Probably the fanciest, and a very memorable gown that Christine wears during her debut in Hannibal as an "understudy" for Carlotta. I, had the opportunity to make this dress, though I'm not really so proud of it, for a competition. I can tell you one thing, there is alot of detail in this gown which makes it so intricate, and beautiful.
Images: Most of the images below are hi-res, so they may take a bit to load, but trust me, they are well worth it!
Bodice:
This bodice is pretty close to a traditional Ballgown bodice used during the Victorian Era. Off the shoulder, pointed front and back, modesty panel. Enough of that though - to the dress! From observations, the dress is definitely not made from satin. I agree, because satin, polyester or real silk satin, is too flimsy to give the structured look this dress has. I am strongly leaning towards silk/satin taffetta. The bodice extends just below the waist and is rounded and pointed in the back and front. The bodice is laced up in the back. There is a center seam going down the front of the bodice, and two darts. There is a sides seam, and two more darts in the back of the bodice.
Here is an excerpt about Grace's observations when she saw this dress in person (a little long - but definitely well worth it!:
The skirt and bodice are completly seperate, but the front of the bodice has been attached to keep it from moving. The sleeves had a layer of net/tulle over them which was studded with individual clear crystals. The area on the sleeve that would be around your arm was trimmed in white feathers, about a inch to a inch and a half long, but most definatly feathers. The modesty panel was a dark flesh color and gathered somewhat, almost orangey in tone, with a tulle overlay. The crystals appeared to be applied to the flesh colored piece not the tulle, and were comprised of clear stones with jonquil centers. What was interesting is the modesty panel is completly seperate from the bodice, it had been pulled up past the taffeta and there was a seam between the flesh color and what appeared to be another piece of lining. After looking at the bodice in person, the white main part appears to be seperate, with the modesty panel and that extra part behind it combined into a seperate lining. I may be wrong but it kind of looked that way, but without examining it off of the manniquin it is still hard to tell how the bodice pieces all fit together.
Also on the bodice where the bodice and the modesty panel "meet" the bodice has tulle swags gathered around the neckline, but nothing else, the feathers only appeared on the sleeves.
The bodice has five seams in the front, and the edges are finished off in a rolled hem, I believe.
How everything is attatched remains a mystery, but from my observations (please correct me if I am wrong) the modesty panel is another layer beneath the dress, and is not sewn to the fashion fabric. For example your layers would go (from a general point of view) lining, modesty panel lining, and then the fashion fabric and tulle. The bodice could be bag lined. According to Grace, the modesty panel is not sewn to the fashion fabric, and we can only go so far from pictures.
Besides that, all of the crystals are on the modesty panel, not the tulle. The tulle is gathered (machine gathered, I don't see a drawstring) and extends over the edge of the base of the modesty panel into a scalloped pattern. It is possible that the gathered tool stops at the bottom of the modesty panel, and the "scalloped tulle" is another lining. If only!
There is a "Mystery" layer beneath the dress which we can see here:
It is more than likely the dresses chemise. The chemise for the dressing gown is also made out of a see through material, so there is a chance that they did the same thing for this dress.
As for the sleeves, they are traditional ballgown off the shoulder. Whether they used elastic or did it the old fashion way, we'll never know :(. We do know that the sleeves do have crystals on them. They also have a layer of tulle covering them, and the crystals are glued to the fashion fabric (taffeta). Read Grace's passage above about the feather trim on the sleeves. You can't really tell it is feather from the hi-res photos, but feather or tulle would work for a reproduction.
Skirt
The skirt is just like a traditional ballgown skirt. According to observation by myself and others, we definitely know that the material is not satin. Satin would be far too flimsy. It is most likely taffetta, and that is what it looks like it would be.
Here is an amazing quote from Grace on the Yahoo Phantom Costumes Board. (I suggest you join if you're a fanatic like me!)
This gown is breathtaking in person, to answer one queastion, I was not allowed to touch it, but I got close enough too touch it and to see alot of details. The fabric was not a satin, it had the appearance and texture of a heavy white taffeta, silk or satin taffeta would be my guess, but it was definatly not a satin. The net overlay was just a very simple net or tulle, the large starbursts were sewn onto a seperate piece of tulle and then placed onto the overlay, which makes sense since they were making more than one of them. in fact i have been looking back over other pictures of this dress from the movie and now that I know what to look for you can see this clearly. (to see this look at the nineth picture in the album.)
The tail of this dress is very different for the picture thepinkhobbit took at the V&A in London, the one I saw looks very refined, more I think of what you would want to see in a close-up. While the other one is all sparkle, which you would want from a distance. (just my theory on it)
The main part of the tail is a dark silver lame like fabric, with white and blue ribbon around the edge. The inner part is a beautiful color of blue, I would describe it as a combination of baby blue and turqouise. It has a silver scalloped almost crochet looking lace around the edge of the inner blue piece, and is studded on each scallope with blue crystals in a group of three on one scallope, then one smoky topaz crystal on the next scallope and so on. The starburst of the tail is not clear but made of the smoky topaz.
I have included at the beginning of the album, pictures that show the color of the crystals used, I refered to the color chart here
http://www.rhinestoneguy.com/Swarovski%20Colors.htm
The large starburst like I said before have been put on seperate, they consist of alternating gold and silver ribbon, approx. 1/16" or 1/8" wide. The silver ribbons don't show up very well in the pictures, but it was always silver then gold. The centers of most of these large starbursts was usually the smoky topaz. I didn't see any colors besides clear being used on these (But some of the large starburst were not visible, so it is possible that they also had some with the jonquil colored centers, but I didn't see them.) The rest of the solid crystal bursts were the clear stones, and were applied directly to the dress overlay. one last thing here is that the stones were not all the same size, using the size chart on the rhinestoneguy's website the varied from the size 12, 16, and 20, with the large ones being in the centers with the smaller ones going on the outer area, and sleeves.
Just to recap -
There are three known layers to the skirt. One, the fashion fabric, which would be the heavy silk or satin taffetta, two the first layer of tulle, then three, the second overlay of tulle which has the starbursts sewn onto them.
They probably did the starbursts before they sewed the layers together, which would make sense, and be easier. The starbursts are probably made of bullion trim. There is at least one swarovski stone in the middle of each starburst.
Each strand of trim which makes up the starburst has several swarovski crystals on the end of it. There are also a few which have crystals on the sides, also.
You can see it in this picture.
As for the tails, I think Grace's quote just said about all of it.
Boy do these tails have a lot of trim!
Let's start from the bottom up (or inward outward). There is the fashion fabric, which would be the taffetta, cut into the shape of the tail, which gently slopes, gets larger and forms a pointed end. Got it? Okay! Moving On! Next, on the sides, is the silver ribbon, which from estimating is probably 3-4 inches thick. I've never seen the gown in person though, but that is just an estimate. Now, the ribbon is trimmed on both sides. First, there is the blue ribbon, and then, the white scalloped ribbon, and over that is almost a net/crocheted like trim. It is possible that they had the blue ribbon first, put the scalloped ribbon on top of that, then the lace trim, and then the silver ribbon and sewed it all together.
As for the middle - here comes the headache. There is another panel of a almost teal ribbon, which has 1. the 1 inch wide trim which is rather elaborate, and decoreated with more rhinestones, I believe. Then we have the innermost trim, which I'm guessing is just zigzag trim which could have been sewed by the machine due to the fact that the sides are not completely uniform in this picture. Then, we have the rhinestone starburst on on the end of the teal teardrop.
Another note for the silver ribbon on the outside. At the bottom of the point, the outside of the silver ribbon is sewn to match the pattern of the point. Then, the three corners which would puff out because of the shape it has been sewed to, are just pressed down into the lovely triangles you see.
As for the hoop skirt? In this picture on the right side (our right) of Emmy's dress, you can see where the hoop skirt ends. I also have a suspiscion that the tulle is not sewed to the hem of the dress if you look on the left side of Emmy's dress in that picture.
The hoopskirt is somewhat elliptical, but there is a bit of an oddshape in this picture:
Which shows that it is a bit oval. That is probably due to alot of sitting down or storage with this dress, but I guess we'll never truly figure that out... :(
Evidence is shown in this picture:
In the picture below, you can see how the skirt is attached to the waistband, and also the ties on the back of the bodice.
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Reference Images:
Taken by thepinkhobbit:
Taken by Grace!:
Inspiration/Other
