anotheranon | Spanish costume musings

This week, Netflix supplied me with Juana la Loca (US title: Mad Love). I rented it as inspiration for Spanish costume research and the quick/easy way to get some of the history (which I'm familiar with in passing, though only an overview).

Well, quick/easy DOES lead to the dark side :P I do not know how historically accurate the clothing in the film was, but I want it to be accurate because I think it would look good on me, being red and gold (lots of red and burgundy)/dark blue and gold variations on the Tudor/Elizabethan styles that I love except for the colors (tawney and russet look good on redheads, or blondes :P). Real Research with books and paintings etc. will of course continue.

The history seems to have been an afterthought - the narrative is a fairly straightforward tale: young girl falls in love with philandering husband, goes crazy with jealousy and is put away - which is roughly what DID happen, but somehow I suspect many years of nuance were buried under the brocade. My modern feminist eye sees a woman who was deemed crazy because 1) she liked having sex with her husband, and 2) got pissed and complained when he cheated on her, but again, this story is far from comprehensive.

As is usual when I'm researching a costume I'm getting interested in the history of the time/place it came from, and am cruising local libraries to see what I can find. There are some interesting titles in print, but, alas, not in the public libraries, but I'm too tired to work up an effective search elsewhere. Tomorrow is another day </scarlett>

Tangential - I find I sign myself off "tired" in here more often than not, which isn't actually a reflection of overall lack of energy but more of the multiple directions in which I send myself, which means by the time I sit down to write something I've been goin'/doin' for quite awhile.