18th Century Belle: The Blue Dress, Part 1

Belle's blue dress is one of her most iconic looks, second only to her fabulous yellow dress. There is very little about her blue dress that looks influenced by 18th century fashion, so I had to think a bit about how I wanted to interpret it. Though I am not a huge fan of her look in the live action movie, she does have some jackets over her blue outfit, which gave me an idea!

 

I decided to interpret her blue dress as a two piece outfit with petticoat and jacket. I will make it out of linen since it is more of a working class outfit, but I still want to give it a little trim and ruffles to make it pretty! The white collar will be reinterpreted as a white fichu tucked into the neckline of the jacket. I'm going to make my first set of stays in a blue color as well so that if the jacket is removed it will have more of the look of the animated outfit and also her outfit for the Broadway production.

I've purchased some of the fabric needed for my underpinnings and have found a source for the linen. I'm hoping I can get started soon, but I do have some other things I need to work on before I can really put all of my free time into this project!