Vintage or Vogue: Representing Renaissance Fashion in Media
- tjprewitt
- Feb 16, 2020
- 9 min read
Updated: Apr 21, 2020
Fashionistas Stacy London and Clinton Kelly ambushed style felons nominated by family and friends through the twelve seasons of TLC’s What Not to Wear (2003–15). Offered $5,000 to buy a new wardrobe, the felon has to agree to discard their existing wardrobe and endure the critiques of the two fashion experts. Participants also undergo a grooming courtesy of hairstylist Ted Gibson and cosmetologist Carmindy. What Not to Wear quickly became one of the best reality shows on TLC’s network. Fashion defined the early twenty-first century. In fact, fashion has defined many periods of history, none more so than the Renaissance.
[TLC, 2006]
The sixteenth century in particular became a paragon of Renaissance fashion history. Dress became more than garments; they became statements, symbols, and expressions of status and wealth. Courts changed entire wardrobes if the king commanded so. Textiles became a trade staple, and the fabric of the Renaissance stitched its way across Europe. It has unraveled into modern screens as well. Historical dramas and fiction dominate television and film creating a portal into the past for the audience’s eyes. The intrigue, violence, nudity, and dialogue thrill viewers, but the fashion captures attention. Costuming often wins more awards than the content in the series or film.[1] Yet some of those shows could do with a 360º-mirror courtesy of Stacy and Clinton, reflecting on the historic accuracy of the costuming.
This blog examines Renaissance fashion in modern media, spinning into a niche of the Honors colloquium titled "The European Renaissance in the Modern World." Film and television have turned fashion into a cinematic art, ranging from elaborate gowns in period dramas to sharp suits in political thrillers. Fashion can add depth to a character, indicate a shift in personality, or foreshadow a turn of events. It is no surprise that historical dramas spend large sums of money on costuming alone, imitating their historic roles.[2] Here, 1500s fashion is explored through historical figures, portraiture, and film and television to understand how history is accurately portrayed in media. It adapts the premise of TLC’s show, but instead of critiquing modern fashion, it begins to classify the media’s portrayal of Renaissance fashion as vintage or vogue, accurate or purely entertaining. There are three particular regions or industries undergoing examination: Italy under the Borgia papacy, Tudor England, and the fictional kingdom of Westeros.
The Three Industries:
The Borgia's Italy -
[Promotional Photo for The Borgias (Showtime, 2010)]
Showtime’s The Borgias (2011–-13) is a historical-fiction drama created by Neil Jordan. The series is set in Renaissance Italy and follows the family in their scandalous ascension to the papacy. Cruel but charismatic, the Borgias use bribery, simony, intimidation, and murder in their relentless push for wealth and power in all of Christendom. Jeremy Irons starred as Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492–1503). Fabulously expensive, the series was canceled short of its fourth season, but it won a handful of awards.[3] It takes the Borgia Black Legend and brings it to life, though it breathes a different life into some of its characters.
[Marketing Mock-Up of Ezio Auditore (Ubisoft, 2009)]
The popular Assassin’s Creed video games developed by Ubisoft also feature the Borgias in two of their games. Assassin’s Creed II (2009) follows Ezio Auditore, a Florentine man in the Order of the Assassins, as he avenges his parent’s murder at the hands of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. The sequel – Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (2010) – follows Ezio as he fights Cesare Borgia, the cardinal’s son, during his conquest of the Romagna. The greater quest is to find relics of Eden to prevent the apocalypse in the twenty-first century.[4] The Borgias, as in Showtime’s series, become delicious villains dressed in rich finery on a quest for arcane power.
While Showtime and Ubisoft's portrayal of the Borgias provide audiences with a seedier, darker Italian peninsula, these same audiences can look to art as keys to the past. Portraiture provides unique insight to the fashion of the time period. In the late 1470s, Leonardo da Vinci painted a gorgeous portrait of a Renaissance woman. A brown kirtle laced with blue ribbons covers her body while a ringlet of curls encircles her head. The rear of the portrait details a palm frond, suggesting moral character. A laurel leaf and juniper sprig entwine the frond, intellect and her namesake joining morality. A piece of paper whips around them, reading “Beauty adorns virtue” in Latin.[5] The painting is indicative of nearly all women on the Italian peninsula. Lavish clothing, jewelry, accessories, and cosmetics only scratched the surface. In order to be considered fashionable – thereby beautiful – Renaissance women (and men as well) must be virtuous.[6] Virtue, more than all of the sin seen on screen, was paramount to all other morals in Borgia Italy.
[Above: Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de' Benci (1474), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.]
Sin is more popular than sainthood though, and sometimes, sinful clothing serves as a reminder of this. Cesare and Lucrezia in the Showtime series dress in tight, peek-a-boo clothing, most of which ends up on the floor of some bedchamber in the Vatican. Virtue is boring; vice seems more attractive. Audiences can watch plots unfold on screen, and then players can unfold with the plot in games. Though they may be digital, Cesare and Lucrezia appear as caricatures of their legends in both adaptations.
[Giuseppe Lorenzo Gatteri, Cesare Borgia Leaving the Vatican (1876), Private Collection, Valencia]
The next two blog posts will explore the court of the Borgias and how pleather, corsets, red dyes, and papal gold spellbound audiences. Portraiture presents contemporary audiences with different versions of the Italian world and the Borgia siblings. For additional information on their media portrayal, read The Borgia Family: Rumor and Representation (DeSilva, 2020). For additional information on the Borgia family, read The Borgias: The Rise and Fall of the Most Infamous Family in History (Mallett, 2005).
Tudor England -
[Promotional Photo for The Tudors (Showtime, 2017)]
Showtime’s first foray into Renaissance drama occurred in The Tudors (2007–10), created and written by Michael Hirst a few years before the Borgia drama. The series focused on the early years of King Henry VIII’s reign of England from 1509 to 1547. The history audiences may not be familiar with comes to life, but in all the wrong ways. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays a modern and slim-waisted king, a tragic deviation from previous depictions, historic portraiture, and audience expectations. In fact, sex and scandal harm his entire performance. The series won a number of awards for costuming, but it drew criticism for its historical inaccuracies.[7] Curiously, the show received better reviews for its portrayals of Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon. The show about the king ended up being more about the queens.
[British School, The Field of Cloth of Gold (1545), Hampton Court, England]
Henry created a new church. Henry waged wars. Henry had six wives. But few know that Henry had laws for fashion as well. Stacy and Clinton had strict rules participants in What Not to Wear must adhere to. The same occurred in Tudor England. Sumptuary laws created strict dress codes for citizens that would make modern private schools look lax in comparison. The term sumptuary refers to the sumptuousness, or the excess, of one’s clothing. Henry restricted certain colors and materials to the nobility, allowed for the fining of offenders, and concerned itself with both men and women’s apparel. While it seems ludicrous, the laws prevented young nobles from spending over their means and clarified social classes for courtiers and diplomats. Image was everything in Tudor England, and controlling coin and class allowed for Henry to keep a heavy hand over his kingdom.[8]
After exploring the Borgia's Italy, this blog will see if The Tudors adhered to the strict sumptuary laws outlined by Henry VIII. Since the show wanted to focus on the early days of Henry's reign, this blog will focus on his first wives too. Catherine of Aragon blended Spanish styles with English textiles; her usurper, Anne Boleyn, turned to French fashion. But the latter can appear rather coquettish, borderline burlesque, in the series. And Henry' sleeveless doublets and leather attire is hardly appropriate for the times.
[Above: fan edit of Anne Boleyn + Henry VIII and Cesare + Lucrezia Borgia (Fanpop.com)]
In order to better understand the king and his first two queens, the blog will explore the men and women surrounding Henry. Sumptuary laws effected everyone, especially those closest to the king. For additional information on sumptuary law, read Tudor Fashion (Lynn,2017) and Rich Apparel: Clothing and the Law in Henry VIII's England (Hayward, 2011). For more information on the costuming in the show, read History, Fiction, and The Tudors: Sex, Politics, Power, and Artistic License in the Showtime Television Series (Robison, 2016).
Westeros -
[Promotional Photo for Game of Thrones (HBO, 2019)]
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss based HBO’s global phenomenon Game of Thrones (2011–19) off the best-selling books by George R. R. Martin. The series pits families against families, kings against queens, knights against assassins, and liars against honest people all for control of Westeros and the Iron Throne. The Starks of the North battle the Lannisters who sit on the throne, all while a mysterious magic foments in the frozen tundra. Across the sea rise three dragons and a mighty conqueror hellbent on reclaiming her throne. The series has received more awards than any in history, and it has a fan base numbering into the billions.[9] Many wonder if the series will ever be topped.
[Promotional Photo for Game of Thrones (HBO, 2018)]
While Martin’s novels are based off the historic Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century, the fashion in the series draws on Renaissance motifs. After analyzing the Borgia's Italy and Tudor England, this blog will take its criticism into a world of fiction. Regionalism impacted the fashions of various characters; their homeland dictated their dress. The fur-clad Northerners look different from the silk-spun Dornishmen. The Crownlands have a sumptuary law all of their own. Not to mention that livery and heraldry plays heavily into the symbolism of this show. Lannister lions against Stark direwolves and three-headed dragons of the Targaryens burn the golden roses of Tyrell. Four characters are analyzed to better understand the role of symbolism in their costuming. Michele Clapton, the costume director for the show, details the process of fitting characters to fashion. This final industry draws on themes present in the Italian and Tudor industries, packaging them in dynamic characters. There is a reason why hairstyles change as the show progresses, why the wardrobe darkens as the threats become more real, and why the presence of metal dominates the fashion of Westeros.[10] Some of these are seen in Cesare Borgia, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and other figures analyzed in this blog.
The armored gowns and fur cloaks are clearly vogue, but there is a vintage element to them. In order to understand the regionalism and symbolism in the show, readers need to understand it in history first. For more information on the intricate costuming, read Game of Thrones: The Costumes (Clapton, 2019).
Moving Forward -
[Top Right: promotional photo for The Borgias (Showtime, 2011); Center Right: promotional photo for The Tudors (Showtime, 2009); Bottom Right: promotional photo for Game of Thrones (HBO, 2012)]
Understanding sumptuary law and politics in Tudor England will lend a hand in exploring the king and his first two wives. Henry VIII projected an image of masculine power, and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, projected an image of Catholic piety. But his second wife, Anne Boleyn, projected an image of feminine strength during her short-lived reign and execution. Showtime failed in concerns to historic accuracy in costuming, as readers will soon discover, but did they fail in communicating characterization to audiences?
Understanding symbolism and regionalism in Westeros will lend a hand in exploring four players in the game of thrones. Daenerys Targaryen might be lost overseas, but her desert fatigues are tossed aside for her family’s colors. Cersei Lannister projected dynastic might in King’s Landing, but once she became queen, she projected an image of darkness. Tyrion Lannister, scheming against his sister and servant to his true queen, paints a picture of a conflicted bureaucrat in his costuming and facial hair. Sansa Stark transformed from a mimicking child to a noble leader. After exploring two fashion monoliths, can readers apply this same knowledge to a world of fiction? One might even argue Showtime and Ubisoft presented too much fiction in their adaptations. Did this harm the characters?
All of these questions – and many more – will be answered in What Not to Wear: Renaissance Edition.
Notes:
[1] The Tudors (Showtime) won four Emmys in “Outstanding Costumes for a Series” in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. There were no awards for writers or actors. Likewise, The Borgias (Showtime) won three Emmys in “Outstanding Costumes for a Series” in 2011, 2012, and 2013. There were no awards for writers or actors. Game of Thrones (HBO) won six Emmys in “Outstanding Costumes for a Series” in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. However, the actors, directors, and writers won more awards than the costuming department. For example, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister won nine Emmys out of forty-seven nominations over eight seasons. Information from Emmys. Academy of Television Arts & Series.
[2] For example, Joan Bergin had a total budget of £2.5 million for The Tudors. A reported total of £3.5 million was spent on each episode. Hilary Alexander, “Henry VIII: dressed to kill.” Telegraph. 31 March. 2011. http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8416732/Henry-VIII-dressed-to-kill.html
[3] The Borgias received sixteen nominations and three Emmys over the course of its three seasons. Emmys. Academy of Television Arts & Series.
[4] Amanda Madden, “Requiescat in pace,” in The Borgia Family: Rumor and Representation, ed. Jennifer Mara DeSilva (Routledge: New York, 2020), 278. [5] Lane Eagles, “‘Beauty Adorns Virtue’: Italian Renaissance Fashion.” Fashion History Timeline. State University of New York, January 16, 2018. https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/beauty-adorns-virtue-italian-renaissance-fashion/. [6] Virtue is also explored in Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince. Eagles, “‘Beauty Adorns Virtue’: Italian Renaissance Fashion,” Fashion History Timeline.
[7] The Tudors received fifteen nominations and six Emmys over its four seasons. Emmys. Academy of Television Arts & Series.
[8] Maria Hayward, Rich Apparel: Clothing and the Law in Henry VIIIs England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011), 3.
[9] Game of Thrones received 160 nominations and fifty-nine Emmys over the course of its eight seasons. Emmys. Academy of Television Arts & Series. [10] Michele Clapton, Game of Thrones: The Costumes (San Rafael: Insight Editions), 2019.
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