#elseworld

This piece means a lot to me being nine years in the making to the date. It may seem trivial, but I've never invested on one singular idea for as long as I had this one dress. It's one of the main reasons I've taken breaks from art in a deeply personal sense, because I would start it and finish something and hate it after two days and redo it, only to not finish anything. It was a bad cycle to say the least.

Within those years, I have grown so much in terms of knowledge and respect for fashion as a whole art form, most especially in costume design more than just historical recreation and research. At some point, I just grew tired of slapping on a robe du cour and calling it a day. I love BTAB and I love Belle and the more I felt like, simply putting on a historically accurate garment with some fantastical embellishments was half the work. So, part of this personal journey had been coming to terms of what I wanted to do.

I'd like to think that the approach I've developed for these Princess Gowns moving forward is that I want to design a dress that fits for the character at that moment in their story—who they are, what it means to be wearing that dress, and the whole context of their journey and the world they live in. It was understanding what Belle has gone through in the movie in my head, parading as producer, writer, director, AND costume designer to a fictional film stuck in my head—inspired by the greats like Sandy Powell, Terry Dresbach, and Anthony Powell and Rosemary Burrows.

It includes having an understanding of her character, of how she relates to others, of world building, and even the fashion CULTURE of the region at large, because by then, I had completely forgone trying to write a story WITHIN our world and found so much more possibilities by writing these Disney stories outside of our world and reality.

So, we have this dress. A glittery gold dress of dreams that has been nine years in the making, a dress that represents Belle at that pinnacle moment—and maybe even my own 'closing of the book,' if you will.

I designed this gown with a healthy understanding that throughout her 2-3 year stay in the castle and forest, she would have had so many dresses of so many colors and styles. I was focused more on contextualizing different decades of 18th century fashion to become region fashions with the redingote and a la Turque being something more used in the kingdom's capital, while more pastoral a la reigne being what could have been 'it' with the court, amongst others.

A lot of this dress was designed with the rest of her wardrobe in mind in an attempt to differentiate it from others. No other gown will have the same neckline, the same silhouette, the same volume, and the same color. Not even her hair and makeup would be similar to the other dresses. So, it feels like a 'step forward' in fashion within the trends and context set up in the story by all the other gowns worn by her and others.

For Belle's dress, I gravitated towards the silhouettes of the 1730s-40s, where the hip wasn't too angular and flowed more naturally like a...bell (that's an unintentional pun). I think that it's the more pleasing option, though Belle would be wearing more panniers throughout the story too. I wanted something that made the Waltz (which in this universe, had already been developed) elegant and not too cumbersome and panniers just felt too bulky, because the dances associated with it didn't need close contact. So, in the mechanics sense, I found that this would work best.

I maintained a dose fo 1950s-60s references in my head. I would love Belle to wear something like a re-imagined Dior New Look gown while strolling with Adam in the greenhouse or pull up Lacroix for dinner, de Garderobe being a very 'keen' fashion innovator with Belle as her muse.

But in my story, she would stay away from one specific color—yellow/gold. It was her mother's color and, in grieving, she refused to touch it and anything that could harken back to her mother, like south-asian style embroidery and motifs. But I think as Belle develops her own style and the more Adam and her bond, the more she comes to terms with her mother's death.

There's a lot to the story I can't share at the moment, of how they meet and how they bond, and why they're stuck in the forest. There's too much to discuss, but be assured that a lot had been retconned.

So this dress was her 'bringing' her mom to meet the man she fell in love with, even if she can't admit it. It's her coming to terms with what happened and carrying her mother with her instead of looking back with nothing but heartbreak.

And she looks damn good with her mama's color, I'll tell you that much. I know that on one hand, gold can be a color of greed and temptation, but for me, I think gold is 'pure' and 'luminous.' I wanted her intentions, those she cannot find the courage yet to speak, be clear and transfixing.

Another aspect was the symbolism of her and Adam's relationship. I know that flower garlands were in use in some gown throughout the 1750s-60s. I also know Lehengas are sometimes worn with a copious amount of flower garlands too, so I had this idea of just overflowing her dress with jasmines, which are a very common fixture even here in the Philippines with a context of spirituality as we usually put it on sacred images and statues. So, while on the shallow sense, it may come as a merging of two cultures, for me, there's a bit of sanctity, the same image evoked as Belle and the Beast danced under heavens and smiling cherubs.

In a story sense, the rose on her left chest represents her heart blooming for Adam, as if sprouting forth the gold, illuminating her like the sun as he is her sky...her space. It's as much a love letter to him as it is to herself and her mother, because I wanted to emphasize her POV in their story too, of how she felt safe and loved, away form ridicule and prejudice.

And lastly, the hair. Okay, so part of the journey was figuring out her hair. With a 1950s facade, for the longest time I focused on maintaining the curls of the rococo period and conflating it a lot with the waves of the 1950s, so you will see a lot of sketches with that. It wasn't until I tried understanding the overall silhouette of court fashion that I had my eureka moment and realize that the volume was more important than what's...within said volume. And, funnily enough, after trying SO HARD to avoid the hair bun...I ended up with a hairstyle that unintentionally pays homage to it.

My only regret is not finding a way to highlight the shoes HAHAHHAHAHA. I'm mad, because I really wanted to draw the shoe but I didn't want to ruin the way the gown flowed already.

TIMELINE

2016-2017: "Bitch, They've Hit the Pentagon."

As a kid, I was always exposed to fashion magazines since my mom used to be subscribed to a whole lot of them. I would look at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, smell the perfume samples that came with them. I've always had a sort of inherent, passive interest in fashion but not enough to know the designers and the motifs.

But then, I saw a leak of Belle's gown in the 2017 version and...I lost it. I was convinced I would do a better job designing it, but hell, I think anyone would. Back then, i was obsessed with simply remaking the original dress and making it 'pretty.' Of course, as you can see, I based some on the broadway gown and afterwards, it sorta developed into this romantic, 2000s punk dress with lace fingerless gloves and whatever. HAHHAHAHA, at that time, I didn't really care for 18th century fashion...so...

2018: "Roco-NO? I think you mean, Marie Antion-YAS!"

I think the biggest step during this era was me falling in love with the fashion of the 18th century. I was exposed to Outlander and other shows and I started watching youtube videos deep-diving into court fashion, so I started veering away from anything vaguely 1840s-60s and literally went a hundred years BACK.

Sadly, it came with hang ups too. IDK what the hell I was doing with faces, honestly? Also, I was really forcing the off-the-shoulder V-boob neckline far too much, even when it was...very hard to make sense off construction-wise.

2019-2021: "Wait a minute...Desi...Belle?"

At this point, I've fleshed out the story in my head for more diversity, not just because diversity matters, but I wanted more things to be different in the settings and the world the Disney Heroes are based in. I wanted the idea that trade and intermingling of cultures was far more common and recognized and I thought that Belle being biracial was a good choice, and something I related to.

I guess that's what was the most important development during this period. Though note how I initially wanted her to have henna on her hands but I decided that that would be better at the wedding. In addition, there was little effort to make the actual gown reflect her heritage.

2022-2023: "Screw it, I give up!"

During this time, I was doing my internship, so I lost interest in designing and art in general. It was just hard to concentrate, really, but still, I think that there were a lot of aspects to these deigns that ultimately lead me to the final design.

2024-NOW: "And They All Lived..."

So now, we're here at the present. It's been such a long time coming and I feel relief to be able to share this and move on, so to speak. Even if I have a lot of creative energy and a better relationship with my art, I've come to realize that I can't make a dress I love without having a whole ass story to fantasize about.

Sure, I have a few designs for the other princesses with their own huge stories that make it easy to find direction, but I can't confidently say that I would want to keep making stories for all princesses moving forward. I would love to, of course, but I don't want that to be the whole reason for my blog to catch attention.

Keep your eyes peeled for more disney gowns, but I do hope you stay for some other projects i want to do, maybe some muscle daddies in cute dresses, fashion designs I wish were on the National Costume category for Miss Universe or DRPH, and maybe some studies here or there and gay pinups.

I hope that for those who have stayed here reading all of this to have a wonderful day and to never stop creating and chiseling away at your block of marble.