Costume Chronicles: Adrienne's Masquerade Ball Gown

Like many people, partway through the Covid lockdowns, I realized I needed a hobby. I used to sew a lot when my children were young, but my fabric and machines had been stuck in storage for years. Once we were out and about again, I hunted them down and started making a few things for myself. Then, I saw a friend’s post about the Costumiers Fantasy Masquerade Ball in Rotorua, New Zealand and had a hallelujah moment.

I’ve always loved movie costumes—how they’re made, who the designers are and the techniques behind them. Some of my favorites are the blue ribbon dress Meryl Streep wore in Into the Woods, the rose dress from Dangerous Liaisons, and the gown Michelle Pfeiffer wore as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

However, I’d never thought of making them, especially since where would I wear them? I’m not into cosplay or wandering around big noisy comic conventions, so I jumped at the chance to make one for the Costumier’s Ball.

This event has been running for four years, bringing together about 400 people for a weekend of costume fun. It is the brainchild of two keen costumiers, Rozanne and Paul de Wild, to promote the cosplay, costuming, and creative communities of New Zealand.

It’s modelled on the Labyrinth Masquerade Ball held annually in Los Angeles (which I hope to attend one day!). What I love about it is that it’s all-encompassing—not just for cosplayers, but for everyone who loves costume and design, and for all ages from 18 up to their 80s.

The ball has three main themed events; Big Wigs and High Hats, the Creatures of Atlantis cocktail party and the Costumiers' Fantasy Masquerade Ball. So that means I had at least three costumes to make, plus headgear.

The inspiration for the costume

The ball is the main event, so I tried my hand at a Robe à la Française using the Simplicty 8578 for the dress, and 8411 pattern for the petticoat. It was challenging, to say the least, especially those back pleats on the dress and the hundreds of pleats on the skirt.

The next year, I reworked the overdress, inspired by the rose dress that Glen Close wears as the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons.

By year three, I wanted to do something completely different but I didn’t know what. In the meantime, my kids introduced me to Korean Dramas, and from there, I discovered Chinese dramas, especially the Xianxia genre, which blends fantasy, martial arts, and Taoist philosophy.

The costuming in these shows is incredible, and I became obsessed with Till the End of the Moon. The costume design by Huang Wei is stunning, with beautiful flowing robes, armor, and headpieces. One costume in particular that I loved featured sculpted body armor with flowing robes.

In September 2023, I went to Tokyo and visited Nippori Fabric Town where I found a beautiful red satin with a gold shimmer and a red Chinese dragon brocade, so I decided they’d be the foundation for my gown.

Needing some design inspiration, I plugged a prompt into the Midjourney AI image engine for a demon queen renaissance ball gown. I simply needed some inspiration to get started.

AI-generated designs aren’t always practical as they don’t consider construction techniques, so I use them more to get my imagination flowing. I mean if I had a skirt as large as the image, I’d never be able to get out of my room or into the elevator.

I also wanted to try some sculpting techniques. I’d done a little with a thermoplastic head-dress the year before and wanted to try Worbla, a type of thermoplastic, for the body armor.

The first step was creating the skirt – I wanted it to be very full – so I decided on a hoop skirt and tulle petticoat that I bought online. I just wasn’t up to sewing yards and yards of tulle!

Over that, I made an underskirt from black satin with the dragon brocade as the front panel.

I had learnt the year before how badly brocades frays – it’s a nightmare – the stitching starts pulling almost immediately, so I used iron on interfacing on the edges before sewing to reinforce and prevent fraying.

I had also learnt another lesson from my first year. I had bought a beautiful gold satin, but it was too heavy for the petticoat and pushed down the panniers, so I used a lighter satin for the underpetticoat. As it also frays, it needed yards of overlocking as well! I’m glad I invested in an overlocker.

Now its getting serious

I bought a new machine once I started getting serious; my old beginner's machine seized up, so I invested in a Singer Heavy Duty machine and love it. I also got a Singer overlocker.

Next up was how to do the red overskirt and I kicked myself for not buying at least two more meters. I studied bridal videos on how to create the waterfall effect at the front – but I was limited by the amount of fabric I had. I looked around for a full skirt pattern and found a vintage Vogue ball gown pattern (V1931) that was perfect.

Then, I nervously started to cut, as it was not as though I could jump on a plane back to Tokyo to get some more fabric! The red satin looked amazing in the light with the shimmer, and I loved the darker underneath as a contrast.

My next idea was to have sequins run down the front and along the bottom, but life intervened, and I didn’t finish it in time for the ball. I did some initial embroidery with a gold embroidery thread but quickly discovered it was snagging the red fabric and pulling it – the things you learn! So I gave up on that idea. Then finally, I discovered invisible thread and stitched some sequins along the top of the front panels.

I added a gold and red trim along the bottom, and then it was time to create the armour with Worbla.

That was a journey of discovery! I started out by first moulding it to my mannequin to get the initial shaping, then moulding on me to get a better fit. I wanted it to look like lava so I pushed the Worbla to create the crumpling effect, but then the size would go all awry. So, it was a challenge to get the crumpling effect without affecting the shape.

It also doesn’t take a lot of heat for Worbla to soften, so using a heat gun is a risky business – finding the right amount of heat for the right time is a bit of trial and error – and my fingertips suffered for the cause.

However, once I was happy with the shape, I reinforced the inside with more Worbla, then  painted it with spray paint.

I used red at first, but it was the wrong shade for the skirt, so I switched to gold with an overspray of glitter and then a gloss. I did a few coats, which evened out the roughness of the Worbla.

It took me a while to figure out what to wear beneath the armor, but I finally settled on a black satin kimono with a black glitter wrap scarf around my neck.

Kimonos are super easy to make, and I opted for the Chinese hanfu style, which has tighter armholes than the Japanese style.

I wore the armor as a breastplate, with a train over the back, and then swapped it out later in the evening with a corset for dancing. I discovered I hadn’t given myself enough space around the armholes for forward movement – so a rookie mistake there.

I tend to order headpieces, etc., online, but as my skills improve, I want to make most things myself. The second year I made a headpiece with a thermoplastic that melts in boiling water – it’s easy to work with, but I made it too heavy, so the crown was really uncomfortable by the end of the evening. A lot of model-making seems to be finding a balance between weight and strength.

For this outfit, I wanted a high gold headdress, so I ordered one online, but when it arrived, it was super uncomfortable to wear. I’m not sure if my head is a weird shape, but where it sat behind my ears, it kept slipping off.

It was back to the drawing board, and I decided on a metal headband, which, when it arrived, was perfect. I wired a dragon brooch to the front and spray-painted it gold to match the armour.

Completing the Look

For my hair, I love wearing wigs and creating characters – they’re my big indulgence. I totally get Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek now. I’ve been ordering wigs from Wigs Are Fashion and I saw this braided wig with ornaments and had to have it – it was amazing.

It comes pre-plaited with good quality ornaments. I spray-painted the dragon to match the armour and headpieces.

Overall, it was a fun costume to make. I learnt a lot in the process, and I’m going to rework it for next year. I want to redo the armour breastplate and underskirt and finish the gold sequin embroidery for the skirt. I’m returning to Japan in October, so hopefully I can find the red material again as I want to add in another panel for the overskirt – it wasn’t quite big enough in the front.

What did this all cost?

When I total it all up, it comes to about $530, although I didn’t use all the fabric, and I will wear the costume for a couple of years. I try to keep costs down by buying fabrics and patterns on sale, and the hoop and petticoat can be used for multiple outfits.

I buy online fabrics at Super Cheap Fabrics in Melbourne, and have had great service from them.

I’m also a huge believer in the mental health benefits of hobbies, so I consider it an investment in myself for the cognitive and social benefits it brings; so well worth it, in my opinion, at least that’s what I tell myself. 😊

Costs  - In NZD

Fabric - $175

Trims and Thread - $50

Hoop and Petticoat – $80

Accessories - $22

Wig - $103

Worbla - $54

Spray Paint - $32

Patterns - $16

$530 overall

The final look

Since you have read this far, here is one final look at the costume I created.

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