Painted Doll

Character: Painted Doll
Series: The Devil’s Carnival
When Completed: July 2012
Reason: I’m rather huge fan of the creators of Repo! The Genetic Opera, Terrance Zdunich and Darren Lynn Bousman. I love their work and their ability to make a film for the sake of making art they are passionate about, rather than to please someone else’s agenda. Then when I found out that Emilie Autumn, who is another huge creative inspiration for me, was apart of the project i couldn’t resists not making a costume from this film. Once I started looking more into the film, I was pleasantly surprised at the costume designs and was even more motivated to make something. If you haven’t heard of or seen The Devil’s Carnival, you can find out more about it here: http://thedevilscarnival.com/
Worn to:
San Diego Comic Con 2012, Reno showing of The Devil’s Carnival

Construction Notes:
When I first set out to make this costume, it was EXTREMELY difficult to figure out what this costume looked like from the waist down. There are no promo, behind the scenes, or even stills of what it looked like past the waist. Since the film was on tour, it didn’t get a chance to see the movie prior to making this costume. I looked at some fan art and other costumer’s renditions (which weren’t many!) to try to puzzle out the bottom part of this outfit. For the most part I just winged it and guessed what it might look like.

The first version of this costume was made in about 2 hours before I left for SDCC 2012. The top is made of thick white cotton with a floral texture. I boned it in the front so the eyelets wouldn’t bunch once it was tied. It’s laced with cut muslin. The bits on the shoulders is just tulle and lace gathered and hand stitched on. Skirt is just lots of gathered tulle. Black belt I owned. Shorts are from Yoko. Tights and gloves were purchased. Shoes were painted tan and then laces were just tied on my legs.

Once I had seen the movie I realized how accurate (or inaccurate!) my costume was. Before I went and saw the movie a second time, I altered and fixed up the costume quite a bit. I kept the white cotton top but re-cut the bottom hem, added a collar and more grommets down the front. For the skirt part, I added some netting to make it stand out more like a tutu. I also replaced my belt for the right colored one. I made new bottoms out white floral texture spandex, which was a lucky find, to replace my black shorts. I got rid of the opaque black tights and just used the red ones. I also added more lace to the arm warmers. Finally I added a layer of grime to everything. I used a combination of dyes and spray paint to give everything that dirty hellish feel of the movie. It also added a lot more dimension to the costume then it being squeaky clean like before. For the second time around I used my real hair instead of a wig. I also remembered my hair piece (despite putting it on the wrong side), however I forgot my gloves for the Reno show! Ooops.

There are a still a few tweaks I want to do to this before I wear it again, such as getting a pair of transparent black nylons to go over the red tights, black dance heels, put the eyelets/grommets down the back, and add the cage to the skirt. :)

The cracks on the face is all done in makeup (eyeshadow and liquid liner). The white part of the face was done with BenNye cake makeup.