The Broke Costumer: March 2015

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Meet Anastasia Tremaine

Most every costumer I know was eagerly waiting for the premiere of the new Disney Cinderella movie. The San Diego Costume Guild was no exception. We planned on attending opening weekend. At least I had a few months to work out a costume! In the beginning, there were only a handful of photos on line of a few of the costumes. I ruled out Cinderella right away. I do not need a blue ballgown to hang in the closet, possibly never to be worn again. The only other photo I had seen was the movie poster of Lady Tremaine and her two daughters.

Right away, I fell in love the the 1950's vibe of the costuming. I knew a few people were going to try for the stepmother look, so I decided to recreate one of the stepsisters. I am a sucker for pink, so Anastasia it is! As you can see by the above photo, you cannot tell how long the skirt is. I would worry about that later. I started looking in local fabric stores and on line for flowered pink fabric that was similar. I found nothing even close in the stores, so started googling "pink flowered fabric". Still nothing! I found an article on line about Sandy Powell's costuming for the movie, and it mentioned the fabric was hand painted.....no wonder I had problems!

Upon closer inspection of Anastasia's bodice, it shows us that the dress is a sheer over a solid pink. I wasn't worried about recreating this look, and opted for a solid print. Looking closely at the flowers I realized they were hibiscus-like. I googled "pink fabric with hibiscus". I was directed to an etsy shop that sold Hawaiian fabrics. I found one I thought would work. I ordered 4 yards. For the crocheted collar, I found a nearly identical one on Etsy. Yellow buttons-easy. The sleeves had little lace and black trim. Belt looks like a ribbon. Buckle - I used the one from my 1830s dress and bought black velvet ribbon for the belt and sleeve trim.

For the dress, I used two different patterns. I used Retro Butterick B5920, but for the bodice I used a regular button down shirtwaist dress pattern. Very easy! For the length, I found a photo on line of a museum costume display that showed the dress to be about ankle length. The concept art shows her wearing what looks like Victorian ankle boots, which I already have.

For the hat, I had the perfect one April had made me for last Costume College - but it was black. I did not want to ruin her beautiful hat, so I basically made a round pink pillowcase for the black hat. It was open around the inner brim so I can easily remove it. I cut out some of the flowers from fabric scraps and glued them inside the brim. I had never seen the back of the original hat, so all I did was add a ruched black ribbon around the brim to match the belt. Imagine my surprise when I saw the movie, and she had a black ribbon around the brim! Now for the hair I ordered the cutest side curls made by Tracy Gomez at the Historical Hairdresser. They were perfect! Thank you Tracy! Here are a few photos from our Afternoon at the Movies.