SHADY LADIES ZOOM TOURS
Shady Ladies Zoom Tours
Watch our latest videos about the Shady Ladies of history.
Missing museums, art, and culture? Come on the Shady Ladies Zoom Tours! The Shady Ladies are offering all of our regular tours and more as live Zoom events. Learn about the fascinating women of the past—shady ladies, nasty women, fashion icons—on our fun and revealing tours of the world’s great cities and museums!
Tours last 75-90 minutes, including Q&A; note that start-times are in EDT (New York time). Please check back regularly (and follow us on Facebook!), as more tours will be added. Tours will resume in September!
These tours are also available as private tours, for birthday parties, bachelorette parties, library groups, corporate women’s groups: you name it, anyone who is looking for a fun event centered on women.
Upcoming events:
Saturday 6/18: Champagne, and the women who made it King
Past events—which will be repeated, and/or offered in new, revised versions:
Saint Justina of Padua, 1490s.
Like many saints in Renaissance painting, Saint Justina is the ultimate fashion plate. The jewels on her clothing, her embroidered stomacher, and her green sleeves (as in the song!), separate from her bodice and set off by the sections of blouse pulled through the gaps, are the height of stylishness. The Renaissance favored a high forehead, which ladies achieved by plucking their hairline back, and she is an extreme example; a relatively unisex upper body shape was also in fashion, and to this end, her corset has flattened her breasts (by pushing them to the sides). This painting may actually be a portrait of Isabella D’Este, one of Renaissance Italy’s great power figures—ruler, diplomat, and art collector.
Head of an Oba, Edo People
Long necks are considered desirable in many cultures, and the length of the neck is simulated or emphasized in many different ways, including for instance, from our own culture, ropes of pearls. In several cultures in Asia and Africa, neck rings create the illusion of a lengthened neck by forcing the clavicle and shoulders down. They are generally worn from puberty on, and removing them can lead to death. Here they mark the status of an oba (royal chief) among the Edo people, the founders of the precolonial Benin empire, now in Southern Nigeria
Young Man with a Greyhound, 1570s
This young man has every fashionable accoutrement of his day—each one intended to show off (or create the illusion of) his assets, physical or financial. The hose that show off his legs, his huge stuffed breeches and his prominent codpiece all speak of his virility, as of course do his sword and his greyhound. The gold cloth used in different ways on his breeches and doublet, the gold ornaments of his sword, and his elegant lace cuffs and ruff all speak instead of the wealth of his family. The shape of his corset, with the little belly in front, was very fashionable at the time and may have been meant to resemble armor.