Ever After continues to be one of my favorite movies, self-rescuing princess, true love and historical costumes: what’s not to enjoy? Since a very young age I have wanted to have the dress. Anyone who has seen the movie knows the dress I am talking about; Danielle’s stunning glittery ball gown. After making over a dozen cosplays I felt up to the challenge, and thanks to the support of the Legion, I was able to afford the challenge!
This series of posts I hope will help with creating this particular cosplay, but if you have any questions don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send me a message. The video below provides a walk-through of the whole costume, so check that out before we dive in.
Specific details on construction and materials can be found in the following blog posts:
The Breathe dress involved a lot of research, recreating Hollywood costumes brings with it several challenges. Costumes designers have better access to materials, bigger budgets and often more tools. So it was time to scour the internet for information and materials.
I spent a long time dissecting references images of the dress, there is an amazing breakdown of the costume at EverAfterCostumes.com. A huge number of detailed and high-res references images, and many very helpful notes! This site became my life for a while. There are a lot of references images on the site, I found this set and this set to be the most helpful, offering lots of views and details. The general costume notes are also very helpful!
The first step in planning was then to sketch out the major sections of the costume for myself, in order to start researching a buying materials. Turns out the sleeves and bodice are made of 90% trims.
The next stage was identifying materials, amounts, and determining techniques for construction. To keep track of everything I created a spreadsheet identifying amounts for each trim, where it was being used, a brief description and a source. I was ordering so many from different online stores, I used color coding to keep track of what I had and what I was waiting on.
With the research and planning done it was time to construct.
And Breathe.
