All posts tagged: 1540s

Rate the Dress: 1540s Noblewoman in Green

Last week I showed you an embroidered ensemble said to have belonged to Madame Élisabeth, sister to  Louis XVI.  There must be some magic in being a princess, because the full first 10 scores were perfect scores, and the frock managed an incredibly impressive 9.4 out of 10 (which is practically a perfect score these days), though some of you did make it hard for me by giving it multiple scores. Personally I wanted to love the outfit, but every time I looked at it my eye tried to tweak the motifs  and rearrange the embroidery ever so slightly, and if it isn’t perfect as it is, I really can’t give it a perfect score, so it was really only an 8.5 out of 10 from me. This week we’re downgrading from a well known princess to an unknown noblewoman, with this portrait of a wealthy Florentine woman (presumably a noblewoman) of the 1540s, possibly by Bronzino. Mid-16th century Florentine fashion can be much the same, but this woman has chosen a dress with just …