The Aminta costume

THE AMINTA COSTUME

Me checking out a wonderful Danish version of the Aminta costume
Photographer: Josefine S.

LATEST: I found a perfect salmon silk dupioni for this dress when fellow POTO costume maker Josefine was visiting me. She brought me some good costume karma! I also won a wonderful black lace off eBay, 100 yards and so pretty - a true bargain. With those materials I could start making the spunky Aminta costume, used in "Point of No Return" in "Phantom of the Opera". As of now I can call the dress finished. There are some final details to take care of, but that's mostly decorations and stuff. It's fully wearable, and had it's "premiere" at Det Ny Teater in Copenhagen April 4.th 2009. And what a great evening that was!!

HISTORY:
This dress has been a dream of mine for a long, long time. Unlike the slightly unplanned Phantom wedding dress, I've long wanted and planned to make the Aminta costume. It is a truly gorgeous outfit, being a crossover between a Flamenco dress (with scalloped skirt and the rose details) and a Rococo dress (with A-shaped closing, revealing a corset/stomacher underneath, plus the engageants at the cuffs). In total, it seems to be very Goya in style, taking the Spanish flair even further. I'm almost tempted to call it the Rococo equivalent of Steampunk... Last, but not least, it's worn in one of the most... erm... heated scenes in "Phantom of the Opera". Who does not want to be Christine after seing "Point of no Return"?

Maria Bjørnson's costume sketch is fairly detailed, and most stage costumes stays very close to it. There are however one detail that is very often left out which I will try to incorporate into my own replica - the white embroideried apron. Many European costumes has had variations of an apron, using a black-netting-with-embroidery one instead (see bottom of the page). That is neat as well, and maybe something to copy. But white linen aprons was much in vogue in the Rococo fashion, so it would be fun to add that little detail.

HISTORICAL DRESSES

1. Spanish Flamenco costumes (found on Google long ago)
2. "Masquise de Llano", A. R. Mengs, ca. 1775 (Royal Academy in London?)
3. A "Robe a la française", French, ca. 1780 (Kyoto Costume Institute, Japan)
4. "Mary, Countess of Howe", Thomas Gainsborough, 1764 (Kenwood House, London)

STAGE COSTUMES

1. Costume design for "Aminta", by Maria Bjørnson, ca. 1986
2. Early Broadway gown, possibly Sarah Brightman's, ca. 1988/1989
3. Jennifer Hope Wills, USA, ca. 2006
4. Sarah Brightman, West End, ca. 1986
5. Janine Kitzen, Stuttgart, ca. 2002
6. Closeup of the bodice, costume design

Aminta costume gallery

THE BODICE
The costume sketch shows that the skirt should have 5 scalloped edges/layers, plus one for bodice - six in total. This means you can see the bodice as a small jacket just as much as a bodice. Not too many stage costumes has adapted this feature, as it's easier to do the quick change with one piece of garb. However, newer US versions seems to be made this way (probably with the skirt attached inside to the bodice), and one or several Spanish costumes also showed this feature.

I ponded a long time on how to solve the "bodice VS jacket" issue. One option was to make an overdress (everything pink), being closed over a petticoat (the black/golden skirt) and stomacher, similar to Baroque Mantuas and Rococo dresses. I've posted a few picture references above which shows historical examples of such garbs. It would make it easier to put the costume, but a good solution had to be worked out for the stomacher area. Would a full bodice/corset be needed? How firmly should the overdress be fastened to the stomacher? And how? Another alternative was to make a short "jacket" (the bodice) and a separate skirt, still with front closure. A third alternative was to make it like the stage costumes, with either zipper or hooks and eyes + velcro in the back. The latter was something I didn't want. I wanted a plausible historical twist to the dress, and I wanted it to be easy to put on myself. So... alternative one or two?

I started with the stomacher. It's heavy boned with rigilene, and has five defined tabs and a curved top. The ground layers are of unbleached cotton, with black silk on top. On the sides I've attached various velvet appliquées in burgundy, green and black, cut out from a velvet fabric. The middle has a sort of crushed silk in black, with rich sequenced flower trims on top. They're so sparkly! There'll probably be mock lacing on top - I'm not sure yet.

Then I continued with the bodice. It has borrowed it's pattern in the back from my precious German Wishing gown, providing a nice, tailored bustle look. The front is drafted especially for this costume. I've used two layers of unbleached cotton, with rigilene boning, and salmon silk dupoini on the. All raw seams have been bound, and the bottom of the bodice is flounced and with black lace. I've also sewn on a rich, ornamented black trim with fringes in the neck opening, plus attached the sleeves. A bow has also been added in front, made of the same trim as the stomacher trim.

I'm attaching the stomacher to the bodice by hooks and eyes. The added bow in front also helps holding it together. So in the end I went for alternative number two. But I'm still not sure if this will be the permanent solution. I want to to be tight-fitting and snug, and I'm not sure the hooks are up to the task. We'll see. Anyhow, the bodice as of now is finished!

THE SLEEVES
The sleeves are also modelled after the Hamburg Wishing gown, as it provided the right length and shape. They're fairly narrow, and elbow long. The "cuffs" are full, with scalloped edges trimmed with black lace. They are finely gathered and sewn to the sleeves. A fine black leaf trim is added on top of the pleats, and there'll be white lace engageants underneath the pink silk. The sleeves are fairly Rococo in style, but the black scalloped edge is wicked and more Flamenco.

1. A photo taken in the dressing room we got to borrow at Det Ny Teater. I like the silhouette
2. A backshot. I like the bustle shape of the bodice.
3. Me and Flemming freakin' Enevold! Pure love.
4. Me in the Phantom's boat!! Again pure love.
5. Good thing my camera match the dress, eh?
6. Me with Teresia Bokor's gorgeous dress
7. The inside of the costume, with the skirt sewn to the bodice

THE SKIRT
...has been the craziest project I've ever worked on. Simply because it demands so much lace, and to get the lace how I want it to look I have had to cut it into shape, stitch it on and THEN zig-zag it on. Lots of work. I think I've used app. 15 hours on each scalloped layer, or app. 50 hours in total - and that is for the lace flounces alone...). I see now that I should have made the flounced layers even fuller, so get a rich look in front as well. It seem s a bit tight/strained there. But the result overall is really neat, I'm loving it, and I've never felt more feminine in a costume.

I've noticed that many stage costumes only have four layers in the skirt, possibly with the addition of one bodice scallop-layer (five in total). The costume design, however, suggests six layers in total, five in the skirt and one from the bodice. That's what I aimed for, and since I'm a fairly tall woman it suited me well. It's almost like I could have another layer of lace - or maybe a bit more distance between each layer. The skirt looks so long on the mannequin, but when I'm wearing it it's *almost* a bit short (but very in synch with the costume desing).

Details I plan to include from the design is the rose in the decolletage, plus lacing on the stomacher. I also want the apron!

THE APRON
The costume design shows a white apron, possibly with embroidery or lace in the bottom. The apron feature was long ignored in the stage costumes, until some European productions adapted it (West End, Spain, Germany and Denmark). However, they don't use white aprons, but transparent netting ones (either gold or black) with colourful embroidery and trims in the bottom. I'm not sure which route to take, as I like both looks, but here are some picture examples in the mean time:

1. "Mary, Countess of Howe", Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1764
2. Costume design for "Aminta", by Maria Bjørnson, ca. 1986
3. Mia Karlsson, Copenhagen, 2009
4. West End costume on display, West End, ca. 2005
5. Janine Kitzen, Stuttgart, ca. 2002

THE SKIRT AND SCALLOPED EDGES
The original versions of this costume used real lace for the scalloped edges of the skirt. Sarah Brightman had this in her original West End costume, and it was repeated in her Broadway costume. However, the "standard" embroideried version started appearing around 1989 and has been adapted all over the world. The embroideried pattern varies slightly, but all have this "heart-with-leafs" as a ground motif. For my own version I have chosen lace. I won a wonderful black lace off eBay, 100 yards to a most affordable price. But although the lace was beautiful, I wanted defined, pointed scallops, so I used a lot of time cutting it into shape. Even more time was used on stitching and zig-zag-ing it to the pink silk. The result is cool, but it was a time consuming task... Now, what's best to head for, lace or embroidery? It really depends.

PROS for LACE:
It's how the original costumes were made
It gives a rich flamenco look for the outfit
It might be easier than embroidery if the lace is ready-to-be-applied

PROS for EMBROIDERY:
It gives a "lighter" look than lace
There'll be pattern on both sides of the fabric, very nice in the cuffs
It's how current costumes are made
If you have an embroidery machine it'll make the job much easier compared to attaching lace
More on the scalloped skirt here

My goal was to finish this costume for a POTO event taking place in Copenhagen on April 4.th, and I think I can say I succeeded. Sure, I missed to finishing details, but no-one noticed. The event was that a friend of mine was seeing Phantom of the Opera for the 100th time (YUP!!), and we promised to dress up in costumes. The Aminta costume was a smart choice - not only was it easy to transport and easy to "squeeze" into a small theatre seat, but it was also very easy to move around in (unlike Josefine's dress with petticoat and train, he-he).

I got to see two versions of the Aminta costume backstage, and I noticed that they both have a lot of red in front. For some odd reason, that is a spunky accent colour to the salmon silk and black scallops, it brings out the best of the nuances. I will add that, somehow, to my own dress (which has a rather dark stomacher). So more to come....

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