#- more things for her ?? if yall have links for 18th century Venice or France and its race relations THAT WOULD BE GREAT ??

[mmegarderobe-blog]

Name distinctions for my canon verses that are important to me along with some more context of my characterization of her - please have a read!

Allegra

I headcanon that she grew up in an orphanage, and although some orphanages in Italy at the time WOULD have given babies names AND a functional “surname” for the Ospedale della Pietà where I have her from, I couldn’t find evidence of this practice. I found documents of the registry of babies coming in to the orphanage, but the ones I found didn’t have surnames attached. 

Signorina Allegra

After she leaves the Pietà and becomes a seamstress at one of the shops nearby to support herself, she is, by this point, a young woman. It would be fine just to call her Allegra since she technically is just another face among the canals of Venice. When she gets “discovered” for her voice and starts to perform, it wouldn’t be unusual to call her Signorina Allegra out of respect. 

HOWEVER - although the trading of slaves was eventually outlawed in the Republic of Venice, Venice had been a historical hub of slave trade and racism would have been prevalent in society despite her having lived outside of the heyday of the slave trade in Venice due to institutional racism. I’m not going to erase race relations and the racism she would have faced despite her being a muse in This Particular Fandom. One of these practices that might not SEEM like something racist would have been the exoticization of her. Being darker skinned, she would have been thought of as something to WONDER at. That, coupled with the fact that she can SING would have made her a marvel. 

But if all this would have happened, how could she have possibly been enrolled at the orphanage? Great question. In my way of thinking - and yes, I might be reaching here - the nuns who took in and registered the babies left at the orphanage could have taken pity on her and supported their decision with planning for her to have been a servant within the orphanage to help with the cleaning. Yet, she showed potential and became a figile de comun and eventually a figile de coro where she learned how to sing with technique. 

Of course, have your muse act with her and address however you see fit !! Just please understand that this is the background I’m giving her.

Signora Allegra

After she marries the Maestro, she does not Does Not DOES NOT take his last name. A married woman taking her husband’s last name as her own isn’t a particularly common practice in Italian culture although it does happen. But you always go on about how much she loves her husband? How come she wouldn’t change her name? Because that isn’t a value of the Italian culture. You don’t need to change your name just because you’re desperately in love with someone. By the time she marries the Maestro, she’s also becoming more well known for being a singer by merit and is becoming more established in the musical community of Venice. Out of respect for her talent/marital status/age, it would be proper to address her as Signora Allegra. At this point if you addressed her ONLY as Allegra and yall aren’t friends she’s going to be offended.

Madame de G/arderobe

Please - PLEASE - don’t forget the “de”. I know my url is real contradictory to that, but at the time I thought it was the correct French for when addressing someone in a letter/in written form? The examples I found for “how to write a letter in French” type searches only had examples where there was no “de” included in the surname so I straight up guessed. I honestly don’t know if it’s STILL the correct grammar ( PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME IF IT IS ?? I HAVEN’T BEEN FLUENT IN FRENCH SINCE I WAS FIVE ?? no but really pls send help on this ). I already noted in my rules that I’m doing G/arderobe not Garde-robe since that’s the way This Particular Movie is having it in the credits - and not to mention tags don’t pick up dashes, but another reason for the importance of the “de” is that this is a title of occupation, not just respect, in my characterization. 

I have it that Madame was close with Adam’s mother despite her being a servant after she came to be the Court singer along with teaching Adam music. At this time, she was still called Signora Allegra due to the culture of the musical community and her position within it as a respected musician. Just because she moved to work in France does not take away her earned status as a musician. This is an observation of my own from my background in music. BUT !! after Adam’s mother passes and she’s trying to give him some semblance of love now that his father is beginning to twist him, Allegra was in need of a more permanent position within the castle other than hired musician to try and stay near Adam as I headcanon Adam’s father having stopped Adam from attending music lessons. She was in a very dangerous position since his father would have known that Allegra was close to Adam’s mother and wanted to keep him away from all kind of memory of her. 

Taking up the position of Madame de G/arderobe, she’s now using her background as a seamstress to oversee and design the different wardrobes of the castle’s inhabitants. Addressing her by her occupation title/just Madame would be the proper thing to do since part of the class structure of the time would be reflected in the addressing of her rank/title. But why don’t the other servants have titles, too? They probably do, but the informality of using their names is probably easier for younger audience members to understand. On top of that, the other servants BELONG to the household of the Prince. The “household” of a royal family member was basically the squad that was solely responsible for making sure that family member’s life ran smoothly - and boy howdy did Adam need a squad to help him out. Technically, there could be a Mistress of the Wardrobe-type position in the households for each individual family member, but I’m having it as she was primary overseer for the wardrobe TEAM along with her other duties as Court singer which would most likely also be outside a family member’s household. Due to this, she’d elevated in position from a hired musician to a part of the overall castle staff  which is why she transition from being called Signora Allegra to Madame de G/arderobe. 

This was really long and tbh, if you made it this far I am completely proud of you. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING ?? Also it’s late and I’m tired so if there’s grammar mistakes in this my bad. If you wanted clarification on any of these points, please let me know !!