Here is lovely Caitlin as the main character Margaret. Dave wanted her in red to make her stand out visually and to indicate her powerful personality. Caitlin has a fabulous figure that not many people are blessed to have, which made finding red dresses to fit her a bit tough. The best I could do was a dress of mine I thrifted a while back fortunately made of a stretchy fabric, which I've always liked because of the high-low skirt and the unusual combination of one flutter sleeve and two spaghetti straps on the other side. One of these days I'd like to make a copy of it by hand. The fit isn't perfect on her, but overall I think it's all right. Over her shoulder is my red blazer-- which Caitlin once remarked upon seeing as "very sharp" --to make her seem more serious and offiical in other scenes. The shoes were costume heels I thrifted specially for the purpose, which were sexy and striking but apparently quite uncomfortable. Apologies, Caitlin, you made them work beautifully even so.
Here is Plesser as the Duke of Suffolk. This is probably my favorite costume in the show. I found the jacket and the pants at the thrift store in Waltham, separately even though they match so well. The red collared shirt is from club storage, actually quite nice, chosen because of his allegiance to the red-rose Lancaster family. It also made a nice subtle connection with Magaret The "boots" aren't actually boots, but rather a pair of brown dress shoes under the leather half-chaps I wear to horseback ride. The belt belonged to Plesser, fortunately matching the color of the boots. I like this ensemble particularly because it looks very, very much like pictures of my my great-grandfather in his WWI cavalry uniform. I made the sash myself out of synthetic red shantung, trimmed in yellow braid I had among the sewing notions my mom packed up for me. He looks very handsome, and I don't think I came up with a sharper look for this show.
Here are Charlottte and Steph as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. It's a little hard to tell in Charlotte's picture because of the weird light, but I fashioned a uniform for her out of a blue blazer and a pair of navy tuxedo pants I found at the Garment District, which made me decide that the color of this couple with be blue. I wanted to get Charlotte a real military dress uniform, but I couldn't find one in any store I could get to in the time I had; there wasn't time to order one online. So I had to improvise. In order to make the blue wool blazer more like a dress jacket, I sewed red and gold braided trim on the cuffs, the pockets, and across the shoulders. More gold fringe like on Plesser's sash was sewn to the shoulders, and a larger version like what you'd find on the edges of a rug went across either breast. At Charlotte's suggestion, three more gold buttons were put on to make it look more like a men's jacket. A white mandarin-collared dress shirt she had completes the look. I wish I'd had time to take in the waist of the tuxedo pants, but otherwise they created the right look. Beside her is Steph in the iridescent blue dress with the cowled back that Emma so graciously lent us. I think it's very flattering on her, and the way it shimmered beneath the lights was lovely. I am very glad they ended up in the blue because it made them stand out nicely against all the olive-drab in court, and because it made for a great moment when Margaret and the duchess faced off and created a great visual of red versus blue.
To be continued in another installment!
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