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.

 



Taken by Debbie Boyd

 

 

 

 

Breakdown:  Unfortunately this was not cheap. I had a small bonus from work that helped out a lot.

 

Flowered fabric 4 yards plus shipping $46

pink fabric hat 1/2 yard  $1.75

collar plus shipping   $7.25

velvet ribbon 1 yard for belt  $4.75

sleeve trim $3.00

buttons $3.50

Hair (good investment!)

 

TOTAL:  $66.25 PLUS HAIR COST