Saturday, April 4, 2009

Narnia and JW Waterhouse






Do these two dresses look alike? The one on the top is the Adult Susan Dress from LWW. The one on the bottom is a painting done by John William Waterhouse in 1905. Here are some of their similarities:


1) They are both zig-zag laced up the front.

2) Both have a boat neckline.

3) Both have a notch to allow for the lacing.

4) Both have a large embroidery around the "neckline."

Granted, the sleeves are not the same and the original painting does not have a split, but I just thought that it was SO neat how similar they are! AND--I found this one all by myself!

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This is what the people on The Wardrobe Door think that Susan's Archery Dress was inspired by...it's also a JW Waterhouse!
They both have a notch (about the same), a sleeve puffing through the middle arm and they're both fitted and the underdress neck is cut higher than the overdress. Both of these paintings of Pre-Raphaelite fashions.

Here is an interview with Isis Mussenden in which she states that the Narnian costumes were, in fact, inspired by this style. It is really great!

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Just a side note: my orchestra is playing Holst's The Planets in May, so when I first listened to the recordings, I thought "hey, that sounds a lot like Narnia!" Well, to make a very long story short, it is really incredible if you listen to "Prince Caspian Flees" and "Kings and Queens of Old" on the PC soundtrack, and then listen to the beginning of "Mars" and "Venus." Tell me what you think...I find it absolutely UNCANNY! Many of the themes are almost identical. It's amazing.



8 comments:

Johanna said...

Lucie, I love your new background with the big photo of Susan! It is my favorite one out of all of the pix you have chosen in the past! I also think you look a lot like Susan! Thanks for following my blog, talk to you later. Bye.

Your Sister in Christ,
Johanna

Marissa Kayann said...

Susan's archery dress is one of my favorite dress that she wears!

Lucie Manette said...

Johanna--Thanks! I used this particular format back in the fall, but I just loved it SO much...

Marissa--Me, too!

Anonymous said...

Hello Lucie....
I've been reading your blog for awhile now. You are quite a kindred Narnia Nut (although I wish there was a more elegant way to say that.) I think you would be interested in my JW Waterhouse post on my blog, ourspareoom.wordpress.com. We both posted about the same thing! Love your design, by the way. it is by far my favorite.

~Meg

Lucie Manette said...

I will definitely look (when I have more time, that is...) Thanks for commenting. I had seen your comments on Raora's blog and I really wanted to contact you. Thanks for coming over!!!

(I know, I wish there was a more elegant way to say it, too. Oh well.)

Marissa Kayann said...

I answer you question on my blog, but I thought I would put it on here too:

{ Lucie- Thanks! I didn't make it, I'm not that good. I found it when I was searching for a picture of Susun to use for my profile picture, I'll comment on your blog, and give you the link too it =D I love it too, it's so awesome! }

So here are the links to the picture, the 1st is the link to the picture itself, the the 2nd is the site it's off of.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dBgyBc2UwKE/SHdrQioXMZI/AAAAAAAACLI/PnWf8hFBehs/s400/narnia-susan-pc.jpg

http://hollywoodmoviewallpaperzone.blogspot.com/2008/07/chronicles-of-narnia-prince-caspian.html

Also if you search google images for "susan narnia"
there is another collage that comes up with the results.

~Marissa

Violinist4Christ said...

Oh cool! My orchestra played an excerpt from "Jupiter - the Bringer of Jollity" from The Planets by Holst. I got the CD from the library so I could listen to it. The songs do sound Narnian!

Hannah Leigh said...

Love it! :D

In Christ,
~Miss Rose