Italian/Spanish Renaissance

Here we are in the Renaissance!

It was a period of great cultural changes and achievement that began in Italy during the 14th century and lasted until the 16th century, between Medieval and Early Modern Europe. This period was a turning point on people's attitude to clothes and their appearances. A lot of different goods were produced and consumed across the globe. This increased interaction with the overseas world.

Because there's a lot of information and style changes, we split up this period in 3 blogposts: The Italian/Spanish Renaissance, The Tudors and the Elizabethan era.

The first manifestation of the general European Renaissance was the Italian Renaissance (15th C).

Woman clothes had 3 layers of dresses:

Camicia: long sleeve underdress
Gamurra: hight-waisted dress with detachable sleeves
Giornea: over-dress split up at the sides and belted below the bosom

note: Sleeves were detachable, because they got easily dirty. It was easier to clean their sleeves instead of cleaning their whole dress.

Men wore closely fitted clothes:

a doublet: fitted & buttoned jacket
a codpiece: a covering flap or pouch that attaches to the front of the crotch of men's trousers
hose: legging
giornea : over-jacket
a cape

Hair was center-parted with a braid at the back often incorporate ribbons or netting (Trinzale). Above it they wore the Lenza, a leather chord worn around the head to keep all this stuff in place. Other hairdo's were hair-taping, Benda's, complicated curls & (fake) braids,... Read more details on Margo's blog!

Also recognizable for this period is a very decorative detail on their sleeves, called "slash and puff" - the outer garment was slashed and the inner-garment was pulled trough.

The Italian palette was dusty with warm earth tones, red colors, dark tones and a lot of brocade.

Around the 16th Century Spain & Portugal was expanding, which reflected on their fashion. Everything got big, with huge sleeves and big skirts. A lot of gold and black velvet completely marked the Spanish court.

Woman

a busk (stiffened your torso, to hold all this heavy fabric)
sleeveless gown with detachable sleeves
large decorative puffs at the top of the sleeves.
a colletto: piece of fabric (lacework or pearls) on the neckline pinned on the dress

Men

Jerkin: close-fitting jacket worn over the doublet or chemise

Hose: legging

How people of the Italian Renaissance put on their makeup? What were their beauty rituals?

Check out Margo's beautiful illustrations and read more about this subject!