Originally I thought green wasn't that popular for dresses in 16th century Italy. I thought there might be a link to the Ottoman empire and the muslims, where green were (and is) a sacred colour, and that Christians of this reason avoided green. I was very wrong ( Read more... )

ITALIAN

XVI secolo, ultimo ventennio. Confezionato in velluto tagliato operato a un corpo in seta verde su fondo giallo laminato in oro; fodera in tela di lino naturale e taffetas giallo; pedana in feltro verde ( Read more... )

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I'm the only one awake here, so I choose a non-noisy activity: posting closeups of nice Bronzino portraits.

First, here is the portrait of "Lady in Green". It was painted ca. 1528-32, and shows a faily young, charming lady wearing a green dress accented by white silk details. The sitter's identity is not known, though various suggestions has been ( Read more... )

My landlords came yesterday, pretty much out of the blue, and gave me some fantastic silk fabrics. I was like "???", but they were dead serious. When they had their estate appraised (?) the other day, they had to look in every room. So apparently they saw my costume room. The lady said that she had bought these silks in Thailand a couple of years ( Read more... )

Here are preliminary pictures of my new project - a modest Regency dress. You can read more about it here: http://www.geocities.com/pisslei/empire . It's such a fun project, because the fabric is so hideous and yet so pretty, and the dress will mostly have self-trimmings as ( Read more... )