Persephone
This was my 2019 Halloween costume, and is meant to be the Greek goddess Persephone. The inspiration for it actually is somewhat different from what I normally do; usually, when starting a project, I pick a description from a book I really like and run with that. For this, though, I didn’t really have any ideas at all for what I wanted to do, so I went to a local fabric store to browse. There, I found the pink and red lace fabrics that are present on the dress (see below for more detailed pictures of those). They immediately made me think of Persephone, so I bought them and went home to sketch up ideas.
The dress itself is very loosely inspired by the shape of the garments worn by Franklin Simmons’ Penelope (1896) and Antonio Canova’s Dancer (1811-1812), though it’s definitely not historically accurate. I wanted there to be a feeling of the wearer being shrouded in mist, so I made a cloak out of thin, sheer white fabric. The red lace is positioned to look both like flowers growing up the dress and blood seeping up from the hem to show the life and death contrast that comes along with Persephone and her place in the Greek pantheon.
Sketches and Design
After buying the fabric, I started the process of sketching out the dress. I drew out a few different ideas, most of which I unfortunately can’t find, but I did end up with the ideas on the right. The first shows a fully lined version of the costume, as well as the front and back, which was especially useful in terms of figuring out where I wanted the pleats on the bodice and skirt to go. It also shows the side of the cloak sleeve, which is open to show the pink lace that hangs from the shoulders of the dress. The second picture shows where I thought the lace fabric would go.
Obviously, there are some differences between these and the finished dress. For one, I moved away from the mask idea, but more notably, I completely changed where most of the pink lace went, making it more of an accent than it had originally been in the far right design. This is one of the things I liked about working on a costume that I didn’t have a description for; because I had no set idea in mind, I could change it up as I went. It’s also one of the advantages of making my own patterns, as I did with this costume.
This photo better shows the change in the detailing that I mentioned above. As can be seen, the pink has been reduced from snaking all over the skirt and bodice to just being accents on the sides that lay over the arms. As shown in the photo below, the pink lace also goes across the back of the dress, hanging down over the low dip at the back. Originally, I had thought about doing more than one strip both on the shoulders and the back, but after pinning it in place and looking at it, I decided to just go with one, since more than that would have been too crowded.
The pleats on the front and back are all tacked down carefully to keep them in place, and are lined up with the ones on the skirt.
Makeup and Accessories
When deciding on the makeup for this costume, I wanted to do something dark and dramatic, while keeping the floral element, and ended up sticking small dried flowers near my eyes. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good photos of that.
The only piece of jewelry I made is the necklace, which is just one of the flowers from the red lace that I threaded onto a gold chain. The earrings are gold hoops with flowers on them, which I bought from Forever21 and can’t find a link for. The crown is from the Etsy seller Ayalga, who I can absolutely recommend for the quality and creativity of their designs.
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to my mom, who helped sew down all of the red lace, took the dramatic photos, and was a great sounding board for tricky problems!