This gown was made for Brenda Starr, though it can also be worn by other dolls – see below what it looks like on Gene and Tyler.
It was made of double sided two-color 100% silk duchesse – one side is woven black, the other red. This combination of colors gives an almost metallic look to the silk, even if there’s no metallic fiber content in it! This material is very difficult to obtain and expensive – the price is at about $100 per yard! Note that it’s relatively easy to find silk duchesse. If you’re lucky, you might even find double sided silk duchesse – but to find any that is woven in different colors on each side is difficult, believe me.
I’m still relatively certain that this material was also used on the original gown.
One little note in advance. If you have ever worked with any camera, then you will know that cameras practically seem to hate the color red. It’s extremely difficult to photograph something red in its true colors.
Therefore, the following images seem to show the gown in different colors; but actually, the gown’s real color is closest to those:
images. It’s a beautiful, deep red with an almost metallic sheen to it; but it’s 100% silk with no metallic content.
I’ve tried photographing the gown with different lights (even outside – the pictures in which Tyler is wearing the gown were taken outside in the sun), but still the colors seem to be different in most pictures. So please, if you want to see the true colors then look at the two images above; all others should just be a reference what the gown looks like in shape
Comparing the gown to the original Moulin Rouge movie costume:
Original movie costume
(for reference only)
This doll costume
Original movie costume
(for reference only)
This doll costume
The original gown was laced up on the backside…
…and, of course, so is this doll costume! The grommets used are 1/16” in size, and an embroidery thread is serving as the lacing!
Here are some more pictures of Brenda Starr wearing the gown:
This is how the gown looks on Tyler Wentworth:
And this is how it looks on Gene:
This doll costume was made of double sided two-tone 100% silk duchesse – one side is woven black, the other red. This combination of colors gives an almost metallic look to the silk, even if there’s no metallic fiber content in it!
This material is very difficult to obtain and expensive – the price is at about $100 per yard! Note that it’s relatively easy to find silk duchesse. If you’re lucky, you might even find double sided silk duchesse – but to find any that is woven in different colors on each side is difficult, believe me.
I’m still certain that this material was also used for the original movie costume. Here’s a human sized reproduction I made with the same material, but without the bow on the backside. Please also see this and this page, which show two more reproductions of this gown which I have made.
