Fashion Legacy of the Medici

Odd stuff pops up when you read about Italian fashion. I’m not talking about the Venetian drape on a semi-nude.

Let’s consider the lasting impact of the Medici collar.

Catherine de’ Medici is the namesake here – and the woman rose to fashion iconic levels against all odds. Her parents – a duke and a countess - died within weeks after her birth in 1519. She grew up to be small in stature, thin, ruddy and with the protruding eyes apparently common in Florence’s First Family.

Catherine was married at 14 to Henry, duke of Orleans, a son of Francis I of France. Young Henry went on to hook up at age 19 with a 39-year-old woman, whom he gave a sweet estate, the crown jewels and all his attention. Except, of course, for the times he knocked up Catherine, producing 10 kids.

Awkward family situation, I’m thinking.

So the Medici collar that still resonates today in international fashion is a flared, fan-shaped deal, with a V opening. It was highly popular in the mid-1500s, which Catherine dominated in France, helping a succession of sickly sons rule, following Henry’s untimely death following a joust. (He deserved it, in my opinion, since he was wearing his mistress’s black-and-white colors at the joust. What a pig, albeit one with a mistress who also had fashion sense).

I assigned my own 14-year-old son the task of writing a report on the Medicis (yes, I’m THAT kind of mom…). His report begins “The Medici were possibly the richest family in Italy.”

Wealth doesn’t always begat fashion sense, but the Medici collar and legendary impact on Florence remain. (By the way, it’s pronounced “MED a chee.”)

In Florence, you can reserve a private walking tour of the Medici family’s architectural and cultural impact through Avventure Bellissime tours, starting at 34 euros.

Or try classes at the Lorenzo de’ Medici School of Art and Culture. July classes include International Fashion Marketing and Intro to Italian Philosophy.

Feel like you need a bed at a Medici palazzo after reading all about Heady Henry? Some Florence hotels named Medici include:

• Hotel Orto De Medici, billed as an “early 19th Century palace along a tranquil street in downtown Florence, near the Academy Gallery”
• Hotel Medici (mixed ratings on tripadvisor.com)
• And Grand Hotel Villa Medici, which was once an 18th-century noble palace.

Learn more about the Medicis on this PBS special: http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/