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Odessa’s La Belle Dame Sans Merci
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Outline the story …
The character of La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a medieval fantasy told through the lens of early 19th-century romanticism, in this case, the poet Keats. My take on her is that she is a sort of timeless figure. Maybe she has been alive for hundreds of years from our human perspective.
I wanted to incorporate different elements of different eras in her style, as if she’s just mischievously picked things up over the centuries and made them her own. I also envisioned her as a sort of queen of the forest. This woodland is her domain, so she rejects those who don’t belong there. Maybe she indulges her curiosity about these humans first, but then she moves on.
I interpreted the “garland” that the knight in the poem makes for her more like a crown and I wanted to avoid too many soft, feminine, flowery motifs. Instead, I focused on leaves and vines and branches to give a sharper, more powerful look.
While most of the colors in the outfit are shades of green and white to evoke ethereal connectedness to nature, I wanted to throw in a dash of provocative red. Waterhouse painted this character wearing a red kirtle with a band around her arm that has a heart embroidered on it. I wanted to pay homage to that with my embroidered stomacher. Instead of choosing a softer, romantic heart, I made it in a flame color gradient, going from blue to red with tendrils escaping the sides.
Outline the construction…
I started building this outfit from the skin out, starting with a self-drafted linen shift based on historical garments. For the stays, I used Redthreaded’s 1780s stays pattern as my starting point. I made several fit alterations and closed the back lacing panel so that I had a lacing gap to show my hand-embroidered stomacher without sacrificing structure.The stomacher kept getting somewhat crushed when wearing it under my stays, so I added a few horizontal bones to give it more rigidity based on the advice of some amazing Instagram people.
I drafted the cloak with a very oversized hood for a touch of mysterious glamor. I decided to pleat the center back of the hood in a way similar to what I’ve seen on extant cloaks from the later 18th and early 19th centuries.
Then, I made a tulle overskirt decorated with leaves and vines. I have never worked with tulle before and I didn’t order nearly enough for the volume I wanted. At the last minute, I had to rethink the skirt situation. I made a pin-tucked petticoat out of cotton voile to be worn under the tulle skirt. That over-skirt, then, could be slashed to give the illusion of more volume.
I also created the garland crown based on some Pinterest tutorials for creating antlers out of pipe cleaners and floral tape. I adapted that method to create a more branch-looking effect. I added some alpaca wool mitts I loomed to complete the outfit.
Great job ! The stays are beautiful, and I love the leaves decorations !
Thank you so much! I had a lot of fun playing with leaf placement!
I really love this ensemble, Odessa! I can really imagine you wearing this traipsing through the forest and holding court! The heart embroidery is beautiful, and the mitts look SO warm and cozy!! Great work!
That’s just what I was hoping for! Thank you so much for your kind words. The mitts turned out so soft, I love alpaca wool! I ended up wearing them a lot day-to-day, actually!
I love all the details you put into this!
Thank you, Sophie!
The ivy detail looks so good! And that cape just finishes off the look perfectly❤
Thank you! I love capes… any excuse to make another one, really!
Good job, I really like the stays! The colour combination, the fabric you used. Really cute!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, looks wonderful. Love love those stays and the embellishments.
It still looks so, so wonderful, I really love what you did with your interpretation!
I love this! It’s really very well done! Those stays are wonderful! Thank you!
This is so cool!