All posts tagged: commissions

Finished project: Carolyn’s dress

Published by The Dreamstress

Here is a long overdue post with photographs from Carolyn’s wedding in her amazing art deco inspired dress. Doesn’t she look fabulous?  Doesn’t she look amazing? And don’t you love all the details of the wedding?  Her hair and veil! The bright spring bouquets with lilacs!  The mixed and matched bridesmaids dresses!  Her shoes!  The world’s cutest mini-flowergirl!  She even cried.  It couldn’t have been more perfect. Here is a selection of my favourite photos, cut down to 13 from oh, about 130! Want to see more?  Check out the blog with all her photos

White Zombie: on set

Published by The Dreamstress

Being on set for White Zombie was fascinating.  I have tons of theatre experience: I’ve costume and dressing for ballets and operas and plays and other live performances, but this was the first film I’ve worked on. It was pretty much what I expected in most cases, but fabulous. I expected that there would be moments of rushed panic (“can you just take in the lapels 3/4″ before the next shot?”) and lots of time sitting around waiting to be needed. I gathered that unlike a stage play, there wouldn’t be an absolute schedule – the order in which scenes were shot got rearranged a little to suit makeup and hair, and if we ran ahead or behind schedule we just did the next thing, or tried to prep for the next.  With a play you have to start at a certain time! What I didn’t really realise was how much time lighting would take.  That was really the most time consuming thing of the whole day – more time was spent on it than …

So, what’s with all that Madge?

Published by The Dreamstress

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 …