Forbidden Fashions: Invisible Luxuries in Early Venetian Convents

Costume Society of America Series

by Isabella Campagnol Fabretti

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Italy

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2013

Reviews

[Catherine Cronin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a summary of historical research by an Italian textile historian. Her subject is the fashions worn in the convent by the rich daughters of 16th century Viennese noblemen, who were forced to enter convents for economic reasons and to satisfy societal expectations. For these rich families, it was vital to make one good family alliance, which they did by marrying off either their most beautiful or their youngest daughter to the most prestigious groom. Waiting for the youngest daughter allowed the family to accumulate a larger dowry and thus to achieve a more lucrative match. The strategy was to devote most of their resources to this one match, leaving little for the other daughters (or sons). Hence, the remaining daughters would be forced to enter convents, or were simply not brought home from their convent boarding schools. The convents were therefore populated with many rich girls who really did not want to be there and had no particular religious vocation. Many of them rebelled by spending their "dowries" on fashionable, elaborate and sexy clothing.

The control of society over women's lives in this time and place would be a fascinating subject. Unfortunately this treatise focuses only on the clothing. The reader is left to wonder about the other aspects of life. No doubt this research will inspire other research and historical fiction.

[Adelais · Rating 4 out of 5]

В Венеції ніколи не бракувало жіночих монастирів - зокрема й через милу (насправді ні) традицію аристократичних родин віддавати заміж лише одну доньку, а всіх інших в черниці, щоб не розпорошувати сімейне майно та не так сильно витрачатися на посаг. Враховуючи, що суми до посагу тільки зростали, і навіть венеційський уряд, скільки не бився, за кілька століть нічого вдіяти не міг, бо понти - наше все, більшості дівчат заміж не світило взагалі. Посаг черниці коштував менше навіть для дуже престижного монастиря, і родини зітхали з полегшенням, збувши чергову доньку спочатку на таку-сяку освіту, а потім в обітниці назавжди. Дівчат, правда, ніхто власної думки не питав, і великого потягу до релігійного служіння в них не було.
А тому можна влаштувати танці! Так, деякі примудрювалися втікати і на карнавали, і подалі, але в цілому клаузуру тримали, і приходилось вишукувати розваг у господі. А одяг та прикраси - найзручніша штука.
Коротенька гарна книжка про те, як вдягалися і розважали себе дівчата в венеційських монастирях, як сварилися з місцевими церковниками через не занадто чернече вбрання, облаштовували келії та вигризали посаг у родин (і таке траплялося). Ну і якщо є бажання, то й бал можна влаштувати з доставкою додому, прямо в приймальні монастиря і навіть з решітками для відвідувачів.

[Traci Andrighetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous account of fashion in Venetian convents. Although it's history, it's a deliciously scandalous read!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, definitely more curious about convent life for the nuns who did not want to be there.