Les Miserables Cosette Dress

I am super excited for the new Les Miserables movie coming out this Christmas. I just love the costumes already:




In the novel, Victor Hugo conspicuously, colorfully overdressed Cosette to the point of bad taste to illustrate that Valjean was overindulging her, and that Cosette, with no mother or other girls to guide her, was highly isolated from the rest of society. I think only in the French version of Les Miserables do they really capture that plot point in the dress.

But most years Les Miserables ran on Broadway, Cosette wore what I called the doily dress:



Not until the 25th Anniversary Les Miserables Concert, do we see something with way bigger sleeves, and in a color wealthy, young girl would have liked.
 

Claire Danes as Cosette in the Liam Neeson version. (I can't believe the little cherub is now portraying a wild-eyed, fouled-mouth stalker/CIA agent on the show Homeland.)




Virginia Ledoyen as Cosette in the French 2000 mini-series. I love the dress she is wearing. But um, can I just say I also have a girl-crush on her? Something about the French...

More costume photos from the movie can be seen here.

Here's a 1830s dress that Cosette might wear.

Description from the original listing written by ThimblesandAcorns: "By the 1830s sleeves became a new focal point. They grew to exaggerated proportions and combined with the large bell shaped skirts they worked together to further diminished the appearance of the waistline. There were at least a dozen different styles of sleeves for day wear with romantic names such as "Cavalier", "Donna Maria", "Sultan" and "Medici". This dress features a Gigot style sleeve also known by its less refined name as the leg-o-mutton sleeve. The fabric is a 19th Century reproduction print and the skirt is calf length, which was the appropriate length for a pre-teen girl during the Victorian Era."

Photographed without a crinoline...
 

Young Victoria Evening Gown

This taffeta French Evening Gown was made by Doll Clothes of Yore. Apparently, she only has two copies left. The gown is modeled after early portraits of Queen Victoria and Empress Eugenie, though it would be appropriate for a doll time traveling between 1840-1860.

Young Victoria

Empress Eugenie Surrounded by Ladies in Waiting









Have you seen Emily Blunt in Young Victoria? I saw it in the theaters and I do re-watch it every few months on Netflex streaming. The movie was about Victoria's early power struggles and her maturing into a queen and wife, but there were some surprisingly charming and funny moments. I heard the actress Emily Blunt fought tooth and nail to win the leading role, thinking the movie would turn her into a Cate Blanchett. But secretly, I think she wanted the role in order to 1) wear gorgeous gowns 2) pet Cavalier King Charles Spaniels all day 3) and smooch the actor playing Prince Albert.

I have read the Christopher Hitchens' biography called, Queen Victoria Personal History. It's quite good except he somehow doesn't include much information about the potato famine in Ireland. I don't want to romanticize her reign, because the British empire expanded the most under her rule and even in modern times, we're still experiencing many of the nasty effects of colonialism. But from the biography, you get a sense of how deeply she loved her husband and children. In Victoria's early reign, she was considered a fashion trend-setter. However, after Prince Albert died in 1861, she donned on black for the rest of her life.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite gowns from the movie.
Emily Blunt as Young Victoria

Sigh. I want to get married in this blue dress. I don't care if I look dowdy for the 21st century. I will be at the peak of fashion for 1840!

Little Dorrit and the Grand Tour

The following gown was created by Doll Clothes of Yore.






The costume designer in the 2009 BBC version of Little Dorrit used beautiful costumes from the 1820s and 1830s period. During this period, the fashion was moving away from the plain, straight ancient Roman-inspired gowns, to Romantic "historicism" which had slashed sleeves and many embellishments, reminiscent of the medieval period. By the 1830s, the very fashionable gowns had puffy sleeves and bell shape skirts.

Here's a timeline of gown silhouettes, so you get a better idea of what I'm talking about.
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/presentations/vicfashions/timeline.htm









These styles seem earlier than the ones above--probably 1820s.




Real examples from the 1820s:








Definitely 1830 gown...

Souvenirs from Wonderland

Nellie (who also likes to traipse around as Alice) has brought back some souvenirs from a tea party.

"I guess someone needs to take care of these teapots!"


"What's all of this?" cries Samantha.


Nellie-Alice: "These belonged to the Mad Hatter. The Queen finally caught him."


"Gasp! Does he still have his head?!"


Nellie-Alice: "Well, he still wasn't making much sense when I last saw him. (Probably all that mercury poisoning.) But I believe the Queen has just thrown him in jail. He asked me to take care of these pots while he was away."


Nellie-Alice: "Aren't they so pretty?"



Nellie-Alice: "By the way, my entire outfit was made by the Enchanted Designer. It's based on the new Tim Burton movie. The blue coat Alice wears can also be seen on Violet in the Lemony Snicket movie."




The purple walking dress Rebecca is wearing was made by Doll Clothes of Yore. Samantha's purple dress was made by an unknown seamstress. Nellie's ensemble was made by Enchanteddesigner of Etsy.