Fashion in the paintings

As people our aim is always to improve our culture or technology and to go further and further. However we like the old at the same time. The term “vintage” is very popular nowadays. So many people prefer vintage jewelry, clothing, shoes and even furniture. However for us the vintage means mostly the 1960’s, 50’s or maybe 20’s. How about visiting much earlier times?

I decided to make a little search on the fashion of the women of the great artists. It is important to see the depths of the paintings because they give you many aspects of the time. Today I will look at some paintings from the aspect of fashion… Let's imagine that we have those clothes today. What kind of changes would you do?

The Italian painter Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the artists who depicted many beautiful women in his paintings. Let’s start with La Belle Ferroniere. This is a painting attributed to Da Vinci or his school, dating back to the years 1495–1499. We can’t see the whole dress here. However it is clear that it is a long red dress. We wouldn’t wear such a dress in our “modern” day but the upper part could be used a nice top. 

The square cut on the breasts make women look elegant. And it is possible to use large necklaces with such cuts. The ribbons around the shoulders could be used to decorate t-shirts and shirts as well.

  

“Lady with an Ermine” has the same kind of cut on the top of the dress.

Sandro Botticelli is one of my favourite artists. I find the painting “The Birth of Venus” fascinating. Here it is not possible to talk about any outfit of Venus because she is naked. But the woman on the right who tries to cover her has a nice dress if you look carefully.

Take the white long sleeve top under the dress out and that is a nice dress to be worn in summer days with open shoes or in winter with long boots and a cardigan over it. We can adapt any past outfit to our day with little changes.

 

The same is valid for the yellow dress on the left in that painting “The return of Judith to Bethulia”. The style of the arms is really different. 15^th century is a treasure for fashion. 

A lady of Raphael. I added that painting too because I love the necklace there. Ruby, gold and pearl are a great combination.

The women of Renoir have a great understanding of fashion also. Last year I had visited an exhibition called “Impressionism and Fashion” in Paris in Musee d’Orsay where you could see the original dresses in the paintings of some artists. I had tried imagining there which of them we could wear today… It was a nice experience to see both he original paintings and the dresses...

The dress on the “Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary” is still can be used as a night dress in a ball or wedding. But I could cut out the tail…

And that is a cute little girl dress from the painting (Railroad) of Eduard Manet. 

Again by Manet (A bar at the Folies-Bergere)...

 

The style of the upper part of the jacket of the barmaid could be used in our day too. Actually the cut reminds me the dresses of the women of Da Vinci...

 

I would be happy to hear from you as well. On which paintings do you see your dream dresses or jewelry?