Azelma - research through movie watching

I spent a while collecting screenshots of various background characters to use as inspiration for my Azelma outfit.

As always, click for larger

Initially I only remembered Fantine's pink dress as being pretty from my first time watching the movie. Now that I went back to it, I realise why. Smocking! A very pretty embroidery technique that I've never had cause to learn before. At a glance, it seems to be really tricky and time consuming to make, but the results are so very pretty. I also looked at the light blue dress she wears later on, before changing to the red outfit. It's super simple, no decorations whatsoever. It's interesting in that the skirt is completely flat in the front but gathered/pleated in the back. It's not a style I'm particularily fond of though, so I'll probably not be copying it. It looks like the dress laces in the back, I imagine you pull it on over your head to put it on, since it probably only opens down to the beginning of the skirt.

Many of the characters in the background seem to be wearing a blouse/bodice and a skirt, rather than a dress. But I've made up my mind on making a dress. On top of shift, stays and a couple of petticoats, this is what I'll be going for. At the moment, I'm thinking green dress, white/beige apron and maybe a pale teracotta shawl. We'll see what fabrics I'll manage to find.

What I haven't decided yet, is what to wear on my head. I won't have a wig, I want to use my own hair. But there needs to be some kind of headgear too! I like the look of the two middle ones, even though I'm not entirely sure how the top middle one is constructed, since it shows so briefly. The one to the right is really funny, but might end up looking a bit too silly. The one to the left.. Well, I have no idea how it's constructed, but a lot of the women in the movie wear it. I'll probably just ignore it and go for one of the middle models.

Two extra shots with interesting details to them. The woman in the top right of the left shot seems to have a drawstring on her dress, only time I've seen it on a dress and not a shift though, so I'll probably ignore it. Striped fabric seems a common pattern, I'm thinking green striped will be pretty for the dress. The shawl in the shot to the right is really nice, with it's scalloped edge. I might make one like that, add some more detail to the dress without making it look too fancy.