Made in 2022, entirely from thrifted materials
So, Gotvik had decided that our annual autumn event Festivalo de Caderas, should include a masked ball. We had dance classes in the morning, and after Feast, which was in the afternoon, there was the ball. I was cooking feast all day, so I missed the training. Luckily I have danced before, and Lady Elisabet Nilsdotter is an excellent teacher.
I had planned to do research on masked balls in the medieval period, but I didn't have the energy this autumn. However, what little I had read about it suggested that they were more common in the renaissance. It also appeared that Allegorical figures and Roman deities were common in masked balls and in masked parades.
So, since the ball was close to All Hallows/Samhain I decided to go for something related to the Underworld. I had also found two dark blue cotton velvet curtains (IKEA) at a charity shop, and had a some dark red cut furniture velvet in my stash; from another thrift store a couple of years ago. Combine these fabrics and my general idea, and you end up with Proserpine/Persephone, queen of Hades.
Also judging from my limited research, it was common to wear reasonably normal clothing, with attributes which defined the character. So I wanted to make a dress that was period, and could be used for other events too.
My main inspiration was Cosimo Tura's allegorical portrait of the muse Calliope, from 1455-60
But I also looked at other paintings, which showed humans rather than muses. Thus I decided not to make lacing both in front and at the sides, as you can see on this painting. I also made one-piece sleeves, and decided to have them closed, though that was mainly a design choince, since both varieties can be found in Italian Quattrocento art.
I started with beading the sleeves. I think that I would have liked to have made themlarger, like for my red dress, but I couldn't find my pattern and was a little conservative when cutting. I also had to avoid pieces of fabric which had stains on them. And it is a perfectly acceptable size of sleeves, as you can see from the portraits on the page I link to above.
I used glass rocaille beads to fill out the middle of the pomegranate motif, to make it look like pomegranate seeds, and also beaded other parts of the motif.
The sleeves are bound at the wrists with cotton bias tape that I also got from a charity shop.
Then I cut the rest of the dress. The shape of both the body and the skirt is inspired by Dr Elisa Tosi Brandi's work on the preserved dress worn by Osanna Andreasi (link to her article), with some adaptations for my larger bust and me wanting to have a lower neck line.
This is my standard Quattrocento bodice pattern:
The bodice is lined with a thrifted cotton sheet, and the front opening is reinforced with oen row of hemp cord, c. 3 mm thick. It ahs no other "boning", but the velvet is sturdy, so my bust stays where it should be.
I used dark red buttonhole silk to stitch the lacing hols, and used a "gold" cord for lacing, both from my stash, I know that I bought the cord in the late 1990s. I also sewed some lovely trim that I bought from Passamaneria Valmar in Florence in 2016 around the neck.
To turn this dress in to a masquerade costume I made a diadem, a mask, and a pomegranate brooch, and added a long veil (another charity shop find)
The diadem is made from black and gold colured metal wiere. I wanted to make it all black, but thought that I didn't have any narrow black wire. Of course I found that wire a couple of weeks after the event ;)
The beads are a mix of glass and plastic, and the pomegrante are pressed cotton balls that I halved and hollowed out a little before adding glue and small rocaille glass beads. I then painted them with gold acrylic paint. It was trickier than I had envisioned, but I like the result.
The mask is a piece of leather from a charity shop, acrylic paint, glue, and red glitter. This is probably the least period looking part of the costume, since the glitter is very modern.
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