Lorenzaccio
As you know, I created a full costume for my final exam at sewing school, and only had a few pictures taken on the day of the exam. So I definitely had to organize a photoshoot with my very patient and invested model to get shots that express essence of the character.
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For this exam, you are randomly assigned a play among the classics, and you have to create a costume for one of the characters of this play. I got Lorenzaccio, by Alfred de Musset, a play about political intrigues in Renaissance Florence, written by an author traumatized by the failed first french revolution, and projecting all of his romantic era pessimism into the character that gives his name to the play.
I love Renaissance fashion and wanted to explore many old patterns from the era, so I decided to make a shirt, doublet, cape and hat from the 16th century. But to give a wink to the french revolution, I decided that in the play, the revolutionary men would wear 1830s tight trousers and boots, whereas the 'royalists' would be wearing the renaissance equivalent of the culotte, the venetian hose. This is a shorter, puffy hose with embellishments on the bottom, usually worn with stockings and flat shoes. The renaissance patterns (except the cape) are loosely based on those in the The Tudor Tailor, a book that I highly recommend to anybody wanting to explore this era.
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The shirt is made with a blend of cotton and silk to get the right crumply, textured feel, but without being too hot. I made a gathered jersey knit edge on the bottom that sits right under the trousers waistband to make sure the gathers sit perfectly well and evenly distribute the fullness around the body. The center front is generously open, revealing a pale hairless chest, emphasizing Lorenzo's youth. The trousers were made with a heavyweight jersey fabric to make it look like medium weight wool, but give the model maximum range of movement. The doublet is made of polyester taffeta, lined with cotton and polyester, and embellished with velvet ribbon. Lorenzo is a corrupted character and the themes of fire and the devil are very present, so I created the costume in flame colors, including the blue of the heart of the flame, which also represents his former purity that is been consumed by the flames.
The cape is made with this textured viscose fabric, lined with gold taffeta and some trimmings. The pattern is based on the book Drei Schnittbücher by Katherine Barich Marion Mcnealy. It is basically a circle cape shape, with false decorative sleeves with slits underneath to fit the arms through. The pattern was copied from a 16th century tailor's book and was very tough to understand, requiring about 6 mockups to get it right.
The hat is a bonnet similar to that of Henry VIII. I love that the ostrich feathers can create a shadow effect on Lorenzo's face, mimicking dark tears running down his face.
Making this costume was an awesome adventure, I am very happy with the result, and how much I learned in making it. Special thanks to Marek Chojecki, my model, for his patience, support and availability.
