#[[ the ballgowns in particular are telling and so is the armor they wear ]]

[revexant]

one thing i’d like to mention - i still can’t decide which culture rota is based off of. visually it reminds me more of medieval europe, and so i tend to draw from that more than anything else, but it’s hard to determine precisely what they were going for based off the movie alone. aaron’s been a cultural mishmash as a result of that, so i apologize if my writing for him is inconsistent! 

[taz-writes]

Things about wearing ballgowns that your research might not teach you

Inspired by my experiences in the opera I’m starring in right now, in which I wear a big ol’ Baroque-style ballgown that I was NOT prepared to deal with. I felt like writing some of this stuff out might be helpful to other writers since we all adore pretty dresses and being particular about random details. If your character wears a big fat ballgown on a regular basis, they’ll be used to most of these things and might not even think about them, but it’s worth remembering this stuff on our end! I’m firmly convinced that part of Cinderella’s magic makeover was a time-stopped tutorial on how to survive wearing one of these things. 

I’m not gonna go into detail about basic stuff that you can learn from Google, this is more about the physical experience of the dress, so like... don’t take my word as gospel. Just take it as an interesting perspective, that might prove useful if you’re hoping to write that fancy ball scene or (BIG OOF) dressing a character in one of these outfits who’s not used to wearing one. 

Despite what the YA writers tell you, corsets are actually pretty damn comfortable when they’re adjusted correctly! Like, they’re better than bras, they make your boobs look great AND they don’t have itchy underwires. There have been a few periods during which lacing corsets ultra-tight was trendy--the Victorian era where fainting was considered fashionable comes to mind--but that doesn’t apply to all of fashion history. 

My experience with corsets is that they limit your range of motion at the waist, you have to lean over at the hip instead, but you end up with great posture. Plus they can do wonders for your figure, depending on the style. 

Corsets can be laced up to suit your needs! Fashion may be fashion, but if you’re writing a fictional character in a gown who still needs/wants mobility, they could always have their attendants lace them to a looser setting. They don’t have to be restrictive. There are a lot of things preventing my mobility or breathing in this gown but the corset isn’t one of them. 

Depending on the fashion, your sleeves might limit your range of motion a lot. Synthetic modern fabrics are a gift, and we tend to take for granted how freely you can move your arms in a lot of modern clothing, but older or heavier fabrics will prevent you from doing certain things if they’re tailored closely to your body. Don’t expect to always bend your elbows particularly far, or raise your arms above shoulder height. 

In many gowns, you can do this, and you should be able to, but it’s not a automatic given.

The biggest challenge to moving around in a big ballgown isn’t the corset, it’s the skirt itself. Hoop skirts are HEAVY. According to my costumer friends, the gown I wear in the opera weighs in at around 45 pounds--as much as some Medieval suits of plate armor! That weight is concentrated in the skirt, which has 5 or 6 layers of material. You can easily research what those layers are, but no amount of Google prepares you to actually carry them on your body. You’ll mostly hold this weight on your hips and waist, where the skirt attaches to the rest of the outfit. It’s not actually that uncomfortable, it’s just a lot of stuff in the way of your usual movement. 

Also, I mean, it’s a big heavy skirt with lots of pretty layers that reaches all the way to the floor. It’s easy to accidentally step on it if you’re not careful, or if you’re moving too fast. 

Dancing in a ballgown is surprisingly strenuous, it’s why a lot of those fancy court dances don’t involve a lot of movement beyond basic small steps. You get sweaty fast, and your feet get tired. 

You can run in a hoop skirt, but you’ve gotta grab it like you see Cinderella do in the movies, and you can’t be gentle about that. You have to reach all the way through the layers and grab the hoops underneath the rest of the skirt. They can be tricky to find, and if you’re dainty and gentle because you’re scared of hurting the dress then you might never get a hold on one. 

Re: that last point, hoop skirts are basically giant suction cups. The more layers, the more suction. If you kneel down on the ground in one of these babies, it’ll be tricky to stand back up! Sitting in a chair may also have this effect, but it’s not nearly as intense, you’ll usually be okay. In order to counteract the suction effect, it helps to get a firm hold on one of the hoops in the skirt and lift it up just before you stand--this way, air can get in underneath you, and you won’t be stuck down. 

I’m not kidding about the suction. Seriously. I almost face-planted in my first dress rehearsal because I had no idea that the costumers were that serious. 

When you stand up in a ballgown after sitting or kneeling, it also helps to lean backwards. It’s counterintuitive, but the skirt is heavier in back than in front if you’re wearing a bumroll, so you’ll have an easier time if the front comes up first. 

You cannot put one of these on by yourself. You cannot put one of these on with only one person helping you. You’re gonna need at least two people to get all the layers of skirt on over your head, and one of them will also have to know how to lace up your corset. 

On the dressing end: lacing a corset is harder than you think it is. Even if you’re lacing it up loosely for flexibility or breathing room, you need a bit of force. You can’t be a wimp about this. Think about lacing a boot, you can feel inside the boot that it’s still not tight enough on your foot but you’ve gotta put muscle into the shoelaces to get them tight enough. 

Spinning Cinderella-style in a ballgown is basically mandatory. It’s actually good for the skirt, if anything gets wonky while you’re sitting or adjusting yourself then a good spin clears it right out! This is a justified opportunity for costume porn. 

You won’t fit anywhere. This should be obvious, but again, double down on your assumptions. A normal-sized door will not accommodate you. Palace hallways are the size they are for a reason. A suitor who wants to hold your hand will need to either stand inside your skirt or wait for you to extend your arm allll the way out. Hugging someone in a hoop skirt may knock them over. 

So yeah! Don’t take any of this as gospel, this is just my personal experience with wearing period costume, but a lot of this stuff never occurred to me when I was writing my own fancy ball scenes and it would have changed a lot of my writing choices. Feel free to add on with your own experiences or correct me if I’ve mis-described something! :)