Costume Development

The scene I have chosen is aimed at the queen and how she copes once she finds out she must give up her child. Even though Rumpelstiltskin is not in this part of the scene (he returns the next day) I have still looked into possible costume ideas for his outfit. After starting with the original idea that Rumpelstiltskin is a pixie like creature, creating mischief- as it were, I have come up with some sketches.
Firstly- looking into the Gothic Victorian style:

However, for the character of Rumpelstiltskin I find these outfits too gentleman like. I would imagine Rumpelstiltskin to be more sly, and appear quite creepy looking.

Rumpelstiltskin in his original appearance: (or at least how I imagined him)

Within this genre I would imagine Rumpelstiltskin to appear more ‘Fagin’ like (Oliver Twist) or even like the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

                 Fagin                                                                           The Child Catcher

The Queens Costume Development

By this scene the young girl has now become Queen. Therefore you would expect her costume to be expensive looking.

For the medieval period that Rumpelstiltskin is originally set, I would imagine the Queens costume to have looked something like this:

However I have set it in the Victorian era, in which dresses would be more like this

Or in a Queen's case, like this:

I also have a few photos of Victorian costumes taken at the Dicken's Festival in Rochester.

The Gothic Victorian dress worn by Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham-Carter) in Sweeney Todd is a dress similar to what I would picture the Queen character wearing. However their class in society are completely different.

The drawing on the right is a sketch taken from a picture of the character Mrs Lovett.

 I don’t think this matters with the genre I have chosen though; the Queen supposedly lives in luxury, yet the man she has married only married her due to pure greed, and presently she lives in worry because of the thought of having to give up her child. I think her inner feelings of imprisonment, loss and sadness can be portrayed in the clothes she wear; layers of netting; messily sewn together. Black material; a dark colour; perhaps to portray dark and sad feelings. The touch of red to her outfit makes her whole attire look beautiful, even though the netting is coarse and roughly put together.

Perhaps the Queen’s dress is actually an expensive garment, but because of the way she feels, that is all she sees; that is all the audience sees. The mansion she lives in is actually not decaying at all, but is portraying the inner feelings of the Queen. How very symbolic.

Her costume suits the genre of horror I feel, which works wells with the decaying, creepy setting.

See costume bible sheet for costume realisation.