Blouse of Princess Irina STROZZI

Blouse made of shiny cotton and decorated with lace trim. The garment features a standing collar finished along its upper edge with a narrow lace border. The chest is adorned with a sequence of diagonally arranged checked lace insertions forming a rounded composition that adds a structured ornamental accent to the bodice, below which the fabric continues in plain cotton.

The blouse has long sleeves with a slightly voluminous shape at the elbows, narrowing towards the wrists. The cuffs are edged with lace trim and fastened with small, rounded mother-of-pearl-effect plastic buttons. A corresponding row of matching buttons secures the central front fastening.

The aforementioned blouse was previously owned by Irina REINE, later Irina (Irene) STROZZI MAJORCA RENZI GUICCIARDINI (born Paris 1943), born in Paris to Russian émigré parents. Having met her future husband during her studies in Geneva, she married Girolamo STROZZI MAJORCA RENZI GUICCIARDINI, a descendant of one of the great noble houses of Renaissance Florence: the STROZZI, rivals of the MEDICI and celebrated patrons of the arts, whose most enduring legacy is the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (begun 1489), and whose later alliances included the GUICCIARDINI, the family of the Renaissance historian Francesco GUICCIARDINI. The couple had two daughters: Natalia Costanza STROZZI MAJORCA RENZI GUICCIARDINI (born 1980), who trained at the Vaganova Academy in Saint Petersburg and danced at the Mariinsky Theatre, and Irina STROZZI MAJORCA RENZI GUICCIARDINI, who remained in Italy.