Although this book is intended more for historians and costumers, the review contained some very interesting aspects of, "not only looking at examples of Rinasceminto fashion, but also "reading" these designs in their cultural context to determine their origins and effect".

Not unlike today, when we "Dress to Impress",... in Florence, they often dressed in enormously expensive fashion, that was "understated" to project the egalitarian ideal of Florentine republicanism.

Sumptuary [Fashion] laws, which I was unaware of, but I should have suspected,
were based on moral, religious, and political grounds, and related to both men and women. The were restrictions on the necklines of women, and I'm supposing in the case of men, the tendency to enhance their manliness in tight fitting pants.

Fashion Police handed out expensive fines.

Exceptions were made for Unmarried Women, and Brides :)

I was somewhat perplexed by the Reviewer/Author's concern for the Florentine bride
bearing up under the onerous burden of being overwhelmed with luxury.:)

Note:I have substituted the more correct "Rinasceminto" term, whenever appropriate.
===================================================
H-NET BOOK REVIEW- Sandra Sider
Published by H-Italy@h-net.msu.edu (June 2004)
[Excerpted by RAA]

_Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families, Fortune, and Fine Clothing_.
Carole Collier Frick.

Divided into three sections of "Guilds and Labor," "Family Honor," and
"Fashion and the Commune," the ten chapters of this fascinating book discuss
tailors, specialty craftspeople, patronage systems, patrons, costs, wedding
outfits, the trousseaux of two sisters, details of clothing, sumptuary
legislation, and fashion in Ghirlandaio's family chapel portraits.

Using Barthean analysis, Frick looked at both the "iconic," or image of the garment,
and the "verbal," or written descriptions...

None of the criticisms, however, detracts from Frick's rigorous scholarship or the
intrinsic value of the book to costume specialists, students of women's
history and material culture, and even today's fashion designers..

The author's goal was to "slice vertically through the rich layers of
Florentine society to understand issues of class relations, identity, and the
honorable self-representation of the elite by studying the complexity of just
getting dressed" (p. 6), with the hope that we might better understand "what
drove its traditional society" (p. 10).  Her method involved not only looking
at examples of Rinasceminto fashion, but also "reading" these designs in their
cultural context to determine their origins and effect.

Tailoring officially was man's work in Florence during the latter fourteenth
and fifteenth century... Costume was controlled almost exclusively by men of the elite class, who not only paid for the ensembles, but also involved themselves very closely in the entire production process, from fabric selection to fitting.

Brides essentially were pawns, with the trousseau from their own family reflecting the wealth and power of their fathers, balanced by the counter-trousseau provided by their husbands for the wedding procession and associated public events.  Funds from the bridal dowry often were used to finance the husband's expenditure for the
counter-trousseau.

Frick's research has revealed some interesting facts pertaining to costume in
Rinasceminto portraiture.  The outwardly drab robes of Antonio Pucci in the
Sassetti Chapel, for example, were valued at fifty florins--an amount that
would have been sufficient to support three individuals for a year in
Rinasceminto Florence.  The _cioppa_, a garment of velvet, silk, or wool, although seemingly modest in appearance the _cioppa_ was actually a very expensive garment.

Frick argues convincingly that Pucci and his confederates purposefully had
themselves portrayed in such robes to project the egalitarian ideal of
Florentine republicanism.  These men owned other, elaborately ornamented
outfits of which we have no visual record.  Pucci himself had a dozen gowns in
several colors and two helmets encrusted with pearls.

Rather than the male family members, the family's unmarried young women were highlighted in Ghirlandaio's frescoes, in finery that usually was pawned or sold after the wedding festivities.

Sumptuary laws [ designed to regulate extravagant personal expenditures and especially to prevent extravagance and luxury, especially on moral or religious grounds ] did not apply to women age sixteen and younger, and brides were exempt during their weddings and for fifteen days thereafter.

Except for younger women and brides, females were accosted on the street by the "fashion police" who handed out fines.  Elaborately ornamented sleeves and necklines were special points of attention.  As Frick points out, the detailed
descriptions of neckline prohibitions in sumptuary law must have been
responding to current offenses.  Women decked out in gold trim, for example,
were fined 100 lire, and the craftspeople who sold it to them were fined 200.
Although women were the targets of most sumptuary legislation, the law of
1472 also included restrictions on male clothing.

Frick's beautifully written text is enriched by the addition of tables,
appendices, and a glossary.  The tables provide information on the changing
affiliations of tailors; clothiers and the seven guilds that controlled them
c.  1415; tailors' demographics; estimated annual earnings; Lorenzo de
Medici's wardrobe expenditures in 1515; pelts used for linings, borders, and
sleeves; and overgowns and linings.  The appendices list currency and
measures, categories of clothiers, the amount of cloth required for selected
garments, and the contents and value of trousseaux for the two Minerbetti
sisters (bride and nun).

The glossary contains some two hundred words in Italian pertaining to cloth, fur, ornamentation, hats, shoes, and the other myriad components of fifteenth-century Florentine fashion.  Frick's thorough treatment of Rinasceminto costume has set a new standard of excellence for scholars working on costume of any age.

Carole Collier Frick. _Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families, Fortune, and
Fine Clothing_. Johns Hopkins University Studies in History Series. Baltimore
and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. xvi + 347 pp. Map,
illustrations, appendices, tables, notes, glossary, bibliography, index.
$45.00 (cloth)

Reviewed for H-Italy by Sandra Sider, Institute of Fine Arts, New York
University