In the mid-1800s Italian tailoring houses were creating designs that mixed the latest fashion trends from France and England.
The results of this combination were rather elegant and the tailor made designs were sold to the upper classes, from the rich bourgeoisie to the aristocracy.
The rest of the society still wore regional costumes instead and clothes made with rather simple and humble materials.
I have found two images from those times that document women’s fashion, but also show different roles women had in the Italian society.
The first one portrays the Countess of Castiglione in an evening dress with her child in the background (1864 - image by Pierre-Louise Pierson); the second image shows bandit Michelina De Cesare in 1865.
Accessories such as handkerchiefs, fans and beaded ornaments for the hair were rather popular at the time as the portrait of La Castiglione also proves. The Countess, born Virginia Elisabetta Luisa Carlotta Antonietta Teresa Maria Oldoini, is wearing in this image an evening dress characterised by a corset decorated with a sort of beaded net and a rather ample skirt supported by rigid crinolines and decorated with a beaded motif. Her dress looks rather heavy, almost monumental and, because of it, the Countess seems to occupy the entire picture.
Virginia Oldoini was considered at the time one of the most beautiful Italian women. She was the cousin of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, who sent her to Napoleon III’s court to seduce him and convince him to strike an alliance with Piedmont.
In a letter to Luigi Ciborio in February 1856, Camillo Benso wrote: “A beautiful countess has been enlisted by the Piedmont diplomacy. I sent her to persuade and even seduce the emperor if she can (...).She started her mission yesterday during a concert at the Tuileries.”
The countess didn’t fail her mission, and even became for one year Napoleon III’s lover. A few years after, though, she ran out of luck as her Italian husband divorced her and she was abandoned by her lovers, spending the last years of her life isolated in her house in Place Vendôme, Paris, where she had covered all the mirrors to avoid seeing her beauty fading away.
The second picture portrays a rebel woman, Michelina De Cesare.
Born in Caspoli in 1841 from a poor family, Michelina married when she was twenty but became a widow just a year after.
She soon became the partner of an ex-Borbonic army soldier, Francesco Guerra, who had joined a group of Briganti (bandits).
The so-called "Brigantaggio" was a social-political peasant rebellion concentrated in southern Italy and suppressed by the government by military force.
Though at the time many people thought women were obliged to follow their partners in their fights, it is proved that quite a few women joined these groups by their own will and often covered important strategic roles.
Michelina for example was famous not only for fighting with her partner but for planning attack and defence strategies and leading her group in battle. Michelina died in 1868 during a battle and a picture of her corpse was taken by an official army photographer (the army often took with them photographers to take pictures of the Briganti after they were captured and before they were killed, as propaganda), luckily we are also left with two other images that portray Michelina. In my favourite one she is wearing her regional costume and carries a gun and a rifle that show her status of Brigantessa.
Women from the lower classes didn’t wear crinolines at the time, but ample yet soft skirts in woollen fabrics. Their dresses were usually completed by various headdresses. In Michelina’s case she is wearing a sort of regional costume that includes a woollen top, a pinafore dress with an apron on top, a folded towel-like headdress and flat slippers with straps that criss-cross around the ankle (this style was very popular in the central and southern part of Italy).
I find these images rather interesting not only because they show two different trends in womenswear in the 1800s, but also because they portray two strong and beautiful women who entered history and left their mark upon it.
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women's trends are changing through times. The best fabrics used to be made by our forefathers. With new technologies, we are seeing lots of styles that go back to the old days
Posted by: Manal Wehbi | July 14, 2013 at 11:52 PM