That partlet I've been thinking about forever
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| Maria de Medici, c. 1555 |
This is the dress that, when I changed persona for the third time, shifted me from late 15th century Italy to mid-16th century. It's just so... chef's kiss. And I am not alone. I, like many who have gone before, have slowly been amassing the bits and bobs to recreate this dress (although I'll be doing it in green because I can), and a key part of what makes this dress special is that partlet (giorgeria in Italian).
So, in anticipation of making the dress later this year, I figured now would be a good time to knock some of the accessories off my To Do list, and so today...today, my friends, I got started on this thing.
I have a theory about this giorgeria. Every reproduction I've seen has been done in linen, and...I don't think it is. If you look at it close up, there's some serious sheen to that fabric, and linen doesn't typically do that. Also, that's a lot of fancy extra nonsense for a rich girl to put on boring ol' linen. ALSO also, other giorgerie of that period are very obviously not linen, and equally very obviously probably silk.
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| Shiny! |
So I think it's silk. This is an ensemble meant to convey ridiculous wealth, and why use cheap fabrics when you can gild the lily? So both the ground fabric and embroidery will be silk.
While waiting for the embroidery silk and pearls to show up, I sorted out the pattern for the giorgeria and the embroidery motifs. I had to do maths, y'all, but I started up the free pattern from Truly Hats with only a tiny mod on the collar (made it slightly taller with tapers at both ends).
I also took the time to draw up the embroidery motifs at the correct scale. I already have the silk ground and white silk thread to stitch it (because this will all be done by hand, yo), so hopefully I can get everything cut out and framed up in the next couple of days.
Typically, I'd rather chew glass than shop at Amazon, but...I was able to get a set of French curve thingies from them with same-day delivery, so I could finish this and not lose momentum. They really helped, though, so it was £10 well spent.
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| Progress is progress! |
Other elements are gold lace and some tiny chain. It's hard to tell from the portrait whether it was needle or bobbin lace, but either way I'm not interested in taking up another hobby for this thing, so I'm using gold lace that is close enough in look. Also, the chain in the portrait looks more sliver, but I have gold and I think it will look better with the lace and the embroidery palette I've chosen.
It's been a while since I've done any real embroidery, so I'm both looking forward to this, and desperately hope I don't fuck it up.
Wish me luck!
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Images from Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Maria de Medici, Florence 1555
Alessandro Allori (1535-1607)
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