POETRY IN COSTUME

Costume | It’s Like Poetry @Xenadd | she/her | Professional Costumier for film | Occasional Cosplayer | Instagram.com/poetryincostume

[poetryincostume]

The Saddest Girl In The World

Edwardian-ish ribbon corset with beading, 2023

Silk ribbon, cotton taffeta ribbon, Czech glass beads

[poetryincostume]

I’m still very slowly but steadily working through sampler after sampler with pleasing results. Also frustrating just bc I have so little time and so much fatigue.

This is one sampler from about 6 weeks ago that I think is particularly pretty, and a nice break from regular fans and footsides. There are some tensions issues; i’m working on that.

Pricking from Ulrike Voelcker Discover Torchon

Using Fil au Chinois 36/2

[poetryincostume]

Lady Tewkesbury’s Banquet Gown - Enola Holmes 3

Designed by Consolata Boyle

Made by Thomas von Nordheim

Alongside my role as Costume Buyer on Enola Holmes 3, I was regularly asked to take on ‘special projects’ by the costume designer, Consolata Boyle. Mostly these were pieces of embellishment and trimming which are particularly valued by Consolata for the important character and texture they give to costumes.

Most notably was this bodice embroidery and trimming for Lady Tewkesbury at Enola and Tewkes’ engagement banquet. The lace trim was a piece of antique lace from my personal collection.

[poetryincostume]

A truly incidental nothingmuch:

For my mum’s birthday I stumbled across this deliciously vibrant 2nd edition of Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train.

There was a lovely bookmark pattern at the end of my torchon lace workbook I earmarked for her. Lucky for me I had a handful of reels of lovely silk yarn that just so happened to perfectly coordinate with the book. You could almost think I planned it.

Sadly I did not have any reds or pinks in a good weight, but don’t you worry: I made a suitably violent mount to make up for it

[xenadd]

Butterfly catching with Frankenstein at Selfridges

With the imagery of Elizabeth as a beetle, a butterfly, something other and short lived and out of place, this dress to me feels the most like a chrysalis precursor of the wedding dress.

The base silhouette and fabric are the same malachite weave as the green shopping dress and red refusal dress. All three are based on the same bodice and skirt pattern, differing in detailing, overlays and sleeve shapes. This shape is the most conventional, and suggests the trapped and controlled feeling Elizabeth expresses as she is stuck in this shape and pattern. Even the two blue formal gowns follow the same basic shape. It is with her first encounter with the Creature that her silhouette changes.

This dress, the butterfly dress, is the softest of the three malachite dresses with the addition of sheer layers of chiffon, the pussy bow, the bodice overlay. The voluminous movement of the sheer layers is much more controlled here, the floating layers and layers of the wedding dress only in a nascent form here.

There is no purple, no red in the butterfly gown - this is the furthest she is from the Creature and arguably her closest brush with making her on choice away from what is expected of her through her brief interest in Victor.

It is an echo of her future in those soft, ephemeral layers, the sheer layer shaped over the bodice. The white skirts catching through the yellows reminiscent is an inverse of the spreading bloody reds trapped under the gossamer whites of her wedding gown.

The romanticism of the gossamer blood - the way that it isn’t a naturalistic bleeding out but rather is, itself, a new metamorphosis transforming her gown. The deep rich burgundy of the bleed as it seeps up and up. Like her mauvine bonnet, like the creeping trims of her earlier gowns, like the colours of the Creature’s skin.

White bleeding through yellow, red bleeding through white but still trapped and out of reach. Elizabeth’s metamorphosis into the Bride is never fully realised

[xenadd]

Elizabeth’s Bride Gown, designed by Kate Hawley

Frankenstein at Selfridge’s, 2025

I was able to take a second, final visit to the Frankenstein exhibition before it closes tomorrow. This time paying so much more attention to the construction and details on display.

I gasped when when I noticed the careful delicate seam and dart work at play here, the lines flowing between fabrics and panels and perfectly building that fluttering moth-wing delicate layering. Mia Goth describes Elizabeth as ephemeral and smoke like, and it couldn’t be more true than with this stunning fleeting costume.

[xenadd]

Frankenstein at Selfridges, 2025

Reader, I saw it again. So here is a tiny selection of just a few of my favourite details from the the exhibition at Selfridges.

[winniethewife]

I'm Obsessed with the malachite patterned dress and if anyone can tell me where to get that fabric I would be eternally grateful.

[xenadd]

The fabric was custom woven for the production by a long-standing mill that now largely focuses on furnishing fabrics. A lot of period productions end up using furnishing fabrics, particularly Victorian productions. The weight is often better, and many of the few remaining legacy mills are largely dedicated to furnishing fabrics now. (This mill is one of the last mills still producing genuine embossed moire rather than the woven moire more widely found.) (as much as moire is widely found.)

After the introduction to Mary Shelley and Romantics, the first thing you see in the exhibition is the green dress with several samples, bolts and exploratory fabric R&D. There is also a reference piece of malachite on a drafting table with a concept of Victor’s dressing gown.

The same fabric quality was produced and used in multiple colours for the butterfly gown and the refusal gown.

[xenadd]

On a related note, there was also a lot of digital printing of fabric - the samples at the back are printing samples.

The clearest example at the exhibition was Elizabeth’s introduction grown worn with the archival Tiffany’s scarab jewellery.

Layers and layers of organza printed with what appears to be ice/glacier or water imagery. An omen of both Victor’s past and Victor’s future.

[xenadd]

Frankenstein at Selfridges, 2025

Reader, I saw it again. So here is a tiny selection of just a few of my favourite details from the the exhibition at Selfridges.

[xenadd]

If you have them (and the time) would you be able to post any pics of Victor’s presentation outfit and creation outfit from the Selfridges display? 🥺

(trying to figure out the pattern on the vest for the former and the trousers for the latter, they both looked like printed velvets to me but I’ve only seen the movie once so far…)

I only have these two wider shots of Victor’s presentation look - Elizabeth’s intro dress was opposite and there was a group of people blocking me from getting some decent close ups.

I don’t believe it is one of the Italian plaid velvets, but it’s hard to say from these/released promo shots and I can’t remember for sure from the film. To my eye it reads as a rich black that has been heavily broken down - this is a more formal waistcoat for his academic consideration hence the white braid trim - albeit worn and darned and unloved.

There was also this lab/apartment look at the exhibition - I conflated it w the presentation look in my head which I think may you are also.

The waistcoat front is checked Italian velvet. The trim and waistcoat back are chintz. I was entirely captivated by the waistcoat-back pad stitching, and defo got some concerned looks from the nearest security person. Chintz is particular kryptonite of mine - I have to buy it whenever I find any vintage/original lengths, no matter the colour.

Silk buttons, probably original, linen shirt, veg tan apron and of course those genius blood red gloves.

[xenadd]

I don’t have a wide shot of the creation costume for some reason, apologies! I hope that these help.

The trousers are, I believe, the same quality Italians velvet, this time in a window pane check. The breakdown and bleach work on them is absolutely stunning

I do, however, have a very many photos of the stunning braces used on this costime. That central braid running through them! Considering the level of detail and the number of repeats needed for this costume, these were definitely made for the project rather than sourced.

Plus fastening detail of the blood red gloves.

~Bonus~ tiny Creature!

[xenadd]

Elizabeth’s visiting dress, Frankenstein (2025)

After the wedding dress, this is probably the costume of Elizabeth’s I spent the longest looking at, which feels appropriate. There were a lot of beautiful details including the lamé fringing tassels, perfectly matched silk covered buttons, the incredible inspectors layering of colours and fabric textures. The amount of careful colour matching across fabrics that was done which is an achievement in itself.

Most of all I was utterly captivated by the lace trim trapped between layers of chiffon at the cuff, placed immediately between the sheer undersleeve and the sheer gloves. The volume of storytelling in that one tiny detail.

[xenadd]

Elizabeth’s wedding dress, Frankenstein (2025)

Kate Hawley, your mind

[poetryincostume]

Oil and water. Wasn’t meant to be

Violet von Arcane Jacket, 2021-23

Pigskin suede, lamb nappa, silk, brass

[poetryincostume]

I’ve been a combination of burnt out and uninspired and busy with work which means I have done next to no personal sewing for a distressingly long time. I did, however, teach myself to knit a few months ago after twenty years of failing and months of yearning for Audrey Horne’s red jumper (but in black.) I haven’t finished said jumper, but it is mostly done!

One thing I have, however, completed is reupholstering this chair I use in my bedroom! I picked this up off eBay in the depths of the first covid lockdown with every intention of reupholstering it. Four years, a whole new bedroom later and this totally period correct dinosauria linen, the chair is finally has a whole new life!

This Edwardian corner chair was in sad state. The base webbing was rotten and falling apart, and when I took it apart I very much regretted having this chair sitting as was in my personal space for so long so filled with dust and filth and rotten canvas.

Cotton and linen upholstery herringbone tape and a sturdy cavalry twill from my stash make up the base. The chair was padded with hair canvas and layers of silk-cotton padding from my stash sandwiched with more twill. Although this was a long overdue project, it was only half consciously planned so a lot of improv in terms of ‘proper’ materials happened.

To trim, all that I had to hand that felt appropriate was this vintage French fringe. It isn’t really right for a chair but turned out well as the body of the chair is pockmarked with its history of shoddy reupholsters over the years. The end result is ridiculous and kitschy and I love it.

Most importantly I have enough fabric and trims left to make a few cushions to match.

[xenadd]

I wonder if, when the nice lady sold me this beautiful antique trim, she knew it would be used exclusively for subpar dinosaur upholstery

1am made lumbar pillow for my desk chair so I made it slightly smaller than the intended pillow inner to encourage extra squish with herringbone ribbon ties to keep securely in place. With a silk-viscose velvet back which you should not use for upholstery unless you first mount it on something robust. I did not bc it was 1am.

And there is MORE fabric left so I will be making more cushions. Eventually. Probably also at 1am.

[poetryincostume]

I’ve been a combination of burnt out and uninspired and busy with work which means I have done next to no personal sewing for a distressingly long time. I did, however, teach myself to knit a few months ago after twenty years of failing and months of yearning for Audrey Horne’s red jumper (but in black.) I haven’t finished said jumper, but it is mostly done!

One thing I have, however, completed is reupholstering this chair I use in my bedroom! I picked this up off eBay in the depths of the first covid lockdown with every intention of reupholstering it. Four years, a whole new bedroom later and this totally period correct dinosauria linen, the chair is finally has a whole new life!

This Edwardian corner chair was in sad state. The base webbing was rotten and falling apart, and when I took it apart I very much regretted having this chair sitting as was in my personal space for so long so filled with dust and filth and rotten canvas.

Cotton and linen upholstery herringbone tape and a sturdy cavalry twill from my stash make up the base. The chair was padded with hair canvas and layers of silk-cotton padding from my stash sandwiched with more twill. Although this was a long overdue project, it was only half consciously planned so a lot of improv in terms of ‘proper’ materials happened.

To trim, all that I had to hand that felt appropriate was this vintage French fringe. It isn’t really right for a chair but turned out well as the body of the chair is pockmarked with its history of shoddy reupholsters over the years. The end result is ridiculous and kitschy and I love it.

Most importantly I have enough fabric and trims left to make a few cushions to match.

[poetryincostume]

The Madwoman

Aesthetic wrapper, 2020

Upholstery damask, silk ribbon, petersham, steel spun silk

[poetryincostume]

False combinations with s-bend corset, 2020

Organic cotton/linen, cotton dobby, cotton lace, silk thread, satin ribbon

Silk matka, cotton coutil, cotton poplin, satin ribbon, cotton lace, antique brass suspenders

[poetryincostume]

My zelda project was borne out of a similarity in silhouette with belle epoque silhouette, and my own meandering musings on just how (understandably) terrible the Zelda of BotW must be at fine sewing and the frustrations with and disastrous state of her entirely non-existent trousseau.

After watching the BotW GDC talk ‘Breaking Conventions’ (which I can’t recommend enough), I decided to approach this project on the same principles as the actual game: triangles! I wanted to insert and form triangles in as many elements as possible.

These combinations are false in that they were intended to be combinations - camisole and drawers in one, joined at the waist. When it came time to create the necessary opening in the camisole I couldn’t bring myself to do it as I loved it as it was. (Also I have an inconvenient button phobia so I was humming and hawing over fastenings. I took the easy way out.) These combinations are really separates, but that can be our little secret.

The top was drafted using the ‘handkerchief’ method which would have been a means for a lady to recycle a worn out (or perhaps elevate an especially beautiful) handkerchief by dividing it into four equal triangles which would then make up the centre front and back, and two side panels. Assembled, this would then gather into a waist and could be used as a camisole, corset cover or, as here, the upper body of combinations. The legs were a very simple circle drawer, with the same arguably triangular pattern pieces front and back gathered into the waistband, and lightly gathered into a kneeband (slot lace here.) As was for correct for this period, these drawers are left open along the crotche.

Some of the panels were pintucked for additional embellishment and to elaborate on the lovely cotton dobby I used for some panels.

The main labour was in the insertion lace: every single seam was joined with lovely cluny lace. Every seam was then worked over by hand using three point stitching, which creates lovely rows of decorative stitched triangles. Hundreds of little triforces for a Hylian Princess! With the number of seams from panelling and insertion, and the width before gathering (each drawers leg is 2m wide) this was a lengthy process.

[poetryincostume]

Princess Zelda, 2020

False combinations with s-bend corset

Organic cotton/linen, cotton dobby, cotton lace, silk thread, satin ribbon

Silk matka, cotton coutil, cotton poplin, satin ribbon, cotton lace, antique brass suspenders