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Nov
18

‘Dangerous Beauty’ Gown

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‘Faux Venetian’ Ensemble – May 2006

This gown was loosely inspired by the 1998 movie Dangerous Beauty, the story of Veronica Franco, a courtesan in 16th century Venice. The movie is a lovely story and features absolutely breathtaking costumes. I decided to make one of the ‘Courtesan’ dresses for the Georgia Renaissance Festival in 2006.

As with many of my personal costumes, I attempted to make this with mostly ‘stash’ fabrics. The overdress is made with a colonial blue fine silk dupioni, and edged with a gold-toned silk bias binding.

One of the major characteristics of the ‘Dangerous Beauty’ gowns are the lush trims used – so I searched high and low for the perfect trim. I finally found some on Ebay:

Somehow I missed that there were bright blue sequins all over the trim – but luckily I was able to remove them fairly easily once I had it in-hand. Unfortunately, that did leave an unfinished edge along the trim edge, which I covered with more of the gold silk bias edging.

The overdress went together fairly quickly – the bodice is lined with cotton twill, and has spring steel boning throughout for support. I made a gold modesty panel to go behind the lacing. I used gold toned lacing clasps for the lacing rather than grommets or hand-bound eyelets – I think they add a rich accent.

The breeches are a fawn colored cotton velveteen lined in cotton muslin, and they tie at the knee with more of the gold lacing clasps. The outfit is finished off with white cotton stockings, beaded gold shoes, and sleeve bands with gold embroidered organza.

Overall I’m pleased with this outfit – but it feels a little naked at the top. Before I wear it again, I plan on adding on some sort of beaded straps, and perhaps making a gold network partlet to wear with it. It needs *something* up there. I’m also not terribly happy with the way my bustline looks – although I may have simply laced it too tightly that day. It needs some experimentation.

No matter what the imperfections, I still love this outfit for the simple reason that on the day I wore it, my now-husband proposed to me. ;) So I must have been doing SOMETHING right! ;)

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