#renaissance costumes
One Dress a Week Challenge
May: Gold & Silver
Diane / Marisa Pavan as Catherine de Medici
Catherine wears this golden gown with orange and red accents to the climactic tournament, in which she represents the Queen of the Sun (with Diane in black and white as Queen of the Moon). It’s 16th century by way of 1950s Hollywood, but Walter Plunkett did his research and knew he was bending the rules a bit. There’s a great article on his costumes for this movie here.
This dress is usually seen from a distance in the film, which allows us to appreciate its overall design and structure, but I wish there were a few more closeups so we could get good look at the detail! I don’t know if the dress has survived; I couldn’t find any auction records for it, which might provide more documentation. The gloves were auctioned, though, so we can appreciate the beautiful and intricate decoration on them.
One Dress a Week Challenge
May: Gold & Silver
Shakespeare in Love / Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola de Lesseps
I debated whether to call this dress gold/silver or yellow, but I eventually decided it has enough metallic elements to qualify for this month.
Notice that both the inner and outer sleeves are decorated with embroidery! I really like the delicate standing ruff and how it frames her face. The little silver cap is also very pretty.
