Cinderella Ball Gown (Charming)

After 5-6 weeks of trial and error with this dress, I've finally started to wrap my head around what this dress should look like.  


This is obviously the classic ball gown that Cinderella will wear to the 3 nights of the festival. It was given to her by a magic tree planted art her mother's grave.

I couldn't really decide on a design til I knew what kind of Cinderella I was working with. When I determined her personality, the design came a lot easier after I got a better idea of who she was. 


I'm trying to really play into both Cinderella's and Charming's flaws and obstacles in this story.

Cinderella was raised in her own house as a servant with no one around to be her friend. She has a very lonely existence full of abuse and countless tasks. She's constantly told how she's worthless and how no one will ever love her.

On the night of the festival, the prince spends the entire evening with only Cinderella. Cinderella lets herself slip into this magical moment of fantasy and fairy tales, but she soon begins to worry of what the prince would think of her if he knew she wasn't a princess, so she runs from him. 

Cinderella is very self conscious so she can't picture someone like a prince falling in love with her.


I wanted to design a reluctant Cinderella of the sorts. I wanted the dress to be beautiful, but not over the top, and I wanted her to be able to get around in it, so the dress is actually quite loose (minus the light corset.) I also wanted the dress to stand out, but still keep Cinderella grounded.

Since the dress comes from a tree, I knew I wanted to play around with the visuals. I decided I wanted to incorporate vines and aspects from the tree to create a connection between the tree and dress.

I've decided that the color scheme will be shades of gold, copper, and possibly a light hint of green. I thought the corset could be a dark copper color, and then the sleeves could be a sheer light green or subtle gold, and then the skirt could be a couple of different shades of gold. 

I did some research of all types of corsets and I finally grew to like the silhouette of the 18th century for Cinderella.

Her hair is loosely held up by a bunch of flowers to play into that still humble and not over the top appearance I was going for. 

So, what do ya'll think? Do you like the dress design? Do you like the personality I have Cinderella? Do you like the ideas of the color scheme I described for the dress?