> I bought fabric last weekend. I wanted to make a very simple generic > English/French Renaissance dress... but my fabric keeps insising it wants to > be a Spanish dress! > > Like this one: > http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Anna_de_Austria1.jpg
Woot! Welcome to the dark side! > First, layers. On Spanish gowns of this type, there's always white sleeves > with horizontal gold stripes, sometimes an under doublet similarly striped > horizontally. I suppose there is a separate under doublet, and that both > layers are constructed similarly. There's very similar styles on some > Italian gowns where we can see an underskirt striped vertically in gold. For > a Spanish gown, was there usually an underskirt? Yes. Alcega lists both gored and half circle skirts in his pattern book (really a layout manual than patterns). It's still not entirely clear why there are the two shapes but the gored skirts occasionally have have a bodice cut with them that appears to be used for support (querpo baxo) It does appear that there is a doublet worn at least some of the time as there are a few portraits (espeically of Ana) where the doublet is worn open to reveal an inner layer that matches the sleeves (not always white! Sometimes red.) > Second question: does anybody have a good pattern for the wide triangular > sleeve in the image linked above? For my Spanish ( http://costumes.glittersweet.com/sca/valois.htm ) I was working with a sleeve that deviated from the norm. It has a bit of a curve to the bottom. That said in trying to convince myself of the shape I looked at a lot of the more normal sleeves and the pattern I developed would work if the line down the back were to taper to a point rather than a curve. I can sent you a scaled diagram of it if you like? I would definitely not cut the sleeves with the curve. it's atypical and will not give the same look as in the typical style. Oh! Yes there is a bit of a layout if you look at an extant gown that is laid flat: http://sayaespanola.glittersweet.com/extant.htm It;s right at the top of the page. It has a very shallow curve which is what made me finally accept that I could have a deeper curve;) > Third question... the skirt - or petticoat, if you prefer. On Spanish > gowns, there doesn't seem to be much pleating, if any, at the waist. Has > anybody built a skirt this way? Any pointers? Brilliant observation! Yes this is about the one constant in Spanish dress that makes a gown Spanish rather than Italian or Flemish or anything else. The fit smoothly as a cone at least as far as the side back. Some people have interpretted the images as showing the skirts to be smooth all the way around which certainly keeps that line perfect from every angle. Also there is a portrait of Philip and his daughters and they seem to have this style of skirt: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/glittersweet/saya/1583filipeandwives.jpg (ignore the file name) There is enough room to have a little ease over the lower half at the very least though. I used Alcega and extant garments as above to have a smooth fitting front and sides and then pleating in the very back to allow more movement to my train. I found that scaling the skirts up as they are you get a fairly large waist in proportion to the skirt but that you can match side seams to side back seams and get a really nice fitted front. If you are not sure about buying Alcega then there are some very similar patterns online: http://www.vertetsable.com/research_b181.htm http://www.vertetsable.com/research_f47.htm http://sayaespanola.glittersweet.com/patterns.htm And that's just a quick list of patterns in Alcega. > Last question: what about headwear? Any ideas? I don't think it is a hat, though Ana did wear them: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/glittersweet/saya/anadeaustriacampistudy.jpg It seems Isabel de Valois might have brought a French fashion with her for wearing jewels and a jewelled net thing (seriously hard to describe) to Spain as it appears in both French and Spanish fashion: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/glittersweet/saya/isabelreinacampistudy.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/glittersweet/saya/moreisabella.jpg http://www.flg.es/ficha.asp?ID=2726 http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/glittersweet/saya/1571coelloisabelclara.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/glittersweet/saya/1579isabellaclaracoellohair.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/glittersweet/saya/1571coellocatalina.jpg http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/fmlac10526_37a.jpg http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/fmlac10525_39a.jpg I suspect some fake hair might be employed in some of these as there would other wise be a strange penchant for dull nearly hair coloured turbans... Ana may be wearing that sort of arrangement (just her head): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/glittersweet/saya/anadeaustria.jpg And as a comparison, the French versions (which have also been mistaken for small hats....) http://www.rmn.fr/ I hope these tinyurl links work, the site has a tendancy to use cookies and the like) http://tinyurl.com/43u2ps N° d'inventaire : MN41;B301 Elisabeth, fille de Henri II, femme de Philippe II, roi d'Espagne Hard to tell but that is a net and then her hair in braids behind decorated with pearls. http://tinyurl.com/3qr8uu N° d'inventaire : MN42;B366 Marguerite de France reine de Navarre, fille de Henri II, femme d'Henri Same net arrangement and someoen afterwards filled in the hair, but compare these two to the painted portrait from this sketch: http://tinyurl.com/52g9l7 N° d'inventaire : PE255 Marguerite de France, enfant Clearly hair and pearls, the net is harder to see though, and she may have a layer of sheer fabric as a base too. http://tinyurl.com/3w65dy N° d'inventaire : MN342;B297 Dame inconnue More clearly hair and jewels http://tinyurl.com/3pemee N° d'inventaire : MN327;B308 Madame Mouy Saint-Phal (vers 1525-après 1583) http://tinyurl.com/484urj N° d'inventaire : PE254 Jeanne d'Albret, Reine de Navarre (1528-1572) Another very clear hair and jewel arrangement http://tinyurl.com/3qted7 N° d'inventaire : INV3254 Elisabeth d'Autriche (1554-1592) Reine de France, femme de Charles IX And the one closest to what we see on Isabel at least. http://tinyurl.com/4vs9yj N° d'inventaire : MN22;B311 Marguerite de France, fille de François Ier, duchesse de Savoie http://tinyurl.com/4qezdh N° d'inventaire : MN41;B301 Elisabeth, fille de Henri II, femme de Philippe II, roi d'Espagne These too are jewels and nets and braided hair. So smooth skirts at the very least to the side back and hair either bound with jewelled bands or small hats worn tilted to the front of the head (often a combination of the two) and hanging sleeves of several types. Oh and you are lucky! The portrait of Ana does not having a matching carcanet and girdle! It is so hard finding enough metal findings to make such matching items... very annoying. Regards, Michaela de Bruce http://glittersweet.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
