Process of a cape

When Briar Rose dances with the Prince he's wearing a cape and they both use this as a prop in their dancing. I wanted to introduce some rose printed fabric but not for a whole dress as it would be too much, too busy a print, so instead I've used a pink and purple rose fabric to make a cape for Briar Rose to wear with her everyday dress.

Cutting out a pattern.

Altering the folds.

Checking the length.

Adding the ribbon for ties.

Finished.

Briar Rose

Briar Rose, Princess Aurora's hidden identity. She lives in a cottage in the woods and therefore she doesn't wear elaborate clothing so I used the same simple design as the Belle dress but with a few alterations. 

When she meets the Prince they dance together, it was important to have a full skirt on the dress so it swirls when he spins her around. To keep it simple I used a light purple linen fabric, purple a combination of the 'Make it blue, make it pink' colours, and linen in a thick enough fabric that the dress doesn't need a lining to keep the dress lighter.

It is less wonky when worn but still not perfect,
I'll there eventually!

Belle

Belle's everyday yellow rose dress

Following my theme of designing costumes for Disney Princesses in the 1950s this is the first dress I've made. I kept it simple with not much of a flair on the skirt because I designed this to be an everyday dress for the character of Belle while she's living in the castle.

In the tale of Beauty and the Beast there is a theme of a rose. When the last petal falls he will remain a beast forever. I've chosen a light yellow fabric with a recurring print of yellow roses. Yellow or gold being the classic colour of her dress she wears when she dines with the beast and they dance round the ball room, and roses covering the dress implying that while she is living in the castle the thought of the rose is hovering over everybody, even Belle a guest.

Lined top of the dress

Will never be able so sew a zip in perfectly.

Roses

Costumes for theatre would rarely have detailed embroidery on them simply because theatre costumes are built for study construction. They have to last for weeks or even months of being worn every day under bright lights and detailed embroidery would be lost on the stage, and would also fade and ware away over time.

However for TV and film costumes are caught on camera, more detailing can be seen as it's viewing in more high definition, closer up. So when presenting my designs and eventually made costumes I want to translate them onto portfolio sheets with sketches, photos of the made product, and how it could be evolved with more time.

All over stitching. 

Outlining 

Satin threads

Yellow and Gold

Yellow and Gold

More of a fifties flair

Briar Rose

Sleeping Beauty is almost two characters during the telling of her tale. Princess Aurora and Briar Rose. It's the princess that wears the big, elaborate dresses, whereas Briar Rose lives in a cottage in the woods most likely wearing clothes she made herself and so are probably of more simple construction.

Simple detailing

Bit more elaborate, using both of these fabrics
could make the dress a bit busy. 

Rose fabric for perhaps just the belt or cardigan

Make it Blue, Make it Pink.

Big skirt, floaty fabric.

Difference of colours, Make it Pink, Make it blue,
Purple's in the middle

1950s inspired

During this project I've been researching and referencing fairy tales that all originally happened hundreds of years ago. And so the costumes that the characters are dressed in on theatre, in films made about them are 9 times out of 10 set in the same era. I've been thinking that any costume I design could probably look like a copy of the hundreds of different designs that these characters have already worn.

Last year I had an intern ship at the Theatre Royal in Bath being wardrobe assistant for a production of Hansel and Gretel. Costume designer Phillippa Thomas set the play in 1920/30s dress and I say how with a few key items you can set the tone, the era of a production, and I thought I could do something similar for this my creative project.

The 1940s and 50s was a time with such a classic look of dress, Dior's 'New look' pretty much sums up the 1940s for female dress shapes, which is why I think that for my project I could imagine that I've been given the task of designing costumes for fairy tales being re told in the 1940/50s. To give me a look to go with, but to also make these designs a bit different.

First up Cinderella

Sticking with Cinderella's signature colour of blue

Floral's are always going to be a theme in this project

The Plan.

I've got 10 weeks left to finish this project and while that fact may seem quite daunting I'm taking a new look at it. 

• Two more weeks researching fairytale histories, fashion through the centuries, the fabrics and the type of embroidery done on these fabrics.
• Followed by four weeks of sampling, experimenting, hunting down fabrics I can use for an end project and ultimately deciding which Princess or fairytale creature I'll be focusing on.
• Then four weeks of design and construction. Which makes the next three months seem a lot simpler but it may not happen that easily. But for now I'm still sticking with it and have been out again in the hunt for more research.

I've been to the V&A a few times now but every time with a different project on mind so I'm always looking out for different things, this time it was for 18th and early 19th century fabrics and embroidery. 

Close up detail

It's hard to believe sometimes that this kind of embroidery and stitching done hundreds of years ago was completed by candlelight and without a sewing machine in sight. The amount of detail can be astonishing when it's seen repeated all over a dress. When I think of designs I imagine some detailing around the hem or just in a corner and that can feel like too much to take one but it was a different world back then when it comes to hand embroidery.

Detailed embroidery over textured, raised fabric

Sleeping Beauty Inspired.

Left: Late 1970s Pink Synthetic Jersey evening dress, Genny Italy
Right: Early 1910s Cream Silk ninon dress with silk satin ribbon trim,

The Fashion Museum in Bath currently has an exhibition entitled Glamour. Evening dresses from throughout the past century, these two above especially caught my eye. The Pink Jersey dress reminds me of Sleeping Beauty I think mainly because of the cape like Cardigan.

Seems more medieval to me rather than a 1910s bridesmaid dress

I think that this cape cardigan below could be an idea if I end up making something for the character of Aurora. Or even just as a sample, some embroidery representing the character on the corner of the body of the cardigan, or print onto the ribbon for the neck tie. A cardigan would go more with the character of Briar Rose, like when she's imagining that she's dancing with the prince, she's dancing with his cape and tries it one. Because of her name I'm thinking of roses being embroidered into the corners of the cardigan, or weaving up the sleeves perhaps.

This dress reminds me of Sleeping Beauty,
due to the cape like cardigan?

A rather old dress.

This Sliver Tissue dress is the oldest dress in the Museums collection. Dating from around 1660 it's remarkable that it's the near perfect condition that it is. Due to how small the dress is it's thought that it could've belonged to a girl or a very young women but it defiantly would've only been worn to very grand occasions for example attending the Royal Court in the time of King Charles II.

Due to it's era of time it makes me think that this dress mostly compares to those of Sleeping Beauty, with fine detail and workmanship that from a distance can't be seen but can be admired when taking a second look closer up.

The fabrics made out of fine silk woven with silver thread and decorated with parchment lace which was encased down onto the fabric and sewn on most likely using a couching method.

It seems impossible to think that this fine type of embroidery was done all by hand in a time before machines, along with being done by candlelight most likely as well.The fact that this bordering pattern not only goes along the hem but up the front of the skirt also then repeated to go back down to the border,  I admire the dressmakers patience.

Slipper and the Rose

Slipper and the Rose made in 1976 has been a classic in the Bradley household for as long as I've been alive at least. The songs got us hooked and the special effects got better/more amusing that is every year, the magical appearing of the glittery slippers will forever be my favourite.

It's a musical version of the classic tale set in the time of it's earliest telling, the late 1600s, early1700s. I'm taken with the costumes, they were designed by Julie Harris for which she received a BAFTA nomination.
Sticking true to the time with crinolines everywhere. Floral's seem to be a major theme on the dressing in this film. Perhaps because of the positive imagery to the character of Cinderella. When she's out in amongst nature a songs being sung, she'll be capturing a sight of the prince, be taking flowers to her fathers grave in a moment of peace, her first kiss with the prince takes place when she's collected some flowers. This all shows in what she's clothed in, hats even the swing she's sat on.

Which then course creates a huge difference to her attire when she's a servant to her family, wearing more greys and dark blues, which show less of the dirt she's sitting in in order to clean.

It's also important to notice the use of colour in this film. in scenes like the ball the Prince is wearing a stand out colour of green with lavish sliver and gold embroidery, again creating the image of nature while making him stand out as the most important person in the room until of course when Cinderella enters. To make her gown stand out she has the most ruffles, the biggest crinoline supporting the glitterest of dresses. Big enough to cover those famous shoes classic to the character.

Cinderella

John Clare's poem telling the tale of Cinderella,

The tale of Cinderella told

The winter thro and never old

The faireys favourite and friend

Who made her happy in the end

The pumpkin that at her approach

Was turned into a golden coach

The rats that faireys magic knew

And instantly to horses grew

And coachmen ready at he call

To drive her to the princess ball

With fur changd jackets sliver lind

And tails hung neath their hats behind

Where soon as met the princess sight

She made his heart ach all the night

The golden glove wi fingers small

She lost while dancing in the hall

That was on every finger tryd

And fitted hers and none beside

When cinderella soon as seen

Was woo'd and won and made a queen

That Alice in her own Wonderland.

"Did you see the Cheshire cat?"

Even though Alice in Wonderland isn't a Disney Princess, and I got asked if I was her every single day of the summer (who else can you be if you're blonde, English and name is Alice yes?) but she's still my favourite character. and last year in textiles I spent the year designing my own Alice costumes that had more detailing on them, illustration embroidery around the hem of her classic simple blue dress that tell the tale of Alice in Wonderland.

I've since become oppressed with anything Alice, wanting all merchandise there is with illustrations from Lewis Carroll's original novel. Or even with quotes from Alice or the other characters, "Have you seen the White rabbit?", "I'm late!" or even as simple as "Would you like a cup of tea?" could make symbolic work in their own right. Wouldn't need to be on a blue dress to show what they mean, but printed or embroidered onto fabric then framed in the quirky or crooked style.

My own embroidery for an Alice dress. 

I think that this could be done for all principal characters of a Disney film, 10 simple illustrations that tell the tale. But each one needs to be symbolic enough to always work in their own right, so if just one were chosen it's still clear what tale the illustration is portraying.

Grace Kelly - Real life Princess

V&A flyer for 2009
exhibition

I went to an exhibition on at the V&A Museum in London 2years ago showcasing Grace Kelly's clothes over her life time. Grace Kelly was a real life Princess who went from the film industry to marrying Rainier 3rd, Prince of Monaco.

She was a style icon since she started starring in films from the age of 20, her last being High Society before she married. In High Society she plays a princess, appropriately as she was about to become one, but she still portrayed the same grace and elegance in her films as she then did in her real life. It's said that Kate Middleton's wedding dress of last year was stylised after Grace Kelly's, and I think what makes them so beautifully classic is that they look detailed due to the lace used but there's not visible embroidery on them, so perhaps this is more how real life princesses differ from make believe.

Grace Kelly and Kate Middleton on their lacetastic wedding dresses

I think it would be interesting to look into using lace along with embroidery to enhance and make princess costumes more elaborate and detailed compared to stage show versions of their costumes.

Back to that world of Princesses.

Snow White, one of the ten
Disney Princesses

Now that Cabaret is over I need to start working towards a final project for my creative practice module this year, and I feel like there's no harm in having it Disney themed, I want to be able to draw on my experiences over the past summer and put it all together in a piece of work. Whether it's designing a dress/costume for one of the princesses, or a even just a fairytale character. Taking elaborate wedding dresses and striping them down to then work on to, whether embroidering or printing onto the fabric. 

I do know that I need to start drawing again, go to the Fashion Museum in Bath or even see if it's possible to go to the costume services company in Bristol just to take a look at the costumes. As there is such a difference between fashion and costume as when an item of clothing is a costume for theatre or film it needs to be sturdy, go through countless takes that could be spread over weeks and still look like it did on week one. Now it's not like I'm going to be making anything for an actual show but the costumes worn by the princesses in Disney were just the same, being worn all day but still as magical and full of sparkle by the end of the day as they did at the start. I'd like to start researching into more detailed princess designs and which ones due to their story or fairy tale could have the most sparkle.