The Realm of Venus Presents....
talian 
howcase
Showcasing:
THL Gianetta Andreini da Vicenza
SCA Participant
A Venetian Gown, c1590, after Vecellio
Gianetta Says...
My name is Gianetta Andreini da Vicenza, and I'm a
resident of Tree-Girt-Sea, in the Middle Kingdom (Chicago, IL).
I've been a member of the SCA since 1994. I have many, diverse
interests within the Society -- I am a calligrapher and
illuminator, I am the director of a madrigal singing group that I
created called the Pippins (we are celebrating our 9th
anniversary this year!), I create delicious subtleties and did an
all-subtlety feast last year, and most importantly, I am a
costumer. My biggest passion in the SCA is ensuring that everyone
is well-dressed all the way up to the top of their heads! I've
done a lot of research in particular on braided hair and false
hairpieces, and I create braided hairpieces for all those styles
where a hat is not appropriate (hooray for the Italians!).
Lately I've been teaching, on hairstyles, and also on how to make
clothing that really looks like you stepped out of a painting --
it's about how to make construction and decoration decisions
based on the evidence we see in paintings.
About this
gown
I found the beautiful printed shot silk (beige and turquoise)
several years ago and was waiting for the right dress to present
itself. Lately I have been doing more research in very late
period Italian, and began delving into Vecellio's wood
engravings. This dress takes details from several Vecellio
engravings. I couched and beaded the front, the ruffles, and the
sleeves. Although this is not strictly period, I couldn't resist!
I submitted this dress to A&S last year, and received a first
place at Kingdom. To wear this dress, I wear an Italian corset, a
full gathered slip, and a narrow linen chemise. I often wear this
gown with a sheer gold partlet as well. And of course, braided
hair!
Vecellio as a Contemporary
Source
I have heard of no extant primary sources (actual garments) for
gowns from 16th century Italy. Therefore, I turned to
Vecellio’s work as a good contemporary source for the shape
and details of these garments. The series of 420 woodcuts cover
ancient to “modern” times, and clothing from all over
the world. Some of his pictures of “ancient” clothing
may be inaccurate, especially the earlier they are and the
farther away from Italy. However, the clothing he portrays from
his own time and place seem to be more accurately representative
of clothing that must have existed. There are many more drawings
of these gowns, and not only do they look similar to painted
portraits of this time, but the drawings of Venetian women in
particular seem to have more diverse details as well, as if they
are taken from actual gowns he saw.
The advantage of using Vecellio’s work is that his purpose
was to document the actual clothing in detail, unlike portrait
painters, whose primary motivation was to capture the subjects
themselves. However, the disadvantage of using Vecellio is that
the woodcuts are sometimes ambiguous in what details they are
portraying, particularly because I do not have access to the
original woodcuts, but merely a reproduction of them. Unlike some
of the Italian portrait painters of this time and slightly
earlier (such as Lotto and Bronzino), whose oil painting style is
so detailed that individual embroidery stitches can be observed,
Vecellio’s woodcuts give suggestions of decoration and
structure without specifics. Therefore, the actual execution of
the details in these gowns is open to interepretation.
Inspiration
for this Gown
One of the trends I observed in the woodcuts of Venetian women
was the focus on decoration on the shoulders of the gowns and the
attachment point of the sleeves. In particular, I was fascinated
by the “ruffles” I was seeing on the shoulders (see
plates 99, 100, and 110 – also on a Mantuan gown, plate 200)
 Detail, Plate 99 |
 Detail, Plate 110 |
 Detail, Plate 200 |
To me, these looked like hand-pleated ruffles, made out of some
substantial fabric. They could have been made out of lace, but
the Venetian lace of the time was usually pointy (Le Pompe
reference), and was more likely to be what was used at the
shoulder of other gowns, such as those in plates 106 and 107.
It was possible that these ruffles could have been of a softer
material, such as the silk or linen used for chemises and
partlets, however, Vecellio portrays chemise ruffles differently.
In plate 99, there is a distinct difference between the portrayed
fabric weight of the collar ruffle on the partlet (or chemise),
and the shoulder ruffle. I decided to experiment with creating
this shoulder ruffle on my gown, and see how it turned out.
Design
Considerations
I pulled many of the design
details of this dress from different plates in Vecellio. The
shape of the gown is seen in many of the Venetian ladies –
the front of the gown is uninterrupted by closures, the softly
pointed front of the bodice, the full, hand pleated skirt with a
train, and the very wide placement of shoulders, with a small or
nonexistent gap to the sleeves, and a ruffle attached to the
gown’s sleeve cuff. The fabric choice for the body of many
of the gowns shows an overall, geometric floral pattern. In
addition, I used specific details from individual plates. The
trim used to define the front panel of the dress (running along
the side-front seams and top edge) comes from plate 96. (Left)
Using a different, smaller geometric pattern for the
sleeves comes from plates 99 (Venetian), 180 (Florentine), and
200 (Mantuan).
The puffs used to bridge the gap between sleeve and dress are
seen in plate 97. I believe the narrow points between the puffs
correspond to the attachment points between the sleeve and gown
shoulder.
Based on other contemporary sources, it seemed likely that these
gowns had either center-back or side-back laced closures – I
chose a center-back closure for this gown.
Materials
The body of the gown is made from shot silk with a printed
pattern, reminiscent of the patterns seen in Vecellio. Many of
the patterned fabrics available in 16th century Venice would have
been silk brocade, however, block printing and stamping designs
on fabric was a technology known and used at that time. The skirt
is lined in a light cotton to give more weight, drape and
durability. In the time of this gown, this lining would likely
have been linen, but for this gown I decided to conserve money on
the skirt lining. The bodice pieces are individually lined with a
sturdy cotton for strength and stability (flat-lining), and the
bodice is lined in linen. The fabric for the sleeves is silk,
with an applied trim creating the pattern. This seems very
plausible based on the surface decoration techniques available at
the time. Although I applied all of the trim on the body of the
gown myself, the sleeve fabric was actually purchased with the
trim already applied. The sleeves are lined in silk. The cuff
ruffles and shoulder puffs are made of cloth-of-gold, which would
have been exorbitantly expensive in the 16th century but did
exist.
Patterning and Construction
Methods
The pattern for the bodice was drafted with help from my Laurel.
We draped the pattern using mock-up fabric over my body, wearing
my corset. The seam placement is based on both trim placement in
Vecellio and seams seen in other contemporary paintings: there is
a center front panel, two side panels with diagonal seams, and
two back panels. The front opening is square, with the straps of
the gown set as widely as possible. In many of the drawings, the
shoulders of the dresses are slipping and sometimes actually
falling off of the women’s shoulders. I chose to create a
curved back opening for more support. However, in hindsight, I
would rather have made the back opening square as well, and also
made the back of the waist pointed, as seen in plate XX (Right)
The skirt is made of straight, rectangular panels sewn
selvedge-to-selvedge, using the full width of the fabric. The
sleeves were drafted and adjusted to fit my arm. There is a
slight ease at the elbow – the larger (outer) edge of the
sleeve is eased into the inner edge to create a slight fullness
at the elbow. This, and the careful placement of the sleeve on
the fabric during cutting to maximize the benefit of bias
stretch, allows a fairly close fitting sleeve which still gives
great ease of movement. When I first created the sleeves, I had
made the sleeve caps too tall and pointy – I ended up
turning the top edge under and adjusting the shape once I saw how
the sleeves related to the finished shoulders.
Sewing and
Finishing Techniques
I sewed the large seams of this gown using a sewing machine, but
did all finishing sewing by hand. The steps I used in
construction and finishing of the gown were:
1.Flatline all bodice pieces
2.Do surface decoration on bodice front and sleeves
3.Construct bodice
4.Construct bodice lining
5.Attach bodice to lining – completely finish and seal
bodice. Add bias binding to back closure
6.Add shoulder ruffle to gown shoulder
7.Sew skirt panels together, and skirt lining panels together
8.Sew skirt to skirt lining, creating finished edge for pleating
9.Pleat skirt to bodice
10.Sew sleeve lining to sleeve – turn and finish sleeves
11.Add ruffle to sleeve bottom.
12.Attach sleeve to gown (with ribbon joints for movement and
flexibility)
13.Apply puffs to cover sleeve joints
14.Apply rings to back closure
15.Hem gown by attaching skirt to skirt lining
I decided to permanently attach the sleeves of the gown to the
body. Although I believe sleeves were sometimes temporarily tied
or laced on, I believe that it is entirely plausible, based on
the wealth of the wearer, that these sleeves would be exclusively
designed for this gown and permanently attached. I used ribbon
joints to attach the sleeves. By experimenting with pinning, I
first attempted to attach the sleeves directly to the gown.
However, when I moved my arms around, the tension (particularly
on the back of the sleeves) caused them to pull the shoulders
down almost immediately. The ribbons allow much more flexibility
and freedom of movement. At the same time, I kept thinking about
the puffs I had seen between the shoulder of the gown and the
sleeves in Vecellio’s woodcuts. It seemed to be an excellent
way of decoratively covering the joint, while still allowing the
movement!
I have seen back gown closures
from this period with eyelets in the fabric. However, because
this was my first gown over a corset, I did not want to commit to
putting holes in my fabric just yet. Instead, I chose to use
rings sewn on the inside of the back closure. I first set the
rings for a single spiral lacing. This proved to be not
supportive enough for the tension the gown was under, so I added
more rings so that I could use a double spiral lacing for
closure, which worked well. The rings are closer together than
they need to be, but I decided that I would rather add rings than
re-sew all of them.
Surface
Decoration
In Vecellio’s woodcuts, there is no obvious surface
decoration. However, I wanted to embellish my gown and bring
focus to the front and sleeves. I took as my inspiration much of
the couching, embroidery, and beadwork found on English gowns of
the same period, and adapted these techniques to the fabrics I
was using. All of the materials and stitches used are plausible
for the 16th century: there are metal and glass beads, freshwater
pearls, couched coiled silver wire, and couched gold thread and
braid. Although I do not have the sources cited for these surface
decorations, I have seen them before in many 16th century English
paintings, and remnants photographed in Queen Elizabeth’s
Wardrobe Unlocked. As a member of the Silver Thimble Guild, I
couldn’t resist embellishing the front and sleeves of my
gown, and the Vecellio woodcuts are ambiguous enough that I
decided to go for it. Note however, that the sleeves are not
beaded with centered medallions, as is the English style, but
rather beaded overall with the pattern of the trim. To me, this
seemed more subtle and Italian in flavor.
Conclusion
I learned a tremendous amount about the construction and fit of
late 16th century gowns through the process of making this dress.
I found that at every step of construction, there were new
challenges and puzzles to solve, and I found that by examining
the pictures of dresses from the time, imagining myself as a 16th
century dressmaker with the tools available to me, and
considering my own concerns and needs as a wearer of the garment,
I was able to create plausible sewing solutions to each of these
challenges. After completing this garment, I am even more
fascinated by the variation in the shoulder details from this
period, and would like to experiment with this in future gowns.
Bella Says.....
This dress is simply beautiful.
Bellissima! If you would like to e-mail Gianetta you can do so by
clicking on this link, and you can visit
her web site here.
Would you like to be Showcased? E-mail me!
