A red early 14th century italian wool gown

2022

A red wool gown, all hand sewn. lined in wool 

I have written it before, but I am really in love with the high-waisted early 14th century Italian fashion. Ever since I discovered the weird right over the bust seams, I have been totally fascinated with them.

I have written extensively about them on this blog, here, and here. The first is a blog post, the second a presentation of my first dress made after this manner, how I constructed it, and my thoughts about that.

Anyway, my only previous gowns in this style was from silk (link above) and cotton , but wool was such a common fabric all over Europe in the Middle Ages, and is my favourite material. So of course I had to have a wool gown in this style.

I also needed a red gown given how common they were:

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the Allegory of Good and Bad Government 1338-39

This one is split at the sides, like my gown, and has shorter sleees on the upper gown than on the kirtle under it. 

Breviary from Bologna 1315-25:

Marriage. Bolognese manuscript from the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century.

Add MS 24678, f. 22r

Pietro Lorenzetti, c. 1329, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena

Giotto, Marriage at Cana (1305)and Scenes from the life of the Virgin (1304-6)

St. Lucia, by Pseudo Jacopino, at the Pinacoteca Bologna, 1329

Unidentified painter in the Basilica san Nicola in Tolentino

Most of these show a combination of two red dresses, where the top layer has shorter sleeves, and often is slit at the side. 

To my suprise I had found some lovely red wool that I don't remeber buying in my fabric cupboard. It is perfect, but still not heavy, and with a wonderful drape. Unfortunately it was not enough for two dresses. So, utntil I have found a wool fabric from the same shade of red I will have to wear it with either this red dress:

Or this one:

I chose the lighter red one, rather than the rose red, because it looked more alike. Here is a photo woth the rose red kirtle under:

The trim around the neck and cuffs, and on the front of the dress is inspired by the trim placement on many paintings from the period, including these:

Giotto, Scrovegni chapel, Padua 1304-6:

And possibly my all time favourite: the fresco in San Zeno in Verona

Plus all the images above, especially the Marriage at Cana by Giotto, and the painting in the Basilica di 

san Nicola.

I used Indian metal trim that I bought over twenty years ago. Actually the same as on the rose red kirtle, just a different ground colour. It is tricky, but not impossible to shapea stiff ribbon around a round neckline - I have written an instruction on how to do it here.

Though you don't actually need lacin to get into this type of gown, some of the artwork shows it, like this sculpture Tino de Camaino, Florence c 1320-21

Or this manuscript illumination from Bologna, late 13th or early 14th century

So I decided to put in some lacing rings, simple brass rings that were a gft from Magdalena Grace Vane, and small glass beads.

In this photo you can also see the linign, which is a green tropical weight wool. Not the ideal colour, but for this project I wanted to use only things from my stash, and this was the last of the fabric that I used for my 15th century Italian working outfit.

I'm ending with another wintry photo from Medieval Christmas in Visby.