shirting. She compared the Platt shirt to portraits of a V&A boy’s shirt and an Italian man’s shirt, both of which had shoulder widths that were narrower than the fabric width below the gusset cut in the body of the shirt.  The sleeves on the Platt Hall shirt are joined to the body of the shirt without any gathers, just like the sleeves in the picture of the boy are. Along the shoulders, the front and back are joined by open insertion seams and they fit without any gathers. On the Italian man’s shirt from Janet’s slides, the slit for the neck is gathered and secured in a narrow neckband. Platt Hall shirt fits shows resemblance boy’s shirt and that of the Italian man.

When focusing on the construction and decoration of the Platt shirt, Santina noticed something. At the base of the front neck opening, the braid outlines a more complex heart-shaped motif. Folded and twisted loops were skillfully produced to form the true love’s knot. The motifs were loosely sewn down which indicates that they were most likely lifted and replaced in 1851 when lace was added to the shirt. Further studies of neckbands on shirts in other portraits that were dated from 1515-1525 revealed that the Platt shirt was actually form 1520.

After all the research Santina completed, she became confident that the shirt originated in Italy in 1520. She also concluded that it could be fitted into a series of fast changing styles. The quality of the shirt, as well as the true love’s knot, propose that the shirt was a betrothal or wedding gift. 

Post By: Erica Dixon

Paper #1- Pierre Cardin's Life

A Peek Into Pierre Cardin’s Life

In Paris, we had an industry appointment at Pierre Cardin, and were able to see first hand at his incredible fashion archive. His collections were all but ordinary, with unique shapes and cuts, and nothing expected. The garments along with the one-of-a-kind furniture were very futuristic, as he is known for his “bold, cosmic, futuristic designs.” All of his designs have much volume and are very dimensional, ignoring the female figure. It was evitable that his architecture degree had much influence in his designs.

French designer, Pierre Cardin was born on July 7, 1922 near Venice, Italy into a wealthy family. At the time, his father was a wine maker and was preparing for Cardin to take over the family trade. But to his parents’ disappointment, he was fascinated by costume design, theatre, and stage design. Starting at the age of 14, he worked, as a tailor’s assistant, learning the techniques construction of fashion design.  In 1939, at the age of 17, Cardin left home and began making suits for women in Vichy. It was in 1945, when he made the move to Paris and started working at the house of Madame Paquin after he had completed his architecture degree. Which is pretty evident in his designs that architecture was a big part of his life. Then he later started working for Marcelle Chaumont, who was Madame Vionnet’s assistant. In a two-year time span from since his move to Paris, he had also worked for Schiaparelli, Jean Cocteau and Christian Bernard. Then in 1947, is when doors really opened up for Cardin, and became head of Christian Dior’s atelier, although he was denied at Balenciaga.

After three years of hardwork and devotion to Dior, he founded his own house in 1950 and began with haute couture in 1953, building up the Maison de Couture. Then the following year, Cardin opened up a women’s boutique called “Eve”, where his bubble dress stole the attention worldwide. And this was when he really took off as a designer, as we still see the bubble dress on runways and magazines and the like. Then a few years after the opening of Eve, in 1957 he opened a men’s boutique, rightly so called “Adam.” Cardin made his first trip to Japan that year and became a professor at Bunka Fukusoi, the Japanese Design College where the birth of the Pierre Cardin award started; which was awarded only to the best student.

After being expelled then reinstated from Chambre Syndicale, for launching a RTW for the Printemps department store, he parted from Chambre Syndicale in 1966 to show his own collections at Espace Cardin in Paris, which was once the Theatre des Ambassadeurs. Not only were his clothing designs presented at Espace, but also all of his artistic talents were promoted, including theatre costumes, musicians, etc. That year of the opening of Espace, Cardin presented a children’s collection, which blew away the U.S., and did very successful there. By now, Pierre Cardin was known worldwide, and not just in Paris. Years following, museums around the world held a Retrospective exhibition of Pierre Cardin’s work. Museums included the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, Museum in Tokyo, and etc.

However, Cardin wasn’t only a genius at fashion design, but he also designed jewelry and other items to be sold for the UNESCO benefit, an educational effort to try and prevent a repetition of the nuclear accident in the Ukrainian republic of the Soviet Union in 1986. In 1991, Cardin, along with Witta Pohl, a German actress, were noted as honorary ambassadors to the Chernobly Program. Pierre Cardin’s name started showing up everywhere. As owner of the castle previously occupied by Marquis de Sade in Lacoste, France, he continued to purchase properties in Lacoste, leaving him with 42 buildings in 2009. However he has caused much controversy, leaving people to assume and treat Cardin as if he were some representative of global capitalism.

Yet, Cardin refuses to retire, and says he will die “in harness, working at his fashion.” It’s clear that Pierre Cardin’s passion is in design, whether it be clothing or furniture, and it’s obvious in his works. He continues to live a creative life without the fear of being wrong. His designs are always innovative and one-of-a-kind.

{own photo}

Sources:

1. Passariello, Christina. Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, 5/3/2011, Vol. 257 Issue 102, pB1-B8, 2p, 1 Color Photograph

2. Ballingall, Alex. Maclean's, 12/26/2011, Vol. 124 Issue 50, p31-31, 1/4p

By: Daisy O

Summary: History of Dressmaking and Tailoring:Instruments and Techniques, Written by Sara Piccolo Paci

            It is important, but complex to understand the creation and evolution of tools, patternmaking, and dressmaking, but that is what this writing explains. With the use of the first mediums- first animal skins, then fabrics, it is interesting to note that skins began as a rectangle. The first piece of the puzzle comes from the needle which allowed tailoring as well as the ability to join together. The needle and thread is the reason we can have more than just draped garments. A needle began as a bone, then evolved to steel, but hardly changes in shape or function. Scissors are also an important tool, and it says that some master tailors hold the act so highly that they bless themselves before cutting. Scissors began as knives held together by springs and measurements were taken with hand width and arm width and then kept for future purposes by marking that measurement on a string. Another item was the button. They could serve a functional or decorational purpose from the beginning. More of any material, skin, fur, or fabric the has always come with a higher price. Having “draped” generously fabric on your clothing always presents as more affluent because of this fact. And although this fact might not be true so much anymore, there are additions like layers and the fact of many more than the necessary amount of garments in one persons closet. The gusset, a square insertion of fabric, was in response to the tightness in the arm and shoulder. Two key people that evolved in this industry were tailors and garment producers. Tailors started as people who mended ripped materials, and the garment producers always had their specialties in certain areas, never just general for all types. They did find hardship, when their trade was hardly considered a profession, yet the designers were highly respected for their “art” but would never know how to actually sew a button. There were two different designers for men and women, and patterns were only to be distributed down inside of the family. In the 1800’s, patterns became rounded, which is still in use today. Capucci talks about the evolution of making a garment. He says that drawings are the most important, and then there are fabric swatches, a muslin sample, which turns into the actual fabric sample, and then there is retouching and finishing until the garment is perfect. It is also key to remember that a tailor needs to know the human anatomy, and the client, and know how to enhance the good and down play the bad. They must use a 2D medium in order to cover a 3D body, and know how to use any given fabric, and that is the simple job of the tailor, although not simple at all.  

 Summary by Gabriella Bonatesta