I think I want shoulder ruffs

I also think I adore Francesco Montemezzanno. Most of the very late period portraits I've found that I want to make anything from seem to be either him or Veronese with one of two Robusti thrown in. The one up top is one of Montemezzano's. The image is from the Federico Zeri Foundation online photograph library at the University of Bologna. It is tentatively listed as a portrait of Eleanora Gonzaga. Regardless of who it is, the dress is gorgeous.

The Maggi illustration is dated 1571. It has the falling ruff and is too early for shoulder ruffs. I really think I want to push things a little later though and go crazy and do the full blown standing ruff with the shoulder ruffs even as I keep the Maggi color scheme. As most people who know me know, I'm not really a subtle person. The giant open ruff with accessory ruffs is rather appealing. Maybe even going larger than the Montemezzano and doing stacked ruffs or a supportasse. I have absolutely no idea how I will accomplish it, but as I am out on a ledge anyway with the dress design and fit, adding crazy accessories seems the way to go. Also, as I have found with my giant Russian hats, if you are wearing something like that no one really looks at the rest of your outfit much.

I'm not sure I can do the spiral sleeve if I do the shoulder ruffs though and I kind of love them. On the other hand, the Montemezzano has a beautiful stomacher type insert which could bring the blues in if I were to do it right. I'd also get to play with buttons and tab tops to the sleeve if I followed the Montemezzano. It still has the squared guards so the dress itself is pretty similar. For that matter I could do two sets of sleeves and a falling ruff and wear it without a stomacher or the shoulder ruffs and have 2 different looks with one dress. That is certainly an idea. . .