The names of Italian artists of those days are still extremely famous, e.g. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Fillipo Lippi and Sandro Botticelli, just to name a few.

That does not mean that there are no fabulous lesser-known artists. One of these is Domenico Ghirlandaio who captured scenes of the everyday-life in his works.
 Renaissance gowns are generally floor-long and have wide skirts. They are not longer cut as one-pieces, instead the bodice and skirt are cut separately and then sewn together. The waistline is usually higher than the natural waist.

1. Two Venetian Ladies by Vittore Carpaccio, 1510:

The fine gowns of these two Venetian Ladies are very high-waisted. The two are apparently prosperous – pearls are stitched around their low necklines. The lady in yellow wears a necklace of big pears and the other a heavy silver one. Gold threat is worked in the fabric of the sleeves of the woman playing with the dog and her hem is decorated with golden braid. The lady in yellow has a hem edged with a silver saw-toothed braiding. They indulge in the fashion of slashing, the sleeves have huge cut-outs showing a puffy underdress. Three different ways of slashing can be seen in this painting: small slashes in the bodice of the lady in yellow, huge oval cut-outs in her sleeves and thirdly, the foreground ladies' sleeves which look like just ¾ of a sleeve with edges tied together with ribbons.

2. The “Lucas Cranach dress / the “Saxon gown”:

The great renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder lived from about 1475 to  October 16, 1553. The artist of German origin painted several women who are all wearing a distinctive style of dress.

This style can be studied in the portrait of Saint Mary Magdalene, painted in 1525.

Basically, the elements of this style are

• a slim waist with the help of a tight bodice with a relatively low, square-cut neckline which bares a part of the shoulders, front lacing with black cord

• sleeves that are slashed at several places/consist of several pieces which are connected through a lacing and show the puffy undergarment [baragoni those decorative puffs in the upper sleeve are called]
  
• a wide skirt with organ-pipe pleats
• very colourful and ornamented attire

Two kinds of fabric dominate the gown: purple velvet (infrequently black) and gold brocade. The latter appears as braid along the neckline down to the waist, as ribbon on the sleeves and in three levels at the lower skirt. Approximately in the middle of the skirt the first and narrowest level is placed. The next level, twice as broad, is located at about a quarter of the skirts length over the hem. The broadest, three time as wide as the narrowest, is at the hem. The measuring of the levels in whole-numbered multiples should create an air of harmony. When notional dividing the space from the front neckline down to the waist in two, the lower half is the lacing. One can see the white under-gown. The upper half is a rectangle of the same gold brocade or other fabric; usually gold or red, too, and embroidered with stitching and pearls (squiggled floral motives or geometric patterns like the diamond pattern). The back of these gowns is in general square-cut and relatively low.

In Lucas Cranach the Elder's painting "Hunting near Hartenfels Castle", 1540, there are curious variations of this style. The sleeves differ but also the colours: two ladies (one standing on a boat, the other on the left shooting a crossbow) are dressed in the Saxon style but in black and a soft yellow or cream, instead of red and gold. Perhaps the strong contrast is a security measure, to be distinctly visible in a hunt can be life-saving. Another woman rowing a boat is dressed all in a cold silverish shade of blue.

3. Eleanor de Toledo's style of dress:
 

Eleanor de Toledo (ital. Eleonora di Toledo) was the wife of Cosimo I de'Medici. As her name suggests she was born in Toledo, a province in central Spain. In 1539, aged 17 years, she was married to the future ruler of Florence and brought an immense dowry with her. Her father, viceroi of Spain, had tried to persuade Cosimo in vain to take the elder daughter with an even larger fortune as a wife. Cosimo, however, wanted to marry the younger Eleonora, whom he had seen some time before and liked well. It is reported that he remained faithful to her througout their marriage.

Around the year 1545, Angolo Bronzino painted Eleanor and her son Giovanni. Eleanor is clad in a gown of voided velvet (velvet with satin background). Her sleeves in the portrait with her son are quadratically in profile.

The slashing reached new heights here: Her sleeves consist each of four tapes of fabric held together by many gemmed little brooches to form a sleeve.

Her bodice is tight and and conceals every form that nature placed there. It reaches from the square-cut neckline to the waist. The gown is relatively high-cut and a golden net stretches over shoulders.

Shoes:

Usually, the delicate footwear of the ladies was hidden under heavy floor-long skirts. In the renaissance, the high heel became a fashionable attribute: in the year 1533, the small Caterina de'Medici, Princess of Urbino, came from Italy to France to marry the Duke of Orleans. She wore high heels to appear taller and many female members of the French Court soon copied this fashion (Italian heel). In the following time the women wore shoes with more than 10cm (8 inches) heels, quite similar to modern stilettos. In general, ladies wore delicate footwork suiting their feet. The cow-mouth-shoe, however, that had come up towards the end of the middle-ages was still in fashion.

By the end of the 15th century, another style of footwear had arisen: the so called Chopines. Those platform shoes had their origins in the pattens. The Chopines' soles were made of cork trimmed with fabric which, at their zenith, had a sole height up to 75cm (circa 30 inches). This fashion was most popular among patrician women in Venice and the higher the shoe, the higher the social rank of its wearer. With the consequence that the ladies needed up to two maids to balance along the streets.

Beauty:

A high forehead was considered an expression of prudence and consequently the front hair was removed (plucked or shaved). The hair line thus wandered up the head some centimetres. Fair hair was a beauty goal and brought women with darker hair outside, where they let the their hair bleach in the sunlight. For a short period of time a strawberry blond/ginger/auburn kind of tone was desired (called Titian red). These looks were supported/created by bleaching with inter alia chamomile or by using henna.

The hairdos became increasingly elaborate and unique to each wearer. Generally, there were two primary styles: on the one hand, the curly hair was parted in the middle and fell down on the shoulders while the top layer of the hair was twisted into a bun at the back of the head [seen in Ghirlandaio's portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni]. On the other hand, there were the Roman inspired plaited/braided coiffures [seen in Botticelli´s "Simonetta Vespucci"].

Renaissance portraits show braids arranged in many, many ways and styles. Not seldom, hair-pieces had to be added as the own hair was not enough for the opulent hairdos. Young (unmarried) women and girls wore their hair flowing loosely over their shoulders or twisted or braided with ribbons and pinned up. Curly hair, thanks to iron hair curlers heated in the fire, was universally fashionable.
The Balzo was an opulent headpiece which first came up in the early 15th century in Italy, looking much like a turban or a large circle or half-moon around the head. It was made of wire, padding and hard-wearing linen like buckram, covered with precious fabrics, pearls, braid and fur.

To the  “Saxon gown”, on the on hand a hairnet of gold and pearls can be worn. The other variant is a great cap of red fabric called cap or Barett (alike to men's).
Eleanor de Toledo wears her hair in a hairnet decorated with pearls or gemstones. Hairnets, or the less sheer hairbags, were major elements in Renaissance fashion for the head. On the one hand, they covered the hair decently (the hairbag) or at least kept it bundled. Adornment didn't stop from them. Consequently, especially hairnets used to be decorated with silver or gold thread, pearls and gemstones. A variant is a hairnet or -bag sitting at the back of the head, held in place by a ribbon or band around the forehead. To this, a long artificial plait (wrapped in fabric and enwound with braid) is attached.

Jewellery:

The nobles and the increasingly rising middle class wore jewellery (except from the stylish aspect) to show their wealth. Rings were very popular and several were worn on each hand. Astonishingly, looking at various renaissance portraits, you can see the pictured personswearing rings not only third phalanx (like today) but also on the second. Meanwhile this fashion is experiencing a revival in the so-called Midi-rings.

An interesting thing is the so called marriage pendant. This pendant made of gold contained two gems above another – a blue one (diamond, the upper stone) and a red one (probably ruby, the lower one). Attached to the pendant which was worn on a silver or coral necklace are three pearls. The latter necklace was believed to increase fertility. The “marriage pendant”, as the name suggests, showed the coverture of the female (kind of like the relationship status in social networks today). It was bought or lent for the marriage and also pictured in the portraits of the woman.

In portraits of women wearing the “Saxon gown”, they are wearing huge plain coil chains, great golden and gem-studded collars and finer golden necklaces.

Patterns:

• Burda 7171
• Butterick 4571 (dresses)
• McCall's 2806
• McCall's 4107 (Renaissance top with several sleeves)
• McCall's 5444
• Simplicity 5582
• Simplicity 7096
• Simplicity 7097
• Simplicity 8735 (Italian style Renaissanc dresses; out of print)
  
• Simplicity 9531 (COSTUME COLLECTION) (Italian style dresses; high-waisted and puffed sleeves)
  

 - Please note that this list claims no completeness and does not operate as advertisement. It was merely composed for informative purposes. Furthermore, no valuation of the patterns is implied or intended -