All posts tagged: 1600s

Rate the Dress: Elizabeth of Bohemia pre-bohemia

Last week there was no Rate the Dress, as I rated the Oscars instead. I hope you enjoyed that, and thank you for your patience. The week before last I presented a very deco 1920s frock, and quite a few of you were vocally NOT IN FAVOUR of it. The poor thing got compared to a kindergarten uniform, a girl scout uniform, maternity dress, Nancy Drew (and you didn’t think that was a good thing), air hostess on a 1970s children’s show, or just the airplane the air hostess would be in. Maybe overwhelmed by the dislike, many of you quietly gave it rather high ratings, but it wasn’t enough to keep the much-maligned frock from a sad 4.8 out of 10. This week, let’s go back a few centuries, and look at an always contentious ‘child in an adult frock’ Rate the Dress. For a 17th century royal, Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Anne of Denmark and James I of Scotland and England, had a lucky life. She had a idyllic childhood. She wasn’t married …

Rate the Dress: Late Elizabethan pastels

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I showed you a very bright blue plaid dress, and despite the fact that so many of you said you liked blue, most of you did not like this blue, especially not in a plaid! Rowenna even called it “The Plaid Scotland Rejected.” A few of you were more favorable though, and felt you could pull it off. It averaged out with a marginal rating of 5.4 out of 10. This week, let’s take a deep, calming breath, and tone things down a little with a 1605 portrait of Anne of Denmark. Well, kinda tone things down. This is early 17th century fashion we are talking about after all, and while the wife of James I of England is clad in muted whites and pinks, there is nothing toned down and muted about her silhouette. Anne’s hair is piled high, and her famously beautiful neck and bust are framed by a fine lace collar and pink trim. Blue and pink ribbon rosettes on her bodice further lead the eye up to her best …

French queens and the fleur-de-lys – part 2

Published by The Dreamstress

Following on from last week’s post, Anne and Marie were far from being the only French queens to wear blue fleur de lys dresses (which may or may not have incorporated at least part of the same garments) Margaret of Valois, the first wife of Henry IV of France (Marie de Medici was his second), was one: And two generations before her, Claude of France, the mother in law of the infamous Catherine de Medici, was painted in a fleur de lys cloak. It is unclear, however, if the painting was commissioned during her life, or during Catherine de Medici’s, so the cloak may not be historical. Skipping forward in time, Anne’s daughter in law, Marie Therese of France, was painted in a dress with a modified fluer de lys bodice (possibly the same, or at least partly the same, as the dress worn by Anne in 1646). In contrast to the rivalry shown in Anne and Marie de Medici’s portraits, Marie -Therese’s painting is probably meant to honour her mother in law, with whom …