FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Heir of Sea and Fire
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Other Credits
Photographer: Valerie Metzler
Outline the story …
I was inspired by Raederle of An, the main character of the novel "Heir of Sea and Fire" by Patricia A. McKillip. She is a princess of dual heritage—child of a kingdom rife with unquiet ghosts bound to their rulers’ will, and also heir to a sea-people whose guiding law is a love of wild magic. One of the first times she appears, in another character’s memory, she’s racing him in a long green dress, losing a handful of jeweled pins and leaving her hair “like a mane in the wind.” Later, to protect her beloved, she is driven to draw on her sea-heritage of illusion and power. She travels across her kingdom as the ghosts and dead rise to wreak havoc, and ultimately uses a necklace of cracked glass beads and the skull of a defeated king to bargain with his wraith.
Her clothing is rarely described, but her kingdom seems to be roughly based on ancient Ireland; the rest of the world draws on other cultures, and a material culture of jewels, textiles, spices, and fine workmanship is richly detailed. I have an incorrigible love of huge sleeves, so I went with a 12th century French bliaut for my depiction of Raederle. I worked from the Chartres cathedral statues, as well as a variety of illuminations and translations of contemporary descriptions of fabrics and fibers used in clothing. I also drew inspiration from 12th century decorative motifs to design the embroidered trim.
Outline the construction…
I made everything visible but my shoes. The shift is hand stitched linen with a slit neckline (closed with a tiny annular brooch); square gussets for sleeve ease; and triangular gores at the center front, center back, and sides.
The bliaut is based on statues at the Chartres Cathedral, and is made of ten yards of fine silk tissue. The bodice is mounted on linen with eyelets worked down the sides and tightly spiral laced with silk lucet cord, producing the characteristic torso creases. Because the Chartres statues appear to show a pleated or gathered-on skirt with a waist seam, the skirt is a simple rectangle gathered onto the linen bodice base. At the open sides of the bodice, I mounted the skirt onto tapes—conjectural construction, based on medieval illuminations and statuary.
The two-piece sleeves have small rectangular uppers and large rectangular drapes. The lower sleeve lining is doubled silk habotai, to keep the olive outer sleeve from showing through, and was tacked in after attaching the embroidered bands. All of the embroidery was worked with reeled silk on a single panel of brown silk tissue, which I then cut into strips, joined, and blind stitched onto the hem, sleeves, and cuffs. The collar was worked with finer thread and a more delicate design, and blind stitched onto the bodice.
The belt and (unseen) garters are plain-woven silk worked on a backstrap loom. The wool hosen are bias-cut after a medieval pattern and hand stitched with linen thread.
An amazing amount of forethought and creative detail work was invested in this most beautiful dress, right down to the inspiration, research, and photoshoot!
So amazing, the embroidery is especially impressive!
The bliaut is amazing and the accessories match it really well!
Love this costume – colours, embroideries, movement, fit. Excellent!
Fantastic. How many yards of material in those sleeves? 🙂 Great authenticity. Looks like an everyday outfit for this character- well worn.
Lovely work!
This is really gorgeous! I love all the details.
Beautiful work! The embroidery work is awesome too! I think it fits your character back story well.
This is amazing and I love the colour.
I love the colour, it matches really nicely with the trim, and those epic sleeves! A gorgeous interpretation of your character!
Love the color palette. Thanks for sharing your research inspiration. Your detail work is outstanding. Great job!!
You have a great eye for detail, and the color palette is wonderful. Well done!👏
Beautiful! I love the photos too!