The Tudor Revolution

So if you are new to my blog, Hello! I took July off to focus on work and realities of covid life. Thanks for hanging in there.  This week we are doing to cover 16th Soccocia and their role toward the origin of pockets. People need a place to carry and keep their small items as they walk around. In the middle ages you might have a pilgrim satchel or a belt pouch. Some women in the middle ages had the brilliant idea to stop wearing their money purses outside of their over gowns and instead would wear them between their kirtle/sottona layer and over gowns. This arrangement still gave you access to the purse, but made it harder for thieves to cut your purse strings and run.  Fast forward to the 16th century and we find the heirs to this practice in socaccia. We have some visual evidence of these in mid to late 16th century art out of Italy. This is a detail of Alessandro Allori's,  Woman at her toilet, ca 1575-78. Currently in Florence, Church of Santa Maria Novella, Gaddi ...

Hey there readers,  For a few years I've been in love with the idea of what would Belle from Disney's Beauty and the Beast look like if translated through the eyes of 16th century Italy. My first post in this series is actually going to be a white apron for this outfit, and give you instructions on how to make your own. Enjoy!  Use of Aprons in 16th century Italy The basic apron style of a rectangle gathered with a waistband has not changed for hundreds of years, and were popular with Italian women during the 16th century. Italians seem to have viewed this as much more utilitarian than other places in Europe where women were sitting in formal portraits with them. Italian women of the upper class only seem to wear them in private. These aprons have lovely embroidery or expensive lace worked into them. My goal in making mine was to continue to expand on my 16th century woman’s toilet, where women wore them to help keep clothing clean while dressing hair...