Blanche and her mother - Ludwig Kakumei
Made in 2009 for the Auckland Armageddon comp, and came away with an Honourable Mention. I made the Blanche dress for Seraphik, for when we finally got around to shooting...in February 2011. LATEBURGERS.
The costume is made in three main parts – the over-dress, skirt, and collar. The design of the dress doesn't adhere to any one historical period, which is annoying – there are hints of Elizabethan and Victorian fashions, as well at the use of high-shine black fabric, which made interpreting the hidden parts of the costume a little difficult! I settled on making each piece individually, and going with what suited the overall look best. The over-dress is made from 2-way stretch vinyl, and is hand-beaded wrist to elbow on both sleeves, and has beaded accents at the shoulders and neckline. The beading pattern on the sleeves was designed to reflect the Queen's character – the pain motif is a black camellia, unnatural and beautiful, and not naturally occurring. The main flower on each cuff is connected to two smaller flowers, again unnaturally black, in the shape of a womb – this wasn't actually deliberate originally, but I developed on it once I realised what it looked like – it's fairly appropriate for the Queen given her relationship with her offspring! The collar is separate from the dress, and is removable. It was made from a wire skeleton, with cotton wrapped at the joins to secure it, then sealed with a plastics repair liquid. The skeleton was then overlaid with black crystal organza and hand-stitched and sealed into place, then beaded and feathered by hand. It is attached to the dress with hooks on the inner neckline of the dress, and loops formed by the ends of the wire in the collar. It took me a long time to decide on how to shape the skirt – I couldn't decide whether to try and apply a historically accurate theme, or just go with the flow. Given that it is a fantasy costume and historical accuracy probably didn't figure much into the author's planning of the character, I decided to do a Victorian bustle and skirt under the overdress and corset. In one of the glimpses of the back of the Queen's dress (it may not be the same dress, but is the only back view I could find) she is most definitely wearing a bustle of some kind. From this I did a fair amount of research in fashion plates from the late 1800's and adopted a style of skirt that suited the existing draping of the dress. The bustle was made from black calico and is boned with steel – it closes with a button placket under the skirt. The skirt is a five gored style, with pleating at the rear, and a train – it was modified from a pattern for an 1879 evening skirt. Again, I wasn't sure what to do with the fabric for the skirt – I felt that making the whole ensemble out of vinyl would be a bit over-the-top, but eventually used it anyway in keeping with the design. I overlaid sections of the detail with a sheer nylon to soften some of the shine of the PVC and add a little more interest. The ruffles at the front are trimmed with satin-edged organza ribbon. Blanche's dress was a simple princess-lined swing dress with floofed cuffs that close with pearl buttons. Petticoat we pinched from her steampunk Himawari, as with the bloomers. Photos by several people - me, Seraphik, Matt and Cameron. Shot at Otago University just before classes resumed...yeah, our timing could have been better! Confused students are pretty funny, though. 
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