One of the pivotal moments in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is when Mrs Danvers tricks the narrator into dressing up in the same costume as the previous Mrs de Winter (aka Rebecca) for the costume party. I always wondered what Danvers would have worn to the costume party, and this is the result. Going along with the botanical imagery in the novel, I chose a forest green silk dupioni. As Rebecca’s closest companion, the use of beetle wings is a subtle nod to Dany’s role in her life (the bug to the former’s azaleas). I chose a 1898 – 1900 silhouette, partly inspired by the 2012 Stuttgart iteration of the musical, where Danvers (played by the magnificent Pia Douwes) dresses in a late Victorian housekeeper outfit. The tucks on the blouse was also a detail I took from the musical costume.
The main challenge of the project was time. It was my first time using beetle wings and it was a lot of work filing them down, drilling holes into them (for what seemed like 173772 wings). They were also rather fiddly and sewing them onto the lace was rather taxing. I used approximately 6m of the green dupioni and a similar meterage of cotton and linen for the lining. I also hand made the buttons by cutting the beetle wings and gluing jewellery chains around it. The “puff” part of the sleeves are also interfaced which managed to help them retain their shape. The blouse is drafted from a blouse block and slightly extended lengthwise to give space for the tucks.
Steffi Heloise 