A virago sleeve is a women's item of clothing fashionable in the 1620s–1630s. It is a full "paned" or "pansied" sleeve (that is, made of strips of fabric) gathered into two puffs by a ribbon or fabric band above the elbow.

Portrait of Marie-Louise de Tassis by Van Dyck. White satin gown with virago sleeves tied with pink ribbon, worn under a black short-sleeved gown, c.1630.

See also edit

References edit

  • Gordenker, Emilie E.S.: Van Dyck and the Representation of Dress in Seventeenth-Century Portraiture, Brepols, 2001, ISBN 2-503-50880-4

See also edit