Susan Pevensie

in Prince Caspian

 

Farewell Dress

"Without a doubt, it was my favorite costume! ... It was just stunning and made me feel like Cinderella. I think any girl who's ever played dress-up would want to be in that costume. I felt really special being in it."

- Anna Popplewell, Official Illustrated Movie Companion

Susan's farewell dress is worn in her final scene in Narnia. In it she watches Prunaprismia and Glozelle vanish beneath the door and says goodbye to Caspian—and to Narnia. This beautiful dress has clear Telmarine influences, like Peter's and Edmund's outfits in this scene, suggesting it was made by Telmarine seamstresses.

Underdress

Looks like a soft but fairly stiff fabric of medium weight. The color is not bright white in the screencaps—it's ivory/off-white.

The boat neckline is almost off-the-shoulder. It's low cut, ending just at or below the top edge of the overdress. It slopes to a shallow V at the back. The neck is rolled, forming four folds that curve around the shoulder. You can see each individual fold quite well in these screencaps: Peter and Susan, just Susan, and Caspian and Susan.

Look at this shot. The folds don't seem to continue past the edge of the overdress. On the right side in that shot, we would expect the folds to be on the underside of the smooth neckline we see between the V-notch. But on the left, it looks like the folds would be on top (highest layer at the bottom) and we would see them at the neckline between the V-notch. From what we can see, the neckline between the V-notch of the overdress is smooth with no folds. It would seem then, that the folds are separate, sewn to the neckline along the back and sides, ending below the overdress beneath the shoulder.

The sleeves are at least partially set into the armscye (pic), fitted until just above the elbow, with the lower puff gathered at the mid-arm seam and at the cuff (Lucy has a similar sleeve on her pink coronation outfit). The sleeves are trimmed with two rows an antique gold ribbon in three places: just an inch or so below the lowest neckline fold, just above the mid-arm seam, and at the cuffs. See more about the ribbon below. The cuffs are snug, and must close with buttons, though we've been unable to spot them for sure.

The floor-length underskirt is sunburst pleated, like Prunaprismia's skirt in the same scene (also known as sunray or accordion pleats). See the pleats here, walking with Aslan, here, where the wind blows back the overskirt, and just a little bit in a closer view, here. In all likelihood, the skirt is separate for convenience.

Blue Overdress

Over the white dress she wears a blue strapless overdress. The fabric is a gorgeous wedgewood blue, embroidered with brown vines and tan flowers with brown centers, and tan knots in groups of three—which are actually small eyelet-type stitches, if you look closely at them in this shot.

The body of the dress appears to be eight pieces. It's princess-seamed, front and back, and has side seams. The bodice is fitted, flairing out from the hip into a wide, stiff skirt, which may be just from the stiffness of the fabric or white underskirt, but it may have a petticoat or two underneath as well.

The neckline forms a V-notch at the top, closes, then opens again at mid-hip to reveal the ivory underskirt. The top edge of the dress dips around under the arm and curves back up at the back.

The back is not laced; it's closed with a placket over a matching modesty panel, closing with eight (pearl?) buttons and loops. The buttons are on long strings, and the loops are long, so the buttons are suspended in the center of the placket. However, the actual closure of the dress is likely to be on the center front seam, with hooks and eyes, closing from a few inches down the V-notch to around mid hip, opening to reveal the ivory underskirt—a virtually invisible closure but much more efficient and convenient than all the buttons the back.

The lining of the bodice is likely boned down to mid-hip. Observe how stiffly the points of the V stand up, and sometimes the skirt seems to crease slightly in the waist-to-hip area, suggesting that the boning ends there (see here, here, and here).

The overdress is trimmed, in two rows at the neck and one row on each side of the front closure, with a metallic jacquard ribbon in an antique gold color. Along the top, at the corners of the V-notch, the top layer of trim is pieced with the center front trim at a 45-degree angle. The lower trim stops there, and the center front trim continues down with only one row, on either side of the front closure.

The trim has a tiny scallop edge to it, and a definite texture—see this shot for our best close-up—looks like a zig-zag/triangle ribbed pattern on it. Where the ribbon is sewn down in two rows, the two rows look to be zig-zag stitched where they join, but this actually looks like the scallop edges of each piece of ribbon.

Accessories

Her hair is worn in waves like pincurls, parted on the right side, with upper sections pulled back from her face, twisted and bound at the back with a small metal clip or ring.

She wears lovely pendant earrings, a diamond shape with a blue stone at the post, with a pearl drop hanging from that. Her hair usually covers the earrings, but you can see them particularly well here, here, and here.

We can just barely see the shoes she wears here and here, so we can't tell much about them. They look like closed-toe slippers, possibly the same blue as the overdress fabric.



Production Picture



High-Res DVD Screencaps from Hotn'Caps