In the 1900s people who wanted to learn how to make garments would do so going to work for tailors, though a few lucky ones could also rely on their mothers, aunts and grandmothers, family dressmakers keen on passing on their skills.
In Italy there was also a religious order you could turn to if you wanted to learn the basics of the trade. The Dominican Nuns had patented a cutting pattern and garment making method that was taught in their convents during evening classes and that had received approval from the Ministry of Education in the mid-'30s.
The nuns would teach their students (as you may guess the lessons were only open to women) to make a selection of men, women and children's garments – from jackets and coats to shirts, skirts, trousers and lingerie as well (yes, even bras if you're wondering…). My late auntie Flavia got her diploma from the nuns' school in 1954: her notebook, now part of my personal archive, is packed with technical drawings and cutting patterns. There seems to be a strong focus in her notes on collars and sleeves, but the cape section (a sample is shown in the third image in this post) is one of my favourite parts. It features a selection of pieces, from rigorous military capes to more extravagant ones in "Geisha" style (as described in the notes).
Since the Met Museum announced its "Heavenly Bodies" exhibition there has been a lot of talk about fashion and religion, but this is a sort of unknown aspect maybe of this connection, its main aim and objective perfectly summarised in the introductory notes the nuns provided my aunt with at the beginning of her course that state: "This initiative [the tailoring school] comes from a religious order and is the proof that the Church, loving Mother of all her children, is not disinterested in their material needs and contributes with this course to progress and society. In a safe moral environment, let's give the chance to women to give free rein to their imagination, and fill their lives with the most gentle attributes of femininity, that is good taste and charm. After all, the tailoring art has always bestowed upon women a graceful finesse."
Related articles
Rispondi