Life update and Projects

[morgandonner]

So I moved from Tucson to Seattle.  I lost all hope of joining the military despite, in one way or another, training for that path for the last 8 years.  That was interesting.  Not much to do about it now, but start looking for something else to do with myself.  The daily job hunt is ever so much fun (but not really).  Yay life.  And on to the

Comments

[morgandonner]

Thank you for the interest! I usually make my bodices cut straight across the belly, and not dip down into a point, because I am almost always doing working class women, in many places across Europe, and a large portion of them have that straight seam. I am sure you are familiar with the Vincenzo Campi paintings, which are a great example of that sort of bodice in Italy. I have noticed several other serving girls and the like in other Italian paintings that are the same. And if you go just a little bit earlier(until the 1530-40s or so), even the upper class have straight bodices.

Plus I am a fair bit intimidated by the long pointy bodices. I have done only one, with fair success I think, but I am content trying to do non-pointy ones for a bit >.>

Hope I don't seem defensive, I just want to point out that there are plenty of non-pointy bodices.

As for using the velvet extant bodies pattern, I was really curious as to how it would fit once sized up a bit. But I ended up not really doing that, since I changed the pattern, and I think that the test bodice ended up a fair bit shorter than the extant velvet ones were. Because of the little gore right at the bottom, I think that they would have ended just a bit past the waist, and perhaps would have made for some nice squishy-ness for the dress to go over it. I am sure you have seen the same stuff as me about the velvet bodies probably being a garment to keep Ms. Toledo warm, and really likely not a formfitting/shaping garment at all, even though it was intended to go under the main dress.

I feel like I am rambling. Hopefully I am being coherent. And helpful.

I hope my further explorations in this pattern and other patterns will be enjoyed.

[operafantomet]

Oh yes, I didn't mean to reply straight bodices weren't worn. What I meant with "rural style" is just what you describe - serving girls, Campi's working women etc. Their style was a late heritage of the other you point out - the style of the early 16th century, where noble women and servants alike wore straight bodices without a pointed front. But there's a change of fashion ca. 1540, where the upper class went for the more manneristic style with body manipulating bodices, while working class women kept the working friendly dresses.

So my point is probably that after the 1550s sometime a straight bodice indicates a lower class, or a deliberately old fashioned style. The poet Laura Battiferri is a good example of the latter. Being depicted ca. 1560, she still wore the large puffed sleeves and the short, square bodice fashionable some 20 years earlier:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/operafantomet/renaissanceportraits/firenze2/bronzino1560laura.jpg

So yes, it definitely did exist, no doubt about it. I dig your work, and I'm looking forward to more. More!!

[operafantomet]

Not to mention Laura Battiferri's "balzo" headgarb. Sooo old fashioned. :lol: