#gold dress

One Dress a Week Challenge

May: Gold & Silver

Batman (Batman 66) / Eartha Kitt as Catwoman

This is a deep cut, and to be honest, the dress itself is nothing special … but it made me chuckle, so I wanted to include it! Catwoman steals the famed “golden fleece” dress from Queen Bess of Belgravia (pictured below) because she’s angry at being left off Gotham City’s “best dressed list” while Batgirl, of all people, made the cut.

Before rewatching this episode, I had not seen Batman 66 since I was approximately ten years old. While I knew it was lighthearted, I never fully appreciated exactly how silly it was before seeing it as an adult. Eartha Kitt was having positively indecent amounts of fun with all the dastardly plans and cat puns. And Batman proclaiming solemnly, “Catwoman is evil, but she is attractive” made my day.

Oh, and the dress: it’s made of some fairly stiff material in a “fairytale princess” sort of shape. It does fit pretty well, at least! There’s a bit of rickrack at the sleeves and hem. Catwoman accessorizes with her trademark black mask, plus a fan and a necklace of gold medallions.

One Dress a Week Challenge

May: Gold & Silver

Cover Girl / Rita Hayworth as Rusty Parker

The modeling gig that gets Rusty her big break is being chosen as the cover girl for the “golden wedding” edition of the fictional Vanity magazine. The dress could be called yellow, but it has a slight metallic sheen and gold ribbons worked into it. It seems a bit low-cut for a wedding dress, but the actual cover shot has the veil wrapped around so it’s not as noticeable. The bodice and veil have snowflake decorations as well; not sure how that goes with the “golden” theme, but it’s pretty, anyway! It’s a shame we never get to see the full skirt, because I wonder if there are also snowflakes worked into that.

One Dress a Week Challenge

May: Gold & Silver

Leverage (“The Girls’ Night Out Job”) / Beth Riesgraf as Parker

Parker wears this gold minidress with matching pumps to a formal event (after stealing someone’s dry cleaning because she needed fancy clothes on short notice). For such a simple silhouette, the construction of the dress is surprisingly intricate. You can see the seams down the sides and darts in the back to make it more form-fitting, plus ruching in two directions in the front and multiple straps across the back. The complicated arrangement of straps might also be a plus for her, as it would remind her of her climbing harness!

As a bonus, Tara and Sophie also appear in their dresses in a couple of shots.

One Dress a Week Challenge

May: Gold & Silver

Cold Comfort Farm / Kate Beckinsale as Flora Poste

I really love the sheer shouldercape on this dress, with its lacy pattern and the flower design in back. It looks as if the dress might possibly also have a flounced skirt, but since the best full-length view of it is in motion and seen through the bannisters, it’s hard to be sure.

For accessories, Flora has a silver sequined or beaded clutch purse, a delicate watch, and a fancy hair clip.

One Dress a Week Challenge

May: Gold & Silver

The Scarlet Pimpernel / Jane Seymour as Marguerite St. Just Blakeney

I thought at first that this gown was styled a little too early, but after doing a little research, I think it’s spot on. The story is set in 1792, which was about the last gasp of the “classic” 18th-century style before waistlines started creeping upward. Already, the panniers have disappeared, and the hairstyles are more wide than tall.

Costume design is credited to Phyllis Dalton. I doubt she had a huge budget, but this dress looks appropriately lavish for the wife of a nobleman to wear to a ball. The gold lace around the neckline is a particularly nice touch, as it appears in all the close-up shots.

The decorated underskirt only shows briefly when she’s walking or moving, but I managed to get a couple of screencaps where it’s visible.

One Dress a Week Challenge

May: Gold & Silver

Dungeons and Dragons / Thora Birch as Empress Savina

Let’s be clear: this is a terrible movie. A terrible movie. About the only thing that makes it watchable is Jeremy Irons deciding to throw all caution to the wind and chew the scenery with abandon. The costumes aren’t great either, on the whole; they look low-budget and stagey at their best, “local costume shop rental” at their worst.

But still, I feel like this dress shows just a glimmer of possibility for the movie to have been something better, something fun and cheesy in the vein of Flash Gordon. A bit of thought and even worldbuilding went into this costume. The dragon-claw-as-Elizabethan-ruff effect is actually kind of clever, one of the few things that goes beyond the most generic Ren Faire design.

They’ve also incorporated a few Asian-inspired elements, like the flared shoulders. I half suspect someone was watching The Phantom Menace the previous year and busily taking notes.