The Wardrobe Door :: Narnia Costumes

Lucy finds this outfit in the treasure chambers of Cair Paravel. She doesn't go on the night raid like her siblings, so she probably doesn't change until Caspian's coronation!

Fabrics

The sleeves are a crushed panné velvet in a lovely rust-red color. The skirt is the same color, but a different fabric. This has a slubby weave with a defined weft. It's looks a good bit like a dupioni, but lacks sheen and seems to have a heavy, fluid drape. Perhaps a raw silk, a silk tussah. Maybe a silk blend, with something like linen or cotton, like the linen/silk blend here, with a linen warp and silk weft.

The under dress or underskirt layer, also showing at the neck and baglining the sleeves, looks like a soft white/gray blue silk, possibly a crepe de chine or satin weave.

The bodice definitely seems to be a slubby, low-sheen dupioni in gray/tan/blue threads, giving an overall impression of a dull silver color. The fabric is printed with crisp sprigs of swirling leaves in a dark tan color—these leaves might be patterned after laurel leaves, her "signature flower" that was incorporated into her coronation crown in LWW. At the blossom ends of some of these sprigs are groups of three or sometimes four "buds": french knots in a blue-gray thread. Check out Louise's pattern in the different sizes, below.

Bodice

The bodice has narrowly-sloped princess seams that end at the armhole both in front and back. It fits snugly, often wrinkling horizontally. In the movie storybook there's a good shot of the back: it criss-cross laces down the center back to just above the trim in a pale gold color, with long loops and ties left draping. The lacing opening gaps about one inch at the center (it may be wider further up, but we can't see because her hair is in the way!), showing the underdress fabric, and narrowing as it goes down. We do have one image that shows the very top part of the lacing, here.

The scoop neck has a rounded U-shape cut out of it with two lengths of tan/gold cord across it. The neck is edged all the way around in a thin twisted gold cord, laying right on the facing or lining.

The bottom edge of the bodice is bordered a wide bullion trim in pale gold and silver in a zig-zag pattern. It's bordered in a thin twisted gold cord that's added above and below it.

Sleeves

The velvet sleeves are attached directly to the bodice at the armscye. They have a good bit of extra fabric under the arm here, allowing for a free range of movement. The long sleeves form a moderate bell, and they look to be bag-lined with the same material as the underdress. The sleeve is edged at the join of the lining and velvet with a thin twisted gold cord—looks like the same cord that edges the bullion trim on the bodice.

The twisted braid trim at mid-upper arm could either be covering a seam, or just sewn in place so that it puckers above and below it. It seems to be a bit more complicated than a twisted braid: it's made up of at least two red leather-looking cords, a gold cord, and one or two metallic gold cords that looks a bit like a fine chain.

Skirt

The theory right now is that the skirt attaches to the bodice just above the trim on the bodice. The front is made of two pieces, split until about six inches below where it probably attaches to the bodice. The opening looks like it's a rolled hem, about 1/2". On either side, about midway across from the center to the side there's one small knife pleat. One can be seen in this image, but it can be seen particularly well in the Lucy's Journey companion book.

Underdress

The underdress shows up as a full skirt at the red skirt split, at the neckline (shifting around quite a bit), at the back below the lacing, and possibly baglining the red velvet sleeves, though that may be separate. We haven't seen an undersleeve, so it's possible that this underdress is sleeveless.

The rounded neck looks like it's actually cut on the fold, possibly, so that the top of the neckline is just a fold. You can see it particularly in this image. There's no indication of the seam of a lining, and while it sometimes looks smooth, sometimes it wrinkles and folds quite a bit. It looks like it's gathered slightly with a long running stitch, but this stitch also seems to form tiny holes.

Cloak and Accessories

When she goes riding, she wears a gray cloak over the dress, likely six panels from what we can tell. It's probably a three-quarter-circle, but it has sloped front edges—it doesn't form a corner at the front of the hem on both sides. It attaches to itself with a medallion (clasp? pin?) at the front. It's bound on all edges: neck, front sides, and bottom edges, with a wide gray velvet ribbon trim, with gold metallic embroidery in a leaf swirling design. This is bound over the edge so that the reverse is the same as the outside.

While she wears dark boots in the set riding images, it seems that in the film she wears brown flats with a T-strap, like Mary Janes, as you can see in this image, this image, and in many shots in the Official Movie Companion.

She also wears her gifts from Father Christmas, and carries in this image and this image a pouch-bag of (matching?) dark red leather with a shoulder strap that buckles across the chest. Her hair is parted at just to her left of center, with the hair immediately to the either side of the part rope-braided and pulled back to meet at the crown of her head, then joined into a single braid.

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