Brave: If The Dress Fits, Put It On!

Brave appears to have some very realistic costumes (with a few exceptions). Thus, I have taken on writing up some notes and observations about them for you. I was planning on going to a prescreening tomorrow, but things have come up and I will be unable to attend (boo hiss). The nice thing about going to a prescreening: you get to check all your facts. The nice thing about *not* going: you don't have to remember everything and write it just-so. Thus begins my commentary on Merida's outfits, and how they are anything BUT just so.

Merida has two basic dresses and a cloak. The first dress I examined was her green travel/hunting dress. It appears to be made from linen, or something with a looser weave and thick thread. Goes to the ankles. If you have $150 laying around, you might consider stopping my ArmStreet and taking a look at their linen Autumn Princess dress. Slight differences include a boat neck and no cream lining, but hey. It is close.

The dress is, incidentally, very close to the one in the painting The Lady Clare--down to the cut of the sleeves and the striped underdress. It made me begin to wonder if the one was not modeled after the other. Who knows if that was the intent or a happy coincidence, but I would say it wouldn't be too hard to simply create a green Lady Clare and call it Merida's dress.

Merida's other dress, her Princess dress, appears to be made of a lighter, satiny fabric. It has the same basic cut as the travel dress, but it is much tighter--hence the tearing that occurs when Merida enters the archery contest. It appears to have the same cream underdress as the Travel Dress does. The belt is a fairly simple gold belt--if you look at the pictures, you could easily create the same thing with some wide golden ribbon, a snap and some jewels. I am still hunting for a replica of her head covering.

Ok, I would never make a version of the ripped dress, just because, well, it is ripped. However, here is a solidly constructed dress that could imitate the tears. Grab your bow, ladies!

Underdress: This, perhaps, is a silk or satin? It has a sheen, and is striped. Is almost as long as the other dress, but shows at the sleeves and collar with a ruffle. If you don't mind losing the stripes, I'd be willing to bet that the Flax Linen Underdress/Chemise from ArmStreet is about what Merida is wearing. In other words, a nighty.

Finally, Merida has an awesome swishy cloak. The fabric appears to be a sort of woolen fabric. Appears to have a hood. Stops about six to 12 inches above hem of dress in some shots--in others it appears a bit longer. It is easy to find cloaks, but hard to find ones with this specific length. I think almost any generic cloak would pass, for a costume, though. 

More notes to come later....