The Red Shoes

I have always been fascinated by the 1948 film 'The Red Shoes', its very primitive special effects and the awesome colour used. But I never knew much about the original fairytale, so I read about it. Upon finding out it was published in the 1850s I wanted to adapt the image I had from the film to an historical Romantic-era ballet costume. I have always loved these early ballerina costumes so much!

I used this image as a source of inspiration, I love how the flowers are integrated into the design and I also like the butterfly/fairy wings so much (even though I wasn't thinking about including wings in this particular project, maybe in the future I will). So I used cotton voile to make my skirt and satin to make the bodice. I decided I would rip the skirt and the little puffed sleeves (made of organza) to show severe wear in the dress, because the red shoes would make the wearer dance non-stop, according to the fairytale.

As you can see I also added tiny paper flowers to add a more Victorian detail to the whole design. 

We walked into the mountains to take these pictures. It was a bit hard for me, because I had to be already wearing the costume while getting there and then I was soaking wet after a little while. I also lost the feeling in my hands and feet very quickly! I had to walk barefoot all the way back because my shoes had frozen and I couldn't put them on at all haha. But I think it was worth it, because the resulting pictures are quite impressive, I think photographer Miguel Arranz managed to capture the rich colours seen in the film. So thankful for him and his assistant to make this possible. 

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