Like I said in the previous post, about the Rapunzel edit, I’m a history nerd x)
I’m not the first one to do this, but I wanted to have my try at historical accurate Rapunzel ^^ The creators confirmed that the setting of Tangled was in Germany, in the 1780′s. I used that information for my sources in order to create a historical design for her ^^
If you want to know how I made this design, why Rapunzel looks like this, and see my sources, keep reading ^^
First off, the most important part: the hair. In the 1780′s, women wore a hairdo called the hedgehog. What really inspired Rapunzel’s hairdo in my design was this self-portrait by Marie-Gabrielle Capet, painted in 1783. I thought the hairdo was very beautiful (needless to say the portrait itself!) and had a more juvenile look than a simple hedgehog, which would suit Rapunzel best (with a ribbon matching her dress).
Moving on to the dress. She isn’t wearing purple, because before the 1850′s, synthetic dyes weren’t made. Before, purple (called Tyrian purple) was made from the mucus of a snail. The extracting and drying in the sun process was very long and laborious. Therefore, it was a very expensive dye. For a long time, purple was worn by emperors, monarchs and clergymen. Which is why this color was associated with royalty. So there’s no way Rapunzel would be wearing a purple dress, given that she is a girl living in a tower away from the world, not yet knowing she is royalty, and I don’t see Mother Gothel spending a fortune on her dress.
So, pink was the closest color! And there were many dresses made in pink back then, especially since the color began to rise in popularity during the 18th century.
As for Rapunzel’s clothing style, she would not be dressed as a princess like in the movie. She is a girl locked in a tower and has never left it or been outside in society. So, I went for a working class style for her dress (with a few embellishments).
I wanted to make sure that even as a lower class woman, she would still be wearing pink. I found these two paintings that confirm she would!
For her jacket, there wasn’t much to change, since it is one of the elements of her original dress that are pretty historically accurate. The slashed sleeves weren’t: those are from the Renaissance. I also changed the cuffs slightly. I changed the lacing of the corset as well, based on these images from 18th century working class women from Strasbourg (a French city at the German border, close enough!)
And of course, a typical element of late 18th century dresses, the fichu, a kerchief or scarf that was tucked in the front of the bodice, meant to cover the decolleté for modesty. As I saw in some paintings, the fichu didn’t always cover up the whole bust and neck area, and was sometimes open. I decided to go with that look to emulate Rapunzel’s feminine, young and free-spirited personalty.
You can see it just a bit, but the back of her jacket has “flaps”. I thought it would be a nice touch to her outfit. You can see what these flaps look like here.
For the skirt, I kept the “parted” look from her original dress. However, I thought a cream colored middle suited her better than a darker colored middle. It compliments her white cuffs and fichu.
Then, I added a simple floral pattern to her skirt! I wasn’t sure I was going to add a pattern, since working class women usually didn’t have any embroidered on their dresses (or maybe stripes at the most). But then, the creators said that Rapunzel sewed her own dresses. So, since she is artistic, and likes decorating the tower, I figured she would probably add some floral decorations to her skirt as she sewed it too.
The length of her skirt is lightly above her ankles, a practical length for working class women who needed that extra mobility. And we all know how energetic Rapunzel is, so it made sense to have her skirt at that length.
I also kept her barefoot! Because...why would she need shoes anyway? She never goes outside (until Eugene finds her). And it would probably be a way to keep her inside the tower by not giving her shoes too. Plus, we know that she clearly prefers being barefoot rather than wearing shoes. (Also, here is an 18th century image of a woman outside with no shoes on, which shows that keeping Rapunzel barefoot is not totally unjustified!)
Voilà! Those are the sources that helped me create this design ^^
