Medieval me

Bill Cunningham’s Sunday video for The New York Times documents trends he notices on the streets of New York City. I got excited when I saw that today’s was “Legs of Manhattan: The gothic and medieval eras are casting their spells over fashion. Today's look of black leggings and abbreviated coats suggests men in the 1400s.”

Really, Bill, that’s the best you’ve got? Black tights or leggings and short coats do not a medieval look make. Granted there were two doublet-like jackets (shown in the still) that fit the bill, but the rest just did not impress.

As I’ve mentioned many times, I’m fascinated by all things medieval (and have been accused of having a medieval lifestyle based on my lack of interest in technology, electronics and many items of convenience). One of my first posts when I switched this blog to be about vintage/thrift clothing was about the tunic/legging look.

Some of my favorite fashion elements are drawn from medieval and Renaissance times: puffy sleeves, double sleeves, short dresses or tunics over leggings, colorful tights, lace-up bodices, talisman-like pendants, big silver rings, capes, cloaks, shawls, boots, anything velvet, earth tones, and the color purple.

Just looking through some of my pics (some which I’ve not posted before) of the past couple years, I came up with the following (i.e., without really trying):

 

If some of these outfits look a tiny bit costume-y, well, frankly, I wish life was more of a costume party than it is. It’s not like I go out in chain mail or anything. At least, not often.

I'm not in a New York Times video, but I'll pop into Visible Monday.

Confessions of an Art History Nerd: Vittorio Carpaccio

I often draw inspiration from historical styles of dress as shown in paintings. As much as I love the styles of the 1960s and 70s, I love clothing styles and art work of Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelite, Renaissance and Medieval  periods as well.

I have a graduate degree in art history and was a museum curator for a decade and a half. Ever since high school, I have paid attention to clothing depicted in paintings (In graduate school, I entertained the idea of creating a line of hats and shoes based on Northern Renaissance paintings).

Whenever I go to a museum, I take a little notebook and make sketches and notes of dress styles/color combinations I might want to emulate. Spread over dozens of notebooks, it seemed like a good idea to record those notes here in order to have them all in one place. I’m a nerd, I know.

Last spring, in Venice, I spent hours poring over two series of painting– Miracles of the True Cross and Stories from the Life of St. Ursula in the Gallerie dell’Accademia. My previous post showing my Marks & Spencer vertical-stripe leggings reminded me that I had tried to find leggings with geometric designs or Renaissance patterns after that trip. Although I like wild patterns, they are usually tempered by being in earth or dark tones (like the blue, olive, brown stripes of the M & S leggings).

Detail of The Healing of a Possessed Man, 1494, Miracles of the True Cross, by Vittorio Carpaccio (c. 1465-1525/1526), Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.

Check out the patterned hose of the gondolier in the front left.

Detail of Arrival of the English Ambassadors, 1495-1500, Stories from the Life of St. Ursula, Vittorio Carpaccio (c. 1465-1525/26), Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.

The red coat with black velvet (?) collar and cuffs is quite fetching as are the tri-colored hose of the figure on the left. (Hey, I have those green boots worn by the man in the center!)

(After seeing so many images of men in close-fitting leggings, I wondered how they were constructed back then. The website, Dressing a Venetian Nobleman in 1500, explains how.)

The closest I’ve found to the Venetian hose from 1500 are these tights by birdapparel on Etsy.

OK, not Renaissance inspired, but I quite like these brown and white ikat print leggings by PeekoApparel on Etsy.

I might just experiment with thrift store leggings and sew two different-colored legs together to get this look.

 

Photo: iMAXTREE, Bernhard Wilhelm, 2008 Menswear Collection.

These are ugly color combinations, but I see that this designer was inspired by the look as well.