Roman dress "Gaia"

Hello guys, the end of the month is near and I'm passing these cold winter days sewing a new roman dress.

I found at the local market a beautiful remnant of deep green fabric in synthetic fibres (I think it's polyester) large enough for a dress, and so I bought it with another camouflage fabric. To be honest I wasn't thinking to another roman dress but when I saw the fabric I couldn't resist!

The fabric

To sew this dress you'll need: 

- Fabric 

- Thread 

- Scissor

- A sewing machine, but you can avoid it if you want a more historical look. 

The fabric is soft as silk and the green is simply luscious! I didn't use a pattern so I put the fabric on the floor and I drew by hand the figure of shoulders with a chalk, after measuring my own shoulders. I have a one shoulder tunic already but for this one I wanted something different: I took my inspiration from the Spartacus TV series and I found in the character of  Gaia a nice reference: her dress has a deep V neckline and it's made of light green silk with golden embroidery, and the shape of the cloth seems quite historical.

Gaia

My dress will look like this on the shoulders but the neckline will be less evident and I'll wear a blue tunic as underwear since my fabric is quite see-through. 

The construction of the dress is really simple, so if you're a beginner seamstress like me you won't find it hard. So, after drawing the straps with the chalk I started sewing the hems by hand, finishing them with the sewing machine later for a better look. Then I sewed both sides together and put it on: I'm used to sew clothes a little bit bigger than my real size so I'll have to adjust the dress on my hips in a second moment. 

Particular of the seam

To decorate the shoulders I applied by hand two silver buttons with Medusa's effigy (I'm in love with them!)

The buttons. 

Keep in mind: don't throw away scraps! You can always use them as ribbons or as decorations for your hair if they're big enough :) I'll use mine for the typical roman hairstyle I use during historical fairs. 

I noticed the dresses displayed in Spartacus have many layers of different fabrics but I find this style more fantasy than roman, even if women from upper classes wore dresses made of rich materials and with vivid colours. I hand stitched a hair comb to keep the veil on my head (don't forget this step if you don't want to lose it when you move, my suggestion is to make a braid and then put the hair comb there - a fake braid is good too). 

Total amount: less than 10€, if you're lucky it's a very low budget project!  

Photo by Franco Russo

Una giornata con la Nona Regio

La scorsa domenica ho avuto modo di partecipare a un evento tenutosi nella Cittadella di Alessandria, un luogo che non avevo mai visitato prima d'ora. Sono stata invitata dal gruppo storico romano-ligure Nona Regio a trascorrere con loro una giornata all'insegna della rievocazione storica, quella a 360 gradi: ho partecipato al II raduno multiepocale organizzato dall'associazione locale Aleramica, con un periodo che andava dell'età romana (Nona Regio, appunto) all'età contemporanea. 

A dire il vero avevo già partecipato due volte a un evento simile (ero rievocatrice storica, anni fa) ma mai in qualità di ospite. L'esperienza è stata magnifica e non posso che ringraziare, ancora una volta, la Nona Regio e Walter Siccardi per aver invitato me e consorte a trascorrere un'intera giornata a loro fianco. 

Ma veniamo agli argomenti più femminili ;) Ero un po' dubbiosa riguardo al mio outfit soprattutto a causa del tempo ma, alla fine, ho scelto una tunica rossa con un bordino dorato da abbinare alla stola arancione che ho cucito a mano poco tempo fa, in vista dell'evento. Molto probabilmente il chitone rosso avrebbe riscosso maggior successo per la sua accuratezza storica, ma la temperatura era davvero calda per indossare quel tipo di tessuto. Così mi sono presentata in veste meno filologica e più "fotografica", compensando il tutto con un'acconciatura a tema di cui ho parlato in precedenza proprio su questo blog, ma il risultato è stato apprezzato. Vestita come una sposa (il flammeum era il velo color arancione portato dalle spose romane) ho così accompagnato la Nona Regio anche nel corteo a chiusura della manifestazione, con mio sommo giubilo ;)

E ora passiamo alle fotografie della giornata, sicuramente vi daranno meglio loro l'idea di ciò che abbiamo visto e sentito!

Per maggiori informazioni: 

Nona Regio

RadunoMultiepocaleInCittadella

Shooting: Elysium

Hello there!

I left you last time with a post about my first Roman dress, which I sewed by myself. I hope you found the tutorial quite interesting and easy to be understood :)

Today I'd like to show you pics we managed to take after weeks of rain and cold weather. I was very excited since it was the first "official shooting" with a dress done by myself and I simply love the result! I took the pics just near home, surrounded by this beautiful field of poppies! I got the inspiration for the concept and the title from the classic Roman mythology, I think you heard about Campi Elisi at school or watching "The Gladiator" movie with Russel Crowe ;) The hairstyle of the second picture is inspired by the one of Vestals virgins with a red ribbon all across the head, you can do a braid or a knot to keep your hair up as you prefer; I chose a very soft knot kept up with bobby-pins. The jewellery is always the same of my other Roman shootings, if you have to buy it look for golden-copper tones which look like more authentic and avoid modern shapes. If you wanna do an inspired make-up you can use a black eye-liner (yes, Roman women wore eye-liner but, obviously, this contained other ingredients) or a light blue eye-shadow (historically proved) and a little bit of pink blush on the cheeks. Here I was wearing a not so accurate purple eye-shadow (I had to take other pics after) and a soft touch of blush.

 All pics by Lele Photography www.facebook.com/lelephotos