Posted by silent_dreaming on 05-23-2009 - 04:08 AM
So, I've recently gotten into Le Chevalier D'eon. It's not your typical froofy anime with your teen romances or giant robots duking it out in the desert. Sure, I like those anime just fine, but sometimes you just need something different. Chevalier D'eon is different, and it's definitely not for everyone, but I've really come to like it!
And of course, when I like a thing, I want to cosplay it.
So, I've been thinking of making Queen Marie's outfit. But, I want to make it historically accurate. While the gown in the anime is very pretty, the reenactor/SCA crazy person in me wants to make it period. So, I've started to do some research to see if there are any historical precedents that I can use as a jumping off point for Marie's dress.
Here's the original dress :
Front :
Back :
And here are the paintings I've found that I'm going to use as sources :
Mademoiselle de Chateaurenaud
Jean Marc Nattier
This picture jumped out at me immediately. It has the same wide neckline and sleeves as Marie's gown, and is even in the same colour range. It doesn't have a stomacher like Marie's gown did, but still, it's very close. Here's another example of that kind of bodice and sleeve combination :
Theatrical Scene
Nicolas Lancret
None of these gowns have stomachers, but they do tend to have some sort of decoration down the centre front, be it ruching, flowers, etc. In the painting of Mlle de Chateaurenaud, the decoration seems to create a sort of false stomacher, mimicking the look of a centre panel when it looks like the centre front is all one piece. However, in the second painting it does look like there are some seamlines that follow the same lines as the ruching on Mlle de Chateaurenaud's bodice, so maybe they were actually cut that way. I need to do a bit more research before I decide which direction I'm going to go with seamlines.
I haven't found any evidence that the saque back was ever used with this sort of bodice, but when looking at Marie's gown it almost looks like en fourreau pleating, except that it isn't sewn down all the way to the waistline. It's sort of a weird en fourreau/saque gown mutant ropa stepchild. It makes no sense, and there's nothing that I've found that's like it. I haven't decided what I'm going to do in the back. The back of Marie's gown is sort of iconic, it's the part that everyone notices and remembers, so I don't want to mess with it too much. I guess there's only so far I can go on historical accuracy, but my research isn't finished yet.
And of course, when I like a thing, I want to cosplay it.
So, I've been thinking of making Queen Marie's outfit. But, I want to make it historically accurate. While the gown in the anime is very pretty, the reenactor/SCA crazy person in me wants to make it period. So, I've started to do some research to see if there are any historical precedents that I can use as a jumping off point for Marie's dress.
Here's the original dress :
Front :
Back :
And here are the paintings I've found that I'm going to use as sources :
Mademoiselle de Chateaurenaud
Jean Marc Nattier
This picture jumped out at me immediately. It has the same wide neckline and sleeves as Marie's gown, and is even in the same colour range. It doesn't have a stomacher like Marie's gown did, but still, it's very close. Here's another example of that kind of bodice and sleeve combination :
Theatrical Scene
Nicolas Lancret
None of these gowns have stomachers, but they do tend to have some sort of decoration down the centre front, be it ruching, flowers, etc. In the painting of Mlle de Chateaurenaud, the decoration seems to create a sort of false stomacher, mimicking the look of a centre panel when it looks like the centre front is all one piece. However, in the second painting it does look like there are some seamlines that follow the same lines as the ruching on Mlle de Chateaurenaud's bodice, so maybe they were actually cut that way. I need to do a bit more research before I decide which direction I'm going to go with seamlines.
I haven't found any evidence that the saque back was ever used with this sort of bodice, but when looking at Marie's gown it almost looks like en fourreau pleating, except that it isn't sewn down all the way to the waistline. It's sort of a weird en fourreau/saque gown mutant ropa stepchild. It makes no sense, and there's nothing that I've found that's like it. I haven't decided what I'm going to do in the back. The back of Marie's gown is sort of iconic, it's the part that everyone notices and remembers, so I don't want to mess with it too much. I guess there's only so far I can go on historical accuracy, but my research isn't finished yet.
United States