… a Spanish noblewoman and Duchess of Florence as the first wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici.

Eleanor (11 Jan 1522 – 17 Dec 1562) was born as Doña Leonor Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio. She was the first modern “First Lady” because she financed many of her husband’s political campaigns and buildings like the Pitti Palace. She ruled as regent of Florence during husband’s frequent absences. She also founded many Jesuit churches.

Eleanor`s portraits may give us assumption that she is cold and serious. Now we know that she was sick most of her adulthood. All her health problems were caused by a significant calcium deficiency. We can see her wearing leather glow on her left hand on her later portraits. Also a handkerchief in her hand appears on many of her portraits.

She was very fashion-conscious. Even her dress had simple silhouette with no extravagance embellishments and look very similar to each other, her dress were made of gold and silver weaved fabrics. Her accessories were pearls – she wore pearl necklaces, earrings, headdress. Also her dress – sleeves and partlets are decorated with pearls.

When she was 40 years old, she got sick of malaria and died because of it. Her funeral dress were restored and they are displayed in Galleria del Costume in Florence. The skirt was cut with train and with the bodice is embellished with a lace.

The dress were recreated and the final result you can see on the picture on the right.

When I was looking for any Renaissance dress on internet, my eye caught a portrait of a little girl in a dress silhouette as adults have. And suddenly I was interested in to look for more children’s portraits. At first I was very amazed that little children, even in age of one are dressed as adults … I am asking myself why …

Little children, specially from royal families or aristocratic families, were prepared and taught to behave as adults right from their childhood. Their parents wanted to have the right heir and successor to the throne or the head of the family. There was not much space to play around with other children. The education and good manners were on the first place. Also it needed to be shown to the public that the child was born to aristocratic or royal family.

One small interesting was that little boys were dress as the girls … “the boy worn in dress” …? Why was that? There was one reason. As a male was always the heir of the family name (and also fortune), a female had to married. He needed to be hidden from murderers and kidnappers and the best solution was to pretend that a girl was born.

Another interesting thing I have noticed were folded skirts on girl`s dress. My personal opinion is that the dress were made longer to be worn for more than a few months. Children and teenagers tend to grow fast and when a girl get higher the skirt could be unfolded and the dress could be worn for another year.

Would you like to dress your child as an adult?