Review: Dressing Renaissance Florence

by Carole Collier Frick. Johns Hopkins University Press: 2002.



Hardcover, 368 pages.
Publisher, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
ISBN: 0801869390

This review was written by me and posted on Amazon.com.

I'm extremely impressed. I think this book would make an outstanding addition to any Renaissance-lover's, or garbaholic's, bookshelf.

It is not about how to make Italian-persona clothing. Instead, it focuses on how Florentines of the Renaissance used clothing to make social statements. Along the way, it examines some things that garbmakers would like hearing about (one table lists various color combinations found in gowns and linings), but mostly, it's about the sociology of fashion.

Chapters:

  • Craftspeople and tailors (including how clothes-making guilds were organized and the role women played in these guilds)

  • Tailoring Family Honor (how Florentines viewed honor and how they thought honor was expressed through clothing)

  • Family Fortunes in Clothes (how much they spent, and a bit about the secondhand clothes market)

  • The making of wedding gowns (you'll love learning how many opinions went into one and how totally political it all was)

  • Trousseaux for Marriage and Convent (how they differed, and lists of what went into each)

    • And stuff about sumptuary law, information about layers of clothing, types of dyes (and an examination of mourning clothes), types of fabric, and clothes as depicted in art -- and how art might have distorted how people really wore clothes. Embroidery is also covered.

    Needless to say, the painter Ghirlandaio features pretty prominently here. There are also b/w repros of portraits, unfortunately not super well detailed, but there are a few here I haven't seen before. There are also appendices that are very useful -- lists of currency and measures, categories of clothiers, yardage required for various garments, glossaries of what yardage terms meant, and a HUGE bibliography and glossary of terms.

    It isn't a physically large book, clocking in at around 300pp, but it's very rich in detail, and the writing is pleasant to read. I'd definitely recommend this book to anybody wanting to immerse in the period -- and DEFINITELY for any Renaissance costumers out there. It might not be a bad idea to have some basic grounding in the period before reading this, but it's written well enough that if any is required, it isn't much.



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