Forbidden Fashions: Invisible Luxuries in Early Venetian Convents (Costume Society of America Series)

Form-fitting dresses, silk veils, earrings, furs, high-heeled shoes, make up, and dyed, flowing hair. It is difficult for a contemporary person to reconcile these elegant clothes and accessories with the image of cloistered nuns. For many of the some thousand nuns in early modern Venice, however, these fashions were the norm. Often locked in convents without any religious calling—simply to save their parents the expense of their dowry—these involuntary nuns relied on the symbolic meaning of secular clothes, fabrics, and colors to rebel against the rules and prescriptions of conventual life and to define roles and social status inside monastic society. Calling upon mountains of archival documents, most of which have never been seen in print, __Forbidden Fashions__ is the first book to focus specifically upon the dress of nuns in Venetian convents and offers new perspective on the intersection of dress and the city’s social and economic history. Focuses On The Dress Of Nuns In Early Modern Venetian Convents; Investigates The Intersection Of Dress And The City's Social And Economic History: Includes Illustrations--provided By Publisher-- Machine Generated Contents Note: Ch. 1 Maridar O Monacar, To Marry Or To Become A Nun? Nuptial Strategies In The Venetian Aristocracy -- Ch. 2 Weddings And Clothings: A Comparison -- Brides -- Political And Symbolic Marriages: The Doge And The Abbesses Of The Monastero Delle Vergini -- Sponsa Christi -- Ch. 3 Nuns And Fashion -- Religious Habits ... -- ... And Forbidden Fashions -- Beauty Secrets -- Carnival: Masks, Disguises, And Theatrical Costumes For Nuns -- Converse, Donne Delle Monache, And Foreign Nuns -- Almost Nuns: Soccorse, Widows, Pizzocchere, And Orphans -- Ch. 4 Textiles, Embroideries, And Laces In The Convent -- Lacework In Venice: A Brief Outline -- Invisible Seamstresses -- Cloistered, But Secular, Seamstresses -- Ch. 5 Conclusions. Isabella Campagnol. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "Form-fitting dresses, silk veils, earrings, furs, high-heeled shoes, make up, and dyed, flowing hair. It is difficult for a contemporary person to reconcile these elegant clothes and accessories with the image of cloistered nuns. For many of the some thousand nuns in early modern Venice, however, these fashions were the norm. Often locked in convents without any religious calling-simply to save their parents the expense of their dowry-these involuntary nuns relied on the symbolic meaning of secular clothes, fabrics, and colors to rebel against the rules and prescriptions of conventual life and to define roles and social status inside monastic society. Calling upon mountains of archival documents, most never before seen in print, Forbidden Fashions is the first book to focus specifically upon the dress of nuns in Venetian convents. It offers a new perspective on the intersection of dress and social and economic history of this time and place."--Rabat de la jaquette