Reconstructing Fashion: The Mock-Velvet Doublet of a Seventeenth-Century Florentine Waterseller

This article explores an extraordinary 'doublet of black stamped mockado, nasty' owned by an everyday artisan, the Florentine waterseller Francesco Ristori, who died in 1631. Our only record of this garment - like many non-elite objects - is a written description in a posthumous inventory, but this article shows how we can reconstruct this doublet through a combination of archival, visual, material sources and hands-on experimental methods. Offering a thorough account of the processes and methodological basis of the material reconstruction, it explains why Ristori's doublet exemplifies many key features of early modern everyday fashion, the historical importance of the doublet as a garment, the innovation of mixed fibre fabrics like mockado, the novelty of stamping techniques, the challenges and importance of black dye, and what the 'nasty' condition suggests about Ristori's use of the doublet. It will also suggest why a Florentine waterseller might want to look fashionable, and will give an overview of Ristori's domestic and working circumstances, in order to connect his clothing choices to his everyday experiences. This micro-history of Ristori's doublet brings to life the macroworld of early modern everyday fashion.