All posts tagged: 1932

White Zombie dress construction

This is how I made a 1920s-does-medieval shift for the White Zombie inspired PorcelainToy music video. First, I watched White Zombie literally two dozen times, analyzing how Madge’s dress was constructed. This is what I noted: The dress is made of chiffon, almost certainly silk.  It is worn over a satin shift/underdress cut straight across the chest, with thin straps over the shoulders.  In some scenes Madge appears to be wearing a different underdress, one with a v-neckline.  This one one of dozens of continuity problems with the outfit. The dress has wide rectangular sleeve panels attached at a drop shoulder.  The sleeves are bound with wide satin edging (note arrow). The front of the dress is quite slim, but the back of the dress is extremely full, and must have gores set into it. The wide rectangular sleeves have little cut in points indicated in red above.  This means the panels are long rectangles with a ) scoop cut out of the middle, and the middle of the scoop sits on the shoulders. This …

So, what’s with all that Madge?

You may have notice that this blog has become a little Madge Bellamy heavy over the last month or so. So what’s with my fixation? Well, I’m making one of Madge’s most famous costumes for a client. The costume is Madge’s ‘shroud’ from White Zombie. Isn’t it gorgeous? All that silk, flowing and draping! I love that it has such strong medieval inspiration. It’s the best kind of sewing: I get to do a complete pastiche of the medieval part, but it’s still perfectly historical — just to the 1920s! I say 1920s, because even though White Zombie was filmed in 1932, I am certain that the dress was borrowed from an earlier film. White Zombie was filmed on a shoestring budget, and we already know they re-used one dress from an early Madge Bellamy film. They also re-used sets from a bunch of other films. After watching the movie dozens of time it’s become apparent that the ‘shroud’ is two sizes too big on Madge, and missing some pearls from around the neck, so …