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11.
and 12. Dress worn by the Women of Venice in 1550
The
inconstancy and love of variety that governs women led
them next to wear curls on their foreheads, beginning at
the ears and continuing all the way up, and then
covering the rest of the hair, which they braided, with
little caps. They thought that such a hairstyle made
their faces very beautiful, and so, eager to increase
their beauty further, they began to dye their hair
blonde, making every effort to turn it into the color of
gold. From this (once such treatment of the hair came to
seem repulsive) arose the craft of making little crowns
of gold or silver, decorated with lilies and other kinds
of flowers and with very valuable jewels. All these
styles were worn very frequently by the noblewomen of
Venice. Such styles lasted about twenty years, after
which, with the same inconstancy, they began to wear
curls differently, trying to make them as shiny as
possible, and they also started making cosmetics, not
realizing or not caring that with the passage of time,
they would ruin their faces. At their necks they wore a
twisted strand of gold with a pendant of very precious
gold, and in their ears they wore pearls. They wore
belts of gold chains, falling to the floor, and baveri
embroidered with roses and gold stars and studded with
many jewels.
They
wore needle-worked camicias (sic) spilling out
over their breast. These were narrow at the wrist and
worn with bracelets, or they wore puffed bracciali
with slashes through which the camicia was
visible, and they adorned their wrists with gold
bracelets. Their sottana was of colored velvet or
some other fabric, and the gown they wore outside the
house was of the same fabric, but in black, light or
heavy according to the season. Their pianelle
didn't have soles as high as they do today, and
altogether this was a very respectable style, except for
the fact that it bared a large part of the breast. This
is excusable, though, because it was worn by young
women. Older women didn't wear crowns but only a gold or
silken cap over their braids, and outside the house they
wore a thin, transparent black veil, which they also
wore to church and to pay respects to the dead; on such
occasions they took off all ornaments of gold and silk.
In fact, they covered their faces with these veils and
let them fall halfway down their breast, as one can see
here--though today this custom has been lost and a
different one introduced.
© Ann
Rosalind Jones and Margaret F Rosenthal.
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