Spain's Armada and Armoire

Today I spent time at two themed museums in Madrid: el Museo Naval (the Naval Museum) and el Museo del Traje (Museum of Clothing/Fashion).

The extensive history of Spain's Armada definitely justified the need for a large Naval Museum alongside the Prado, one of the world's most prestigious art collections. Each room of the Naval Museum, ordered chronologically, contained various models, maps, and weapons from different periods in history. Some of my favorite exhibits included a display of dozens of nautical knots, an American flag seized during war, a collection of Columbus' "treasures" that he collected from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and what is believed to be the first map of the Americas as portrayed by Spanish conquistadors.

Because the museum is run by the Spanish Navy, it had some of the strictest security that I have seen thus far, and I had to present a copy of my passport in order to enter.

After class I ventured to the Museo del Traje to put my finger on Spain's fabulous trends ranging from the Fifteenth century to the present. The museum exhibited clothes of royalty, milk maids, children's dolls, bullfighters, explorers, and more. I absorbed a ton of fun facts; for example: historically, there was no distinction between the shoes for a lady's right and left feet. Some of my favorite pieces came from more recent periods such as the Roaring Twenties.

I especially appreciated the exhibit on women's undergarments (corsets, lingerie). It's impossible to avoid the role that fashion played (and still plays) in understanding the ideal body image. The extent to which women were expected to wear dresses that extended their rear or crushed their ribs was quite repulsive, at times.