We have been all over the Starz TV miniseries adaptation of a Philippa Fucking Gregory book, The Spanish Princess. This production purports to tell the story of Catherine of Aragon, the Spanish princess who married first Arthur, Prince of Wales in 1501 and then Henry VIII, King of England in 1509 — the first decade of the 1500s. We previewed the costumes, did a deep analysis of Catherine’s wedding dress, recapped every episode, and discussed how much the production fucked up the actual history (hint: really, really badly). Well, now we need to turn to an in-depth analysis of the costumes. Today we’re going to look at the Spanish styles worn by Catherine, her sister Queen Juana of Castile (aka Juana la Loca), and her ladies-in-waiting. Stay tuned for another post where we’ll look at the English styles.
For an expert analysis, we turned once again to Kate Newton, Mestressa Beatriz Aluares de la Oya in the SCA, who has spent years studying late 15th/early 16th century Spanish costume, and who offered her expertise to our post about Queen Isabella of Castile’s wardrobe in 1492: Conquest of Paradise. Kate admits she hasn’t been watching The Spanish Princess, just watching in horror from afar, so I sent her a number of images of the Spanish characters and asked her to weigh in on what the show got right and wrong.
Kate writes:
I have one overarching problem with nearly all of the Spanish fashions in the show, and that is that none of it is really contemporaneous for Catherine of Aragon or her sister Juana of Castile. Catherine of Aragon was born in 1485 and was Queen of England from 1509 to 1533. Juana was born in 1479 and was Queen of Castile from 1504 and Aragon from 1516. The bulk of the Spanish-coded clothing in the show would have been more appropriate for their mother, Isabella of Castile, than for either girl to wear in their young womanhood.
Major problems include:
5. The Underwear
Catherine’s undies are pretty easy to pick apart. It looks like she’s wearing some sort of Victorian-esque combinations or chemise under her corset and hoop, as well as a bum roll that’s more visible in the lower side shot. As far as costume historians are aware, the Spanish didn’t wear corsets until well out of the Renaissance [Kendra adds: nor were they some kind of woven ribbon craft project]. Also, while the Spanish wore hoops, aka farthingales in English or verdugados in Spanish, these boned skirts were meant to be seen.
Another complaint I have with this farthingale/verdugado is that it’s too conical — most of the Spanish imagery shows boned skirts that are more bell-shaped.
The above image shows the boned verdugado worn as an exterior garment, and demonstrates the narrow bell shape of the skirts. The roundness at the top of the skirt is probably formed by fabric tension rather than a bumroll or pad.
These images of Rosa show a couple of things that the show gets almost right. The enormous chemise and the stomacher with lacing can both be seen in period images like the following; however, the camisa sleeves were usually open at the wrist and would not have been gathered to a ruffle at the neck [Kendra adds: okay, I hated these chemises on screen, and ranted about them in my recaps; I stand corrected].
Further, the stomacher would more likely have been laced under the over dress rather than to it, although there are exceptions to this.
4. The Windmill Dress AKA Catherine’s Halloween Costume
sigh This dress makes me so mad because it’s such a fascinating style, and they’ve just completely stuffed it up. The skirts are most likely a misinterpretation, but I have no idea where they got the bodice. The whole thing looks angular and weird, and it’s too damn short. Ankles. We don’t have any.
My guess is that it’s based on this:
The image is of a female demon (hence the duck feet) wearing a verdugado with a paned overskirt [Kendra adds: in other words, there is an overskirt cut in multiple wide strips, you can see two at the center front here, and one on the side, so this would probably have at least six panes or panels]. You can see all the typical features of Hispano-Flemish clothing: the boned skirt, separable sleeves, full camisa, paned overskirt, and soft fabric belt.
The interpretation pisses me off because this is probably my favorite outfit. Even with the duck feet, which probably would have improved the TV version considerably.
3. Juana the Unfashionably High-Waisted
These super short bodices are atrocious. They’re much better suited to Romeo and Juliet than to anything that came out of Spain. I have one wild guess — the costumer may have looked at a painting of Spanish people painted by someone who was not Spanish, like the following:
This image represents an event that occurred in 1492. As you can see, the waistline of the dress is actually a little above the natural waist and not up under the bust. So yeah, creative license.
All of Juana’s dresses hurt my head. And would someone please cover these ladies’ heads? Good lord.
2. These Skirts Are a Pane in the Butt
I do not understand these splits. The Spanish had paned skirts, as seen in previous examples, but these are so wide, and I’ve never seen only two splits. Usually there are four to eight panes or just a front split. I’ve also never seen a gown like the one on the right — it looks like the front and back are cut identically, and that’s just not a thing. Either that or her head is on backwards [Kendra adds: note that THE BODICE IS ALSO CUT WITH A V OPENING, OVER A BACK STOMACHER, WHICH IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS].
IT’S CROOKED WHY ARE THE STRIPES SO LOPSIDED?? They should be straight, because bands like that cover the reeds that give the verdugado its shape. In these examples, there’s some sort of understructure that is letting the underskirt float freely, and that combined with the weird split in the back is causing the underskirt to crumple and collapse. Stupid, sloppy, and lazy.
1. The Fabric Choices
Boy, they really cleaned out the home decor section of Jo-Ann’s with this show, didn’t they? I don’t think I’ve seen so much Moroccan print since the last time I searched Pinterest. It lends a nice, exotic touch to the clothing and definitely codes these ladies as “foreign,” but there’s not much basis in history.
And, Before You Think We’re Too Judgy…
A couple of things that I do like:
- A diverse cast. Spain was not a monolith of whiteness; its history as a meeting ground for Moors, Christians, and Jews as well as a varied ethnic background meant that medieval and Renaissance Spain was much more diverse than most modern people think. It would not have been terribly unusual to see people of African descent, Arabic descent, and a wide range of hair and eye colors throughout the population.
- Most depictions of Catherine and Juana, as well as some contemporary writings, note that the girls were both auburn-haired with fair skin and light eyes. I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone cast a redhead as Katherine before, and I wish they had carried that through to Juana as well.
Watch for an analysis of the English costumes coming soon! Massive thanks to Kate for her expertise and time.
“It would not have been terribly unusual to see people of African descent, Arabic descent” – but perhaps not so close to the royal family, given Fernando and Isabel’s ethnic/religious policies… They expelled the Jews and forced conversions on the Moriscos (eventually expelled in early 1600s). ‘Diverse casting’ is an attempt to make deeply intolerant characters look better to modern audiences.
As a descendant of Maranos I personally find the fantasy inclusive Spain offensive given said ancestors were eventually forced to flee their native land to escape persecution.
Yeah, it was hard to watch the scene where Catherine tells Arthur about how the Moors are heathens and yet she respects their culture as it’s a part of her culture. Because, actually, what she’s saying is in some ways true but only on a subconscious level — no 16th c. Spanish Catholic would be caught dead saying what she said!
Well, because it was not their culture. Of course, that’s a 21st century licence to look inclusive. So no, it is not true in any way. The two cultures were in contact, and had some minor influence on one another, at time Christians showed respect and even admiration for muslim culture, but not because it was part of their culture at all The same hapoened the other way around. If she trully said so in the show, the show is even more stupid than I already thought it was.
Those times were actually not so diverse as people would like them to be. Most of the population, muslims included, were natives, only a minority if the population were Northafricans, and the elites were mostly natives, a few arabs, and a few north Africans. But “foreign” groups were always a minority. Black Africans were mostly slaves and eunuchs. Ethnicity wise, there was either Christian or Muslims culture, minority groups, including the jews, just adapted to any of those. In terms of “race”, most people would be native spanish, and some north africans, most of them already mixed with the native population. Arabs were a tiny minority, the elite, so mixed with natives that they were more native than arabs, really. And subsaharian africans were also a small minority most of which were slaves. So no as ethnicaly diverse as people want to make it to be.
Exactly. Most Spaniards back them were of the same ethnicity: a mix of native peoples (celts, iberians) and Romans. It was only the elites that might have different ethnicity: the Christian nobility descended from the Visigoths (Germanic people) and the Muslim elites were North-African or Arabic.
You all have a lot of Spanish history to learn! Actually, Isabella (the Catholic Queen) loved wearing Muslim fabrics and fashion, and she had several Muslim and Jewish advisors in her court. You really should learn more about the era.
Muslims conquered Spain first (the Christian Visigothic kingdom that lasted for 300 years and was the most advanced kingdom in Western Europe at the time—rings a bell?), and the Christian kingdoms that remained tried to recover their lost land during 800 years.
During this very long period, there were wars betwen Muslims and Christians, yes, but Muslims and Christians would also often ally against other Christian kingdoms, etc, according to political strategies. So it’s not as simple as you think.
By the way, Muslims weren’t perfect either. They did their own fair share of killing, plundering and raping. When people think of Muslim Spain they think of the Cordoba Caliphate (which was culturally very advanced), but that only lasted for a couple of centuries. The rest of the time, there were many tiny Muslim kingdoms that fought amongst themselves and often allied with the Christian kingdoms against other Muslims. They would also pillage Christian cities and even the cathedral of Santiago. So don’t make the common mistake of thinking, “Oh, Christians were super bad and Muslims were good.” History is way more complicated than that. And Isabella admired the Muslim Kindgom of Granada.
If you want to understand the reasons why the Catholic Monarchs conquered Granada or vanished the Jews (by the way, England vanished them too, two centuries earlier, and all other Western countries did too), then you should read actual history books and stop simplifying everything.
The ironic part is that I teach classes on female pirates in this time period and one of my favorites, Sayyida al Hurra, was forced to flee from Spain during the siege of Grenada in 1492. The Spanish culture was very Eurocentric and looked the Jewish and Moorish people as “Christ killing heratics.” In the zeal to rid Spain from the non-Christian threats, they destroyed valuable libraries which set back medical research by centuries.
Sorry, but Christians just dind’t go around destroying medical books. They actually kept them.Spanish culture did not look the Jews and Muslims as “Christt killing heretics”, though they certainly did not like them, just like they didn’t like the Christians either. And Muslims were certainly a real threat to Spain, I don’t understand why we should blame Spaniards considering them so.
Exactly! Google “Escuela de Traductores de Toledo” to see how Christian translators from the 13th century did an amazing job of translating thousands of classical works from Arabic to Latin and Spanish. Many of these works were by Classical authors (like Aristotle) but others were by Muslim authors, philosophers, doctors etc. So please stop repeating the same false cliches over and over!
Spain was certainly multi racial but not egalitarian. Moors and Jews were persona non grata and dark skin was not admired. There were no Moorish or African nobles. Those included in Catherine’s retinue were relatively menial.
Roxana, do you have any sources I can check on this statement? I’ve seen conflicting reports on whether Moor noblewomen existed in Katharine of Aragon’s household; some sources (mostly online articles, I can’t afford the $150 book on the topic) state that Catalina Cordones was a Moor noblewoman, others believe she was a slave.
Catalina Cordones and Catalina the bed maker were two different women, the former a blue blooded noblewoman the latter an Ethiopian slave. I googled the name
You all have a lot of Spanish history to learn! Actually, Isabella (the Catholic Queen) loved wearing Muslim fabrics and fashion, and she had several Muslim and Jewish advisors in her court. You really should learn more about the era.
Muslims conquered Spain first (the Christian Visigothic kingdom that lasted for 300 years and was the most advanced kingdom in Western Europe at the time—rings a bell?), and the Christian kingdoms that remained tried to recover their lost land during 800 years.
During this very long period, there were wars betwen Muslims and Christians, yes, but Muslims and Christians would also often ally against other Christian kingdoms, etc, according to political strategies. So it’s not as simple as you think.
By the way, Muslims weren’t perfect either. They did their own fair share of killing, plundering and raping. When people think of Muslim Spain they think of the Cordoba Caliphate (which was culturally very advanced), but that only lasted for a couple of centuries. The rest of the time, there were many tiny Muslim kingdoms that fought amongst themselves and often allied with the Christian kingdoms against other Muslims. They would also pillage Christian cities and even the cathedral of Santiago. So don’t make the common mistake of thinking, “Oh, Christians were super bad and Muslims were good.” History is way more complicated than that. And Isabella admired the Muslim Kindgom of Granada.
If you want to understand the reasons why the Catholic Monarchs conquered Granada or vanished the Jews (by the way, England vanished them too, two centuries earlier, and all other Western countries did too), then you should read actual history books and stop simplifying everything. ;)
I’d have given everything to see someone with duck feet!
<3 you, Kate!
To be completely honest, as hilarious as the windmill dress is, I thought it could have been meant as a kind of avant garde design choice… but in that case it really doesn’t fit with the rest of the costumes. I like that the windmill look is a bit more structured and feels less nightgowny than many of the other dresses, but that also makes it stand out a lot more than if all the women had been wearing oddly ornamental dresses. Also funny, I knew a girl in high school whose last name was the Dutch word for farthingale (‘verdegaal’), we always assumed it was some sort of bird but it turned out to be 500 year old fashion!
Lastly, what’s up with the White Queeniverse and interpreting late medieval hair as ‘loose with two messy Leia buns over the ears’?
Ok the Dutch last name is hilarious!
I was told by a Dutch friend that before Napoleon conquered the Netherlands and incorporated them into his empire in 1811 the Dutch had no regular system of family surnames, so one son might tag the home town on to his name for identification purposes, another use a patronymic, a third use a nickname, and so on. Napoleon, who liked tidying things up, ordered everyone in the Netherlands to adopt a permanent, inheritable family name; the Dutch assumed the French occupation wouldn’t last long (which in fact it didn’t) and many of them picked silly names as a form of civil resistance – and were dismayed to find, when Napoleon was finally packed off to St Helena, that they were stuck with them.
Windmill dress? I call it the Queen of Hearts cause it straight out a drug filled wonderland!
On the topic of underwear, what about that weird “hippy smock” in Kendra’s words that Lina wears under her dress in that one episode? It looked like a modern camisole.
First of all, I would like to thank her ladyship for the insightful review of the clothes worn Spanish ladies of Princess Catalina’s retinue, and those worn by Her Highness.
I have a question, if Spain’s noblewoman didn’t wear corsets, what did they wear instead?
I have a theory that the seamstresses who made the verdugado had their glasses taken away to sew such wavy stripes.
What I wouldn’t mind seeing is an adaptation of Alison Weir’s historical novels on the Six Wives. Catherine has red strawberry blonde hair on cover and Prince Henry is a boy not a weirdly infatuated almost paedophilic relationship PFG writes. But that’s not a costume problem, so I won’t dwell on it.
My second question has to do with Juana Duchess of Burgundy’s wardrobe? What would have been something that the Burgundian court would have worn? Definitely not a copy of either Danilo Donati’s Romeo and Juliet costumes, but how close would they have been to Gabriella Pescucci’s The Borgias? Holy Roman Emperor Maxmillian invaded Lombardy as he too had a claim on the Duchy. Emperor Max was Duke Philip’s father and Juana’s father-in-law.
In pre-corset eras (which is generally pre-late-16th-century), in most areas, women generally wore boned, stiffened, and/or structured gowns which did at least some of the support that corsets would later do.
Thanks.
Busks
My guess is that the reason they wouldn’t have cast another redhead as Juana is that you then run the risk of audiences confusing the two characters. I feel like casting directors like to have the main ensemble of a show look fairly different from each other so that viewers aren’t like “wait so this redhaired princess and that other redhaired princess.. they’re two different princesses? confusingggggggg” and then change the channel.
If you watch any show, you’ll notice that they tend to aim for relative diversity in at least hair color and often overall look, among the leads. Especially if there are multiple featured characters the audience is supposed to be paying close attention to. For example the daughters on Downton Abbey are two brunettes and a redhead, Gentleman Jack has Anne Lister and Ann Walker with brown vs. blond hair (and Anne L’s sister also has notably light brown vs. dark brown hair and looks physically pretty different from Anne L), Killing Eve has the Asian-Canadian dark haired Eve and the white blond Villanelle. Etc. etc. etc. If they’re open to the cast looking pretty samey, they’re not very worried about whether the audience can tell them apart.
Good Lord the Hat Choices! You do see pudding caps for small children in the 18th century, but not in the early 1500’s! PS: I would like to see them adapt Alison FUCK YEAH Weir’s six Tudor Queens series instead of PFG’s Shitorical books!
Didn’t Annette Crosbie in the Six Wives of Henry VIII have reddish hair? Looked so to me
You’re right! I should have added that as a note. I did break down all the previous Catherines here, specifically looking at hair color: https://frockflicks.com/ranking-catherine-aragon-screen/
You’re right. And the best Catherine to date, in my humble opinion.
Gillian, I agree that Crosbie was great, but I really thought Maria Doyle Kennedy’s performance of Katherine in The Tudors was excellent. She was dignified, smart, and proud of what was due her, without being Victorian and whiny, as she is often portrayed. The black hair was dumb, but not a surprise. And the costumes, of course, but there were some high quality performances.
About the Moroccan prints: I don’t think these people are aware that Morocco isn’t part of Spain.
I don’t suppose there is any chance that Mestressa Beatriz has made a reproduction of her favourite paned hooped gown (with or without duck feet) for SCA wear? And if so, could she be persuaded to favour us with a picture of it? Please?
Portugal and Spain were (and are) two independant countries at the time, in fact, historical rivals. Fashions could eventually be similar, but definitely not the same, you can see it in a lot of period paintings. Although neighbouring countries, the culture evolved independantly. Stop treating Portugal as a Spanish province, which happened only for a very short period, when there was a crisis in the Royal succession. And that was after this.
I get that this is an article meant to critique the accuracy of the show’s costumes. But a lot of the choices in costume are not meant to be completely accurate anyway! I think its important to keep in mind that most of these kinds of shows are not meant to be reenactments, documentaries, and are not geared towards historians in the first place. So while this is super informative, and exactly what I was looking for (season 2 is coming soon, and I’m studying this period of British history in college so..), I think you’re being overly critical. Its filmed for entertainment purposes only, loosely follows a historical timeline, and should be critiqued as such.
Though, I admit, some of these mess ups could be easily fixed for a bit more accuracy.