Padme Amidala Padmé's Packing Dress in AOTC

Good eye! I'm glad this was pointed out before I start decorating my front panel. I also noticed the differences in the lace background on the panel. At the parade fitting, the lace behind the beads/embroidering looks different and takes up more space on the panel than the promo shots. I guess I?ll go by the promo shot?
=Cressie

 

Hey,
I'm just a Padme dress lurker and I was reading through this and some of you believe that there might have been more than one dress made. As a film maker, I would like to put my two cents in. Of course there is more than one version of the dress made! There was most likely three, maybe even four. Stuff happens (Costumes get ripped, damaged on or off set, or sometimes they even get stolen) and no matter what, the scene must be shot on the scheduled date, otherwise the production gets behind, and that's REALLY bad! So they wouldn't have time to fix or make a new dress. Just take Spider-man for example: did you know that they like 8 copies of Spidey's suit made, and all of them were stolen before production?!

~Tally

 

Hi!

I made an own topic for the replica/duplicate costumes. It can be found here:

http://boards.theforce.net/costuming_and_props/b10019/25677599/p1/?0

We can keep on discussing about the Packing Gown in this thread, but I thought it would be wise to have the overall discussion about multiple costumes in one place.

 

Tally - some of the Padme and Amidala costumes were made with one-of-a-kind items - like the antique bedspread, or the vintage bits of beading or lace - so though I agree that some costumes likely had multiples made, I don't think that is the case with every costume.

 

Wow! I can't believe I haven't registered here before now! *blush*
I'm currently working on the Packing gown and was wondering if anyone had suggestions regarding the interlining for the vest. I'm building a steel boned corset into my blouse/ undergown so I won't need too much support, it just needs the proper amount of stiffness. I'm wondering if I would need a medium-weight stabilizer or if a heavier muslin would work if the garment is properly tailored? I would welcome suggestions/advice?

Apologies if this has been discussed previously, these pages don't load very quickly on my comp. so getting throught the entire thread is nearly impossible!


Dana

Website: Cleopatra's Closet
My Livejournal

 

Welcome Cleopatramwi! (Love the name)

I recognize you from your Dragon*Con photos. Lovely job on your purple senate gown.

I'm trying to remember what I used in my vest, which has been all but thrown out since the color isn't dark enough and the fit not perfect. I know I used a heavy cotton duck to line it, maybe even something else. (My memory sucks! LOL!)

When the fashion show photos that Benae_Quee took of this costume came out I recall there being discussion about whether or not the vest had boning in it too. I don't remember the final decision on that but we can clearly see the boning channels on the undershirt in Kelsey's recent fitting pictures.

Not much help, huh?
I suppose proper tailoring of the vest is the key thing. It should fit very snug and smooth so I would line it with something heavier than a regular interfacing.

 

Hello! Of course I recognize your name as well! And thank you for the compliments on the Senate gown

Apparently I haven't been getting my email notifications of replies on the subject...grr.

So far I've added a heavily boned corset layer sewn into my undergown. I just think I'll need some extra cinching at the waist to get a little closer to the Natalie Portman look. I'm also thinking that with proper tailoring the vest itself shouldn't need too much reinforcement.
I'll post my results when I get that far.

 

I just got back from LA where I did float decorating for 2 days and watched the Rose Parade. Our very own JainaMSolo helped out with getting the queens dressed for the parade and had some insight on the multiple packing gowns (sorry Caitlin, I couldn't wait to fill people in!). It turns out an extra gown was made for one of the handmaidens played by Rose Byrne - presumably in case they decided to have some sort of a decoy scene. So, the version used in the NYC runway show and on the float was not what we see Natalie (Padme) wearing in the movie, yet is still considered an authentic movie production costume. It may also be a little larger than Natalie's and that would explain why it has been used in appearances.

It was also interesting to see how greenish the velvet on the bodice looked in the outdoor morning light when they did the judging. I'd assume the Rose Byrne version is made from the same dye lot of velvet?

Hopefully JainaMSolo will be able to fill us in on some of the other observations she made Yay! The mystery of the packing dress duplicates is solved!

 

Yes, the Rose Byrne version was used because it's slightly larger than the Natalie version and fit Ashley, the Queen, better. The velvet is *extremely,* extremely green. I cannot overemphasize how very green the velvet is! I mean, it's still gray overall, but so very green!

I don't have access to my photos right now as I took them with my friend's camera, but here's what I remember off the top of my head:

The underbodice/blouse, as seen in the web-documentary, is basically a corset. It is heavily boned and laces up the back with a *lot* of eyelets.
The top skirt, as Biba-Fett told us, is extremely lightweight. It's not sheer, but not tremendously opaque. It is not attached to the petticoat. It has a yoke, and so does the petticoat.
The petticoat consists of three (I think three; it might have been two, I'll check) layers of very stiff gray taffeta-like material. The top two are pleated like the overskirt, but the bottom is like a three-tiered boho-style skirt, to give more fullness.
The blouse sleeves are very lightweight, and I think they're double-layered. There are two rows of hand-gathers, one near the top of the armbands and one near the bottom.
The vest closes with snaps at the very top and then hooks and eyes all the way down-- one row down center front, and another row down the edge of the beaded piece.

 

Great info you two! Thanks!

Wow, so the velvet looked greenish in the outdoor light? Neat and unexpected! It's also nice to have the duplicate stuff figured out and that this costume was made for Rose. Makes sense.

 

How interesting about the packing gown! The velvet didn't look green at all at FIDM - but that was pretty low lighting! Maybe it's gray shot with green so that outside, the other color really shows?

Kay_dee said you had some armband observations too..that the blue "stones" were just blotches of paint? After hearing that, I look at my FIDM pics again, and sure enough - they look painted on!

http://www.padawansguide.com/fidm/maggie/silver3.jpg
(you'll have to cut and paste this link into your browser, sorry!)

 

Yes, the armbands were interesting! They were very lightweight. As I understand it, they have elastic inside so they can slide over the elbow, but these were so large on Ashley that it wasn't necessary. So instead of being just one piece of metal with a seam, there's a second smaller piece of metal that presumably covers the join and allows the bracelet to expand. The "stones" are just paint, and the armbands have black velvet hot-glued around the inside. Hot glue! And they were very bendable, it was easy to accidentally bend them out of shape into an oval! So you had to be very careful.

 

JainaMSolo - I thought you also mentioned that the armbands seemed like they were embossed foil/metal folded over at the edges so that there was probably some kind of seam that was being covered by the velvet hot glued to the underside?

I'm trying to envision where this expansion joint is. Oh, you can see the overlapping bit of the expansion joint in this photo at padawan's guide:

http://padawansguide.com/fidm/maggie/silver2_med.jpg

For some reason I never looked at the bands that closely. I always assumed it was one long spiral, but I guess they are like 4 seperate bracelets on each arm. It seems like it would be a pain to make them stay lined up perfectly and not slide all over one another. (I'd personally probably add little hidden snaps!)

 

Oh, yes, thank you! I had forgotten to mention that.

 

Oh, how interesting!

You can see the joins on the higher res pic pretty well:

http://padawansguide.com/fidm/maggie/silver2.jpg

So there are 4 separate armbands then? Interesting!

 

You can see in some of the pictures of Ashley on the float that the armbands didn't stay in place. I'm surprised there is no mechanism in place to keep each individual band attached to the sleeve.

http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/legomania5/Rose%20Parade%202007/12-31-06/?action=view&current=PC310230.jpg

The blue stones are just paint! That's sort of disappointing.

 

Oh gosh - you're right, Obi-Dawn! I'm surprised they didn't hot glue snaps to the bands and sew them to the sleeves - they did that for the picnic ribbons, after all! (And something I should have done myself!)

 

I'm guessing that when the armbands were on the original actress, they were tight enough, and the velvet gripped the chiffon enough, that they stayed in place without needing anything else. But yes, it seems like snaps would have made sense!

 

You know, in that high res pic it almost looks like there is a metal spacer between the bands that attches to the joint piece. (look at the inner side of the arm where those gap joints are) It seems like the layers go: Bracelet - small metal gap spacer - bracelet - small metal gap spacer.

So, are all 4 round braceletes attached to one another in that fashion and slide on all at one time? Or am I just seeing things?

 

Hmm - I don't see it - and the bracelets look unevenly spread out on the arm on that mannequin too..

 

Here is a photo with the spacers I think I spotted highlighted red with red arrows pointing to them:

[image=http://kay-dee.net/costumes/padme_packing/spacer-highlight.jpg]

[image=http://kay-dee.net/costumes/padme_packing/spacer.jpg]

I think that becasue the spacers are so small and on one side, there is nothing to make them perfectly uniform going all the way around the arm if that makes sense. That's why I'm wondering if Caitlin remembers them being tacked together with one little strip running downward, or if they had to slide on 4 seperate thin bands one at a time.

 

They were four separate bracelets; nothing connected them. And there was nothing like that in the box that held all the accessories for that dress, either.

 

This is all very interesting and helpful, thank you!

 

Interesting! I wonder what my eye thinks it is seeing. It sure looks like some kind of metal in between. I wonder what the odds are that the Natalie version might have had a spacer bar added? I can't seem to find any other photos though that show any kind of spacer. Maybe the camera is playing tricks on me.