Marie Antoinette (1938) "Rocket" gown-Cosplay or historic recreation?

Still going to call it a costume recreation, it's just that it is 78 years old...



Costume for Norma Shearer in the MGM Production of 'Marie Antoinette'
Gilbert Adrian (United States, active California, Los Angeles, 1903-1959)
United States, California, 1934
Costumes; principal attire (entire body)
Silk organza over metallic silver lamé trimmed with silver passementerie, sequins, beading, and paste stones

It is being restored, but I haven't heard about it being displayed again after restoration. The biggest issue is that real metal fabric is very heavy and can corrode the silk or other fibres holding it together!
http://www1.udel.edu/udaily/2012/sep/mgm-gown-restored-090611.html
So if it ever does go out, I will be first in line. From here in New Zealand

I have wanted to make this for years. And I thought maybe I would be better inspired by the real Robe de Cour, and I was but never found fabric suitable. So then I thought maybe the Takarazuka troupes of Rose of Versailles might do it... nope. Kept coming back to this wonderful and weird gown that has so much historically right but with so much that takes it right out of both vintage and older historical styles. It just is so.. unique.

The hoop shape is more 1740s English, the bodice fitting is absolutely created for the movie (two long bust seams each side and an underarm panel, very cool*) and then the fabric is much too light, though silver was absolutely It for Swedish and Russian courts.

Anyway, it all came to a head when I found silver lame fabric right here, silk and mylar but the most beautiful and duraable mylar.. it was able to be heat treated twice (to remove dye) and be ironed back to smoothness.

Before, beige and silver.

After, ivory and silver.

So then I started gathering materials for the hoops and petticoat layers. These at least are relatively easy to figure out, though there are no photos of any of the hoops on set or with the existing gowns that have been sold.
We only know they were boned in steel (which is not unusual) and six feet wide.


Testing the hoop patterns and placement.


Sewing the tape channels. I need to tidy some of these as it was a lot of sewing and a single mm of movement means not being able to get my hoops in to the channels! So that will be.. the opposite of fun for tomorrow.

This is my big obnoxious frock of doom. I have always been a courteous cosplayer, nver taking up much room at shows, or able to fold up my train or keep my props self contained.
But darnit.

I need this gown!

I also need her confrontation gown because it is a big fluffy puffball.

https://nz.pinterest.com/michaeladebruce/modern-marie-antoinette/

https://nz.pinterest.com/michaeladebruce/18thc-robe-de-cour/

*For the era this is not at all part of normal pattern systems.

Madame, you have all my sympathy. It's, indeed, quite the challenge that dress. I know, and you've mentioned it above, Hollywood has a tendency to take artistic liberties with so called "Historical Costumes" and some of the detail changes are made for the movie/actor. Not easy to wear it for sure, especially the very large pannier, typical of that era. I will follow your thread with interest.

I'm used to heavy gowns just not gowns that stand so far away from me!

Since the above I've started a facebook group for others wanting to make the gowns, it's closed as I don't want to presume everyone is as open with their projects as I am I want to wear this gown many times so am planning to wear it and travel with it for as many events as health will allow I've had a ball with "being" Elsa so many times that I am super excited to wear this as often

As far as progress, I finally have been finding a few images that clarify the lace details (it does look like I'll be able to use embroidered tulle and sew sequins to that) and the movie is on the way.. I am being impatient of course

The hoops have been almost finished, in regards to sewing! The tape channels are in. As a guide, the hem is indeed 6" across. The tape is sewn three times each so it did take a full day just to sew them! I also bought more plumbers coil/drain snake. Each 15" spool will make one row of hoops, so there are 6 hoops in total at the hem!
pinkdiamond, on Flickr
pinkdiamond, on Flickr

you could smuggle a couple of people into comi-con with that dress lol

I gotta say, this is a really interesting project, and I look forward to seeing how it turns out.


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gothic said:

you could smuggle a couple of people into comi-con with that dress lol

Click to expand...

lol! Yep! I had to lay on my back under the thing to get the tie tapes in place! Hoop mechanic. WOF while you wait!

lol while underneath did you find yourself sucking air through your teeth and saying "well its gonna have to come out and where have to order the parts" :lol

Very impressive skill set you have and a challenging costume you are creating. Your creation is simply inspiring, not just in diversity, but commitment....well done.

gothic said:

lol while underneath did you find yourself sucking air through your teeth and saying "well its gonna have to come out and where have to order the parts" :lol

Click to expand...

Well my parts come from a hardware store so.. sorta I was definitely thinking about oil change options- the steel is uncoated so it is lubricated with oil, I'll need to strip that off and wrap all the steel in pressure sensitive tape to keep her all watertight.

So yeah, she'll need a bit of extra work but that's a classic for ya.

And thank you wimismith for your encouragement Finally got a few high detail images that show the actual make up of the stars (they are bordered with the tiniest seed beads ever) and am able to see where the lace ends and the lame starts on the swags. There may even be confirmation as to whether the swags are sewn in to the curves or the bias is eased out.

Making all those embellishments is going to possibly mean I was not sensible in deciding that this was less handwork than the Glinda Bubble gown from Wicked. But at least it won't be 40 pounds... and yes this is real life on stage, or in any big frock... and that gown is worth about... $US15000 to make each one. Soooo, it's great when people can appreciate the work that goes into a gown like this! It's hard core to wear and to make!

joking aside its one hell of a creation well done

Oh wow, that gown is going to be beautiful. I love the hoops and that's really clever to use the drain snake as hoop steel. Do you find it pretty on par with the hoop steel for flexibility/price?

Thank you One of the reasons for using the steel is that it is prohibitively expensive getting corsetry supplies here in New Zealand. I think because we tend to get supplies that were shipped to Australia first or come from the US. Both of which add a lot to import costs!

But I have managed to pick up the odd length here and there.

The first was a length of narrow (1/4") plastic coated steel. This was quite thick but soft. I was able to use heavy pliers to cut it. The second was already in a sheap hoop and was enameled steel. This was springier and not as soft and didn't hold a curve- which makes it great for hoops as you can collapse them!

The two brands of coil here are soft enough that you can force it into a bend, but I use a small scrap of these for sculpting and even a length about 8" can hand the ends pushed together and it will still be springy.

So it's ideal in a situation like here where I can use 12 hoops to ease stress off any individual loop. It's a bit like plastic or baleen in that regard.

I've taken a good hard look at my hands and I cannot justify the damage I'll do to them if I attempt to embroider everything, so I've been looking at various options. Unfortunately the smallest stars seem to be less than an inch across (closer to 20cm). Luckily though they are not rare, just tricky to find matching across the different sizes. Also of help is that the very large sequined shapes at each swag is probably a "lily" which can also be found as premade shapes!

View attachment 664340
I mean four women to embroider just the trellis pattern!

So the first batch of stars has been ordered! I will be buying a number of appliques and laces to hand sew in place, once these little stars are in hand I'll be able to plot out the size of the rest.

The lace is going to be hard to source, there are narrow laces applied to net as well as the silver fabric, and in both cases there are additional scrolling sequined appliques to add to the top. I may wind up hunting down a silver sequined saree. It'll still be a lot of hand work but may be less than trying to embroider on the bias cut swags!

Very good work so far and yes, this costume is literally a construction! Pliers, metal, etc...it will keep on giving for sure (no bathroom break for you my dear Madame). Joking aside, the laces will be hard to put on (as you know, I'm sure)...and when everything is said and done, how heavy that whole costume is going to be?

Thank you It's been a few days of work but I now am building a wig, from parts.


Rebuilding a wig from spare parts. All day and this is all I have to show for it. by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

This is powernet with the cap and lace strips from an existing wig. The wig block is a custom one using ye olde Broadway technique of tape. It's a tiny bit bigger than my head which means I will need to be a bit careful, but it also means I can be sure that when I finish sewing the wefts flat that it will fit


This is what all the work is for. Though I'm pondering if it would be better to put this on Elsa instead. by pinkdiamond, on Flickr
The new wig is made from the lace fronts of three wigs, the nape of the neck is one, luckily the pattern just happens to match my own hair line well, though I had to make notes on the inside edge.


This is actually really reasonable considering this was the front lace of a wig finally getting to see progress so I have sewn the wefts back together by pinkdiamond, on Flickr
Voila!

So I resewed the wefts back together and have started to add them to the wig. One layer around the hairline and three rows so far horizontal at the back.

Now that the lace is properly shaped I can add wefts back in. This is the fast part thank goodness. As with many things the shaping takes more time for apparently less reward. by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

And now my wig is assembled. I just need to put it on and adjust the tension of the front lace strips.

Piecing the smaller scraps of wefts on the most stable part of the cap. by pinkdiamond, on Flickr
Sorry for the lack of steps here, but it was basically just adding evenly spaced wefts across the full wig- about 5-7mm. Most were full U shapes but I also added a few shorter pieces between to fill in the gaps at the back.

Omgwtfbbq wig wefts finished! And it was absolutely worth pushing through today to get to this point. by pinkdiamond, on Flickr
This shows just how much hair is on the wig and how well the wefts are hidden.

I braided each section to prevent tangling. I would sew a few rows then carefully smooth them and then braid.

So the next step it to make a lace stripthat I can sew the internal combs into as well as to stabilise the lace fronts, especially the joins!

I found enough lace on ebay in one auction, and it shipped the same day! It's from Hong Kong which is one side of the Pacific and I'm about halfway and near the bottom, so it will arrive much faster for me than anyone in the states.
This is going to need to be heavily covered in sequins. This is just about having a metallic thread base to sew over. So the next step is to purchase flat sequins of many sizes.

The stars arrived as well So I now know what they are like and will be able to figure out the scale for the rest of the stars

Once the lace arrives I'll be able to pin it to the hoops to work out how much I really need and buy some more if need be.

Great work of that wig and, again, kudos for tackling that costume:cool On another note, what kind of thread are you gonna use to secure the lace and the sequins?

Once the lace gets here it's going to go in a warm soap, then warm rinse, then warm soak in fabric softener! I think the ground is organza making it lace in the loosest sense of the word! That will all be in small buckets so to protect all the cut edges.

So once that is done I'll wrap it around a frame I have and will probably use a fine floss thread. I have YLI silk for a few projects and it is amazing. If this lace winds up being soft enough I will use that If not I'll use Guterman silver thread. It's too fragile for my sewing machine but it's ideal for hand sewing.

The lace will get decorated first and then mounted to the swags. The original is a bit hard to make out but there is a scalloped edge of lace that is free of fabric and what looks like a more open scrolling pattern. So this wide lace will work as both

It should take about a week to get here, so I'll clean the steel hoop supports and clip them as well. That way I can drape the lace and figure out how much to use I can sort of guess but I need to balance the loops to fit me and my own hoops

#marieantoinette lace arrived! I will want to do a warm colour bath and add extra sequins but this is lovely! by pinkdiamond, on Flickr

All 18m arrived, so I'll be testing just how well I guesstimated today! This does mean finally making my hoops, cleaning the steel and making it fit.