Pink Gown From Vincenzo Campi’s “Kitchen”

Grazia Morgano (MKA Mackenzie Morgan)

30 January A.S. XLVII

1 Introduction

The goal of this project was to create a front-lacing gown like those worn by late16th century working-class Italians. Vincenzo Campi has many paintings de-picting the working-class, and one in particular, “Kitchen” (Figure 1 on page 5)shows a pink dress of a similar shade to some pink linen I had in my stash.Aside from working from a painting, I added in the goal of sewing a garmentcompletely by hand for the first time. Wool would be more accurate for outer-wear, but giving consideration to the local climate and the fact that the linenhad already been paid for, a commercial linen of a shade easily rendered bymadder root dyes was used.

2 Background

From studying Vincenzo Campi’s works, several characteristics of working classdress can be seen. The most obvious difference between working class dress andthat of the well-off is the front-lacing. Trying to lace oneself with only side-lacingis an exercise in frustration, so front-lacing is necessary to dress oneself.

2.1 Appearance

2.1.1 Gowns in “Kitchen”

The woman in yellow in the foreground of “Kitchen” (Figure 1 on page 5)appears to have both side-back lacing and front-lacing. This seems likely to berelated to sizing. Gaining weight or becoming pregnant does not necessitatenew clothing if the side laces can simply be let out, while the front lacing canbe used on a day-to-day basis. A shoulder seam is also visible.

The woman in green in the background of “Kitchen” has her sleeves tied ononly at the bottom of the arm holes, with the sleeves tied behind her back. Theback of her bodice has three lines of trim.

2.1.2 The Pink Gown

The pink gown in question is visible only from the back, so it is necessary tolook at Campi’s other paintings to derive the front’s likely appearance.

From the back, the skirt appears to be not very full, with small gathers orcartridge pleats. The back of the bodice has four lines of trim, the extra beingdown the center back. The bodice also appears to have wrinkles, suggestinga lack of stiffening. For a working-class woman who needs to bend (as in thepainting) and move easily, this makes sense. Sleeve lacing is visible at the topof the shoulder and in two places on the back, suggesting five laces total.

The apron the woman wears has both a waist tie and a hip tie, probablyto keep it from moving around too much. While this apron is not part of thisentry, it is an interesting note for future work.

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2.1.3 Other Campi Gowns

Campi’s “The Fishmongers,” (Figure 2 on page 5) allows both the front and thehem of a working-class gown to be seen. Like the back of the pink gown, a slitcontinues in the skirt below the front bodice opening. Unlike earlier Florentinefashion, there is no trim or guards along the hem. The front of this dress showseven more dramatic wrinkling, supporting the idea that there is no stiffening.

2.2 Construction Techniques

Some of these design features were discussed with Mistress Alizaundre de Bre-beuf. A possible explanation for why the pink gown has an extra line of trim isthat the line of trim is hiding a seam, which would be necessary if the womanis asymmetrical (her bodice could not be cut on a fold) or if the dress had beenremade. My sewing experience (as someone who is asymmetrical) supports this.

What are the other lines of trim covering? The seams of bound edges orfacings seem the logical conclusion. In “Patterns of Fashion 4” by Janet Arnold,et al, a bound edge done in on-grain linen is visible on an Italian smock’sneckline[2, p. 54]. The benefits of binding the neckline with on-grain fabricinclude both reinforcing (the purpose of bound hems) and holding the shapebetter than bias tape would. Bias tape did exist, such as on the curved hem ofEleanora di Toledo’s burial gown. The alternative to binding for reinforcing theeyelets is to fully line the bodice, as was done on Eleanora’s gown[1, p. 104].

Many seam treatment options existed in the 16th century. Both rolling hemsbefore seaming and flat felling are well-supported by extant garments. A c. 1585women’s doublet has seams at waist and collar bound with 1/2 inch strips ofmatching fabric [1, p. 43, 106].

Eyelets were worked in both satin [2, p. 25] and buttonhole stitch in period[2,p. 20]. I can find no photos clear enough to see whether satin stitch or buttonholestitch was used either on Eleanora’s burial gown or on the red velvet gown fromthe Pisan court, but they are definitely stitched [1, p. 41].

3 This gown

3.1 Making the Pattern

First I made a block from which to draft a pattern. I had assistance tapingstrips into place with the block wrapped around my body to determine wherethe straps would go. From there, I made two muslins, using pins to test wherethe openings would be. The length and angle on the right-side shoulder strapwere adjusted to account for asymmetry, and then finally the linen was cut.

3.2 Putting it Together

Because linen stretches, and not always evenly, on the skirt I measured fromone hem and marked the same distance the whole way, making a fold at the

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mark, and tacking this fold down. The extra layer of fabric at this edge wouldmake the pleats stand out better by giving them greater volume.

A backstitch was used to attach the bodice pieces to each other, for itsstrength, before binding the edges with on-grain hem tape. The eyelets wereopened using a tailor’s awl, not by punching a hole in the fabric, to maintainthe fabric’s structural integrity. They are stitched with buttonhole stitch. Theseam up the center back is then covered and reinforced by a narrow strip oflinen as in a c. 1580 linen shirt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art[2, p. 24–25].

The bottom edge of each bodice piece is about 1/3 of the full waist, so slitswere added to the skirt roughly evenly spaced. These are longer than theyappear in the painting, so they can be used to access saccoccia (pockets), asare shown in Alessandro Allori’s “The Maiden Quarter” (Figure 3 on page 6),where wash women are shown with theirs on the outside as they work. BecauseI wear a saccoccia, I prefer this adjustment.

The skirt was gathered into small cartridge pleats and whip-stitched to thebottom of the bodice.

3.3 Getting it Right the Second Time

Linen stretches more than muslin. While the gown was wearable at this stage,the waist was lower than the true waist, making the skirt too long. The bodicewas also too loose to provide support. So, the skirt was removed, and the bodicewas shortened and taken in. The trim was sewn on so its edges would be hiddeninside the gown’s waist seam.

Finally, sleeves were drafted, cut, hemmed, sewn together, adjusted for fit,and eyeleted. Corresponding eyelets were added to the bodice.

4 Conclusions

Some seamstresses say to make a mock-up using the real fabric, not a muslin.They are correct. If the test fits had been done using fabric that stretches likelinen, instead of cotton muslin, the gown would not have had to be refit. Infuture, I also intend to pin the skirt to the bodice so it does its stretching beforethe skirt is sewn on.

Since they seem more common, next time I will use flat felled seams or whipstitching over hemmed edges. One other change I would make to my patterndraft would be to have the shoulder straps pass from the back to attach over theshoulder at an area under the arm, not in front of the bosom. The pattern draftwould be easier to do, and it would give the extra-wide neckline commonly seenon these gowns. Campi’s “Christ in the House of Mary and Martha” shows theshoulder strap attaching here (Figure 4 on page 6).

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References

[1] Janet Arnold. Patterns of Fashion, volume 3. Macmillan, 1985.

[2] Janet Arnold, Jenny Tiramani, and Santina M Levey. Patterns of Fashion,volume 4. Macmillan, 2008.

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Figure 1: Detail from “Kitchen” by Vincenzo Campi, 1580s

Figure 2: Detail from “Fishmongers” by Vincenzo Campi, c. 1580

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Figure 3: Detail from “The Maiden Quarter” by Alessandro Allori, c. 1588/89

Figure 4: Detail from “Christ in the House of Mary and Martha” by Vincenzo Campi

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