FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
The Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s Sonnets
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Outline the story …
The Dark Lady is a character from Shakespeare’s sonnets. The most famous Dark Lady sonnet is sonnet 130. The Dark Lady is portrayed there as a woman who does not stand up to the ideal of beauty presented by renaissance poets, but that does not make her any less worthy of love.
I decided to place her character in the 1590s because the Dark Lady sonnets were probably written during that time. Many researchers argue what ‘dark’ means in this case. Design-wise, I interpreted it that she was a noblewoman and therefore, she wore black gowns. I also added the contrasting dark red sleeves because, in Elizabethan England, red was a symbol of wealth. The embroidered collar features three motifs:
Phoenix – the phoenix motif is inspired by the Phoenix portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. The phoenix symbolizes immortality, and I used it because many of Shakespeare's sonnets speak of immortality.
Flowers – the design is inspired by an embroidery on a 1580 doublet from the MET Museum. The flowers tie together the phoenix and the heart motif.
Heart and arrows – the design is inspired by a motif in Janet Arnold’s Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d. It signifies the love affair which the Dark Lady had with the poet and the Fair Youth (another character from Shakespeare’s sonnets).
My main inspiration for the design was the portraiture from the era and also costumes from the 2013 Shakespeare’s Globe production of Twelfth Night.
Outline the construction…
I used the pattern for the Pfalzgrafin Sabina Dorothea gown from Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 3. Underneath I am wearing a smock (Patterns of Fashion 4), a pair of bodies (Patterns of Fashion 3), a petticoat and a bum roll. This is my very first historical costume, and I struggled a bit with the fit of the bodice, but Foundations Revealed articles helped me a lot to put this gown together. I didn’t do many alterations to the pattern because it was luckily very close to my own measurements, I only added a couple of centimetres to the waist and I also lengthened the skirt and the bodice.
The bodice is entirely handsewn and it’s made of black cotton velvet. The skirt is made of black stretchy cotton velvet and it is cartridge pleated at the waist. The bodice is flatlined with white cotton/linen fabric. I used a reproduction of a Spanish renaissance brocade (synthetic blend) for the sleeves. They are fastened with thread wrapped buttons that I made myself. The collar is pad stitched and embroidered in a stem stitch with gold metallic thread.
The bows on the skirt are made of the same fabric as the sleeves, but they have only decorative function because I was not able to purchase historically accurate aglets.
I love the color palette for this costume!
Thank you so much!
The finishing on the inside is so neat! The embroidery is beautiful 🙂
Thank you so much! ❤️
Gorgeous! Love the shape of the bodice. Well done!
Thank you! ❤️ The bodice was mostly done by trial and error 😅
This is so visually stunning.
Thank you ❤️❤️❤️
So striking! A beautiful ensemble.
Thank you ❤️
great work on the colors and embroideries !
Thank you ❤️
Beautifully made!!
Thank you! ❤️
It turned out so fantastic! Love the colors and the details!
Thank you so much! 🥰 🥰 🥰
Striking. Very nice work.
Thank you so much ❤️
Stunning!
This is really beautiful! I love the thought that went into designing each part of the outfit, and the finished result is very striking, well done!
I really like this – especially the colour combination. The buttons look lovely and the embroidery too. Such a great silhouette.