This dress, like many others, symbolises a lot of things. First of all it is not a light flowing dress, like most of her other dresses, it is quite heavy and it looks as if it is weighing her down in this photo on the right. The sleeves are made of silk velvet, which is a heavy weaved fabric, and are long, almost floor length. The skirt on the overdress pools around her feet because it is so long and has a large train. It is made out of velvet, which is also a heavy fabric. The weight of the dress interprets the mortal life she has chosen and that she is facing humanity. Also, because of the alleged scene it is in, it symbolises death, because she is still in mourning over the death of Aragorn..
The colours also symbolise her feelings. Red is a very strong colour and in this case it is blood red. This shows that there has been a death, which in this case there has been. The Midnight Blue velvet, which looks black, symbolises mourning and grief as she has just visited Aragorn's grave and his death is still plagueing her.
It is also ironic that supposedly she dies in this dress, so the colours and weight also symbolise her death and the end of her days.
LovelyLivTyler
I made this dress for a friend of mine to wear to the opening of TTT at the cinema. It is actually two dresses, a Midnight Blue velvet overdress with red trim and a red and gold paisley silk underdress with a gold trim and red silk velvet sleeves. The actual fabrics the dress is made out of are too heavy, so I had to improvise. I used a dark navy velvet that was only a thin weave for the overdress and for the underdress, red and gold paisley silk with a deep red velvet, also thin weave, for the sleeves.
You can see on the photo opposite the velvet texture on the sleeves and overdress so there was confirmation on the fabric used for those parts, but I was unsure about the fabric used for the underdress. It looks like a mixed colour weave, but the fabric appears to be crushed to get the various shines. I thought the closest I could get to this would be silk and then I had confirmation from LOTR Costume that the patterning was paisley, so then I was able to get the fabrics.
This dress only has seams at the sides, but is fitted. The only way I could get a dress that was fitted using a pattern was by choosing one with princess seams. So I had to have seams at the front and back instead of just at the sides. The pattern I used for the overdress was Simplicity 9891, which is a basic princess seamed dress. I didn't do a full underdress, so I did a short jumper to wear underneath the overdress using the bodice pattern from McCalls 3010.
Firstly I made the overdress. The neckline on the overdress is a low scooped boat neck, but the neckline on the Simplicity 9891 pattern is square and quite high, so I had to pin the dress pattern altogether, as it is princess seamed, to some muslin and draw the neckline of the pattern, unpin it and draw the actual neckline I wanted over the top. I had to do this with the underdress but make the neckline a little higher so you could see it above the overdress. I also had to make the straps on the overdress thinner when I was doing the neckline.
Accidently I missed out a dress panel, so there are only five dress panels instead of six, but it turned out alright as my friend is only petit. I had to take the dress in another three inches on both sides at the back anyway when I fitted it to her. I made the skirt on the dress train out about five inches at the back, but kept it short at the front so it was possible to walk in.
LovelyLivTyler