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Beginner's Florentine Women's Wardrobe 1540-1580

By: Catherine Griffith (SCA: Baroness Catherine Grace Fitzlewis QC)

This class is intended to be a brief overview of the pieces of a women’s wardrobe in what I consider to be one of the least scary from a 16th century standpoint. How many of us have watched a movie on the 16th century and had visions of dressing in Damasks, with great sleeves and a full skirt? And then by contrast how many of us have had that crashing moment where we think, bumroll, farthingale, ruffs? I have always loved the 16th Century clothing but not what appeared to be all the fussy accessories, that is what makes Florentine perfect for me, and I hope that this class dispels some fears about 16th century costuming, and, or will prove informative.

One cannot look at fashion from this period in Florence without giving a nod to Duchess Eleonora di Toledo, upon her entry to Florence, from a very Spanish family she found a dress style that must have looked very old fashioned to her.

Just from looking at these two pictures, one can see some vast differences, but then also we can see some similarities. Both have a partlet /gorgiera and similar necklines, but where the older style has a slightly higher waist, Eleonors’a dress will have a dropped down waist, possibly with a point in front. The older style dress has a much softer corseted look, where the new fashion had a much more structured style. The sleeves in the Lucrezia portrait are large puffs / brodoni with a differing material as the body of the arm, that could be interchanged. The Eleonora gown has small brodoni, in order to be smoothly worn under a loose gown. With in a short 10 year time span, Eleonora brought international fashion to Florence, as the earlier fashion was not seen any longer in portraits. Changed also is the padded head roll in exchange for a snood. She did indeed change Florentine fashion, but she did so while casting off some of her native countries more strict stipulations in honor of Florentine tradition. Eleonora did not adopt the high necklines of most other European countries, a strange fact due to her heavy Catholic background. She embraced the lack of fashion for farthingales, in Florence, as not one can be found in her clothing inventories, again another strange fact considering her Spanish background. It was said that she was a very athletic women, who loved to hunt and ride, which could explain her distaste for restrictive clothing.

If looking at Florentine dress and attire from head to foot, we see the first differences between this and other countries begin to appear right from the beginning, The Florentine upper class women did (as a rule) not wear the elaborate headdresses seen on many 16th century women, they wore their hair simply held in a net or snood, frequently parted down the middle and showing the ears. Eleonora wore earrings, a scandalous practice from the beginning, but later adopted by most women in Florence. The net of the snood often matched the net of the gorgiera. Upon going out a upper class women would most likely don a beret / bonetto, on top of her snood, occasionally including a baviera, which was a piece of cloth that was pinned to the bonetto, and across the face to protect the wearer from dirt and dust. Veils were also common depending on age and occasion. The more common women would indeed wear hats, commonly straw or felt, they would wear linen head wraps and cauls, but would also often be found with no head cover, but a high tight bun instead.

Drawers would have been worn on the lower body to protect clothing from body soil.

The chemise or camicia, would have most often been made of linen, with a full sleeve either left open at the wrist or gathered, or smocked into a cuff. Embroideries would again depend on your station as would the fullness of the body and sleeve.

 

The corset or stays would have had shoulder straps, and would have been worn with the full expectation that it would have been seen at one time or another, and as such would have been a color, and as nice a fabric as one could afford. They were boned with cardboard, reeds, wood, broom straw, etc.

The underskirt would have been worn under all dresses, and would also be worn casually around the house with a corset and camiciola or knitted jacket.

The pocket or tasca would have been a bag that tied either to the stays or belt, and could be reached through slits in the clothing.

Partlets or gorgiera were worn universally, and ornamented depending on one’s station; they could be anywhere from jeweled and fine to plain serviceable white linen. They were often a sign of modesty and decadence at the same time, no mean feat in one item of clothing if one thinks about it.

The petticoat or sottana would have been the most worn article of clothing, when we in modern terms think of a petticoat, we imagine a white slip, but not so in 16th century Florence, especially during the 20 years between 1540-1560 it was a garment in it’s own right, with sleeves that tied to the shoulder and a bodice that would have been attached to the skirt / falda. After 1560 it would be more likely that just the front and sleeves would have shown from under the loose gown. These dresses would often be ornamented with attached decoration in the form of bands /astone that had been couched, embroidered, beaded, etc. These dresses would have had side back seams and closed through the used of eyelets and lacing either through the side back seams, or found more commonly in the peasant dresses, the front. (not having someone to dress you will call for that.)

 

Belts would have been simple and plain on the lower class, used for holding tools and the like, the elaborate jeweled girdles of the upper class would have had skies the limit on value.

Next comes my personal favorite article of clothing, the loose gown or zimarra. This article was worn the majority of the time over the sottana after 1560. before then it was still worn, but usually optionally or upon leaving the house. Eleonora had a monochromatic sense with this piece, because she usually wore it tonally matching her petticoat. This item was diverse and could be plain, through to gold bullion touching every inch. It was anywhere from loose with long hanging sleeves, to fitted around the body in an almost doublet style bodice, with a hanging skirt, the earlier the zimarra the more likely it would have closed, the latter one’s hung open all the time.

Stockings were either fabric, or knitted, Eleonora had many pairs of knitted silk stockings, a pair of which were on her when she was buried. Class wise, if you are lower class, chances are your stockings are cloth. Stockings would have been worn with garters to hold them up.

Shoes would have been anything from sandals to the high platform chopines. You would have worn low soft slippers, that would have been inserted into the higher wedge shaped chopine.

I hope that this little list has given a good starting point for 16th century Florentine garb, it is obviously incomplete as far as all details are concerned, but as this is a beginner class, I figured that the bare minimum would suffice in terms of starting an Italian wardrobe, from there on out, additional items can be added as one goes more into depth with a persona.

The Bibliography

Moda Firenze 1540-1580. Roberta Orsi Landini & Bruna Niccoli, ISBN 88-8304-867-9
A must, must have for Florentine research, great glossary of Italian terms and beautiful pictures.

Queen Elizabeth’s wardrobe unlocked. Janet Arnold, ISBN 978-0901286208

Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women C1560-1620. Janet Arnold

The Realm of Venus Bella has a great site with lots of pictures, mostly Venetian, but getting more Florence.

Web gallery of art