Picture references needed for River costume, blue dress!

POSTED BY: EmmaZule
UPDATED: Saturday, September 30, 2006 23:43
VIEWED: 13940
PAGE 1 of 2

1 2 NEXT PAGE

EMMAZULE

Thursday, April 13, 2006 4:34 PM

Hi. Well, I hope some of y'all shiny folk can help me out.

I am in contact with a WONDERFUL costume-maker, who is willing to make any costume a person could want, for a real shiny price (heck, I showed her some pics of one of Inara's costumes and she said that including shipping to the U.S., she could do it for just under $150! And her stuff is pretty sturdy, too, and generally VERY accurate)... if she's got picture references, of course.

So I'm on the hunt for (decent, clear, even kinda big!) pictures/scans of that lovely blue dress that River wears:

*In the movie.
*On the cover of the movie novelisation and DVD(s?).
*On the poster(s?) for the movie.
*On her cover of one of the comics' variant covers (I have the whole comic miniseries/graphic novel, and have read it, but can't recall if she also wore it in the comics. I think she might have).

Since Serenity, despite the ticket sales in general theatres, got arguably more exposure than Firefly, this is EASILY her most recognizable outfit. I happen to look (stringy hair and all, LOL) a lot like River, so I'd love to dress up as her for upcoming SF/anime cons (no Shindigs in my area! *sniffle*).

So, I need pictures, pictures, pictures. Lots of them, especially ones with a clear view of the details of it, like I think it's got a top sheer layer and a bottom non-sheer one, and I remember it having a bit of beading on the top.

So if y'all shiny folk could help me, it'd be much appreciated! I have lots of River pictures, but so far most of the ones I have either aren't of that dress, or you can't see the detail. I tried Googling it under "River Serenity" (minus the quotes. I figured I'd get some Serenity-related resutls. I got some, all right, but they're all related to Zen! Though there was a couple'a pretty pictures from that search I have to admit...) and pretty much got ruttin' nothin' useful. ^_^

Thanks in advance for anything you'n find!

(Side note: I'm trying to challenge myself with writing a Harry Potter/Firefly crossover fanfic. Even if you can't find anything for the costume, lemme know if you or someone you know could help with that, either!)

~Emma

Shiny.

ARISLYN

Thursday, April 13, 2006 5:05 PM

Emma,

Just go to propstore.com and Serenity. There is a pic of River's blue dress, front and back, along with a fairly detailed description.

Good luck!

Arislyn

Everything's shiny, Cap'n. Not to fret.

ARISLYN

Thursday, April 13, 2006 5:09 PM

Here's the actual page it's on, at the bottom.

http://www.propstore.com/list/cat_id/3/ob/itm/num_display/15/view/0/mo
vs/877/pos/45

Everything's shiny, Cap'n. Not to fret.

EMMAZULE

Friday, April 14, 2006 8:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Arislyn:
Here's the actual page it's on, at the bottom.

http://www.propstore.com/list/cat_id/3/ob/itm/num_display/15/view/0/mo
vs/877/pos/45

Everything's shiny, Cap'n. Not to fret.

You are every bit as sweet and helpful as your avatar.

But it's apparently not the same dress I thought it was, ie the same one (well, same design anyway) as on the variant comics cover. How confusing. They looked so similar from a distance.

They're both dark blue and roughly the same length, with two layers. But the one on the comics does seem to have beading (though the details are muddy in my scans

), no pattern (though it IS a lovely pattern) and I just realized - a slit up one side!

So. Comes down to which one I like better, I suppose... I actually think, maybe, I like the comic's one better. It's pretty. ^^ (Also, the pattern on the film version may or may not prove more problmatic for my costume maker than plain dark blue fabrics would).

So, though. This narrows the search a bit. Which in itself might be helpful... I hope. I do have the River Tam variant cover (also the Kaylee cover, which is my favorite, because it REALLY looks like her, and is so darn pretty and cute!), but I would have to find it, take it out of the all-important plastic packaging... and scan it, despite not having a viable scanner right now.

But. It narrows the search, so it's been REALLY helpful.

Thanks!

*totally wishes she could afford those props and stuff!*

~Emma

"I swallowed a bug"

ARISLYN

Friday, April 14, 2006 6:24 PM

Glad I could be of some assistance! Even if it's not exactly what you needed.

And good luck, just the same! You should definitely post pics after you get the costume made so we can all see it!

Arislyn

Everything's shiny, Cap'n. Not to fret.

EMMAZULE

Saturday, April 15, 2006 3:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Arislyn:
Glad I could be of some assistance! Even if it's not exactly what you needed.

What's really weird is that the Maidenhead bar scene dress does not, additionally, seem to be the same as the dress in at least one of the movie posters - the same one which was used for the SVC book (which I have, of course, like the good little obsessive Browncoat nerd I am ) DOES have beading on the top, seems to have a completely different cut, and appears to have no pattern.

Now, i just looked at the big picture in the SVC and there is what may or may not be the same or ANOTHER blue dress, on page 9. The picture, however, is REALLY fuzzy and does not give many good details. Especially with Summer's hair in the way of the top of it (though it DOES show that that dress, at least, certainly does have a sheer top layer, which is also longer than the bottom layer).

Frankly, I may just have to do a composite of the two or three different outfits. Maybe have the dress be solid blue and with the sheer the same length as SVC p.9, but wear a black sweater thing with it like she did in the bar (I actually think I HAVE a black sweater thing VERY similar to it already in my wardrobe! O_O).

On the bright side, the boots have a very nice detail in that picture. They're cool little boots. I bet Hot Topic has something similar for boots, I think someone mentioned them in another topic on it somewhere. In a pinch, I suppose regular black combat boots would do.

Actually... paging through the book... on p.19 there is another, plainer dark blue dress... no beading, but no pattern either. It's from the bar fight scene, you can tell. Weird.

And if you look at page 29 (they're all nines! Weird)... no beading, but there's clearly two layers.

Was the costume crew as schizophrenic as River, or does River honestly own THAT MANY blue dresses, I wonder, .

Man, it sucks that my costume maker lives in China and isn't actually a Browncoat. Otherwise, I could just list page numbers, or show them to her myself! Hmm, anybody able to find a decent scan of those pages, though? Maybe those would work. (I cannot believe I did not think to look through the SVC first and then ask if anybody could find a scan. I blame the fact that I've been lately getting less than four hours of sleep a night. Though that's actually my own fault, the sleep loss. Too much internet and music and not realizing where the gorram time goes! )

What is it with Joss and the color blue, coincidentally? LOL. Blue Sun, Blue Hands, blue dresses... I like the color, but can you say "Whoa, that's a lot of blue!"?

Quote:

And good luck, just the same! You should definitely post pics after you get the costume made so we can all see it!

Oh absolutely! Someday I may take her up on the Inara costume offer, too, although I would have to tame my usually-stringy hair into something beyond Presentable in order to pull it off.

I'm also going to an anime con the end of the month dressed as Misato Katsuragi from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (it's airing on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" lineup in the U.S right now actually), lemme know if you want pictures. The same costume maker I plan to go to for my River costume did the Misato one. I've also ordered a Yomiko Readman costume (another anime character, she's a quiet, nerdy bookworm who's secretly a secret agent. For the British Library, which is also a spy agency in "Read Or Die", the anime she comes from. I'm a dead ringer for her save for my eyes aren't blue. Even our glasses are similar, and we're supposed to be the same height and everything!) from her, it may or may not arrive in time for the con, but I'm hoping it will, because I can wear comfy shoes with it and it's a cute costume. :)

~Emma

"I swallowed a bug."

CABOT

Saturday, April 15, 2006 11:26 AM

The dress you are looking for is the one River wore when she did battle with the reavers toward the end of the movie, (the famous, "My Turn" sequence.)

That dress can also be seen at the prop store link provided previously, but it appears about half way down on the first of the four pages of Serenity stuff.

...and yes, please link some pictures of the final result, it should be very cool.

____________

River: Midbulk transport. Standard radion accelerator core class-code 03-K64. Firefly.

XEYRA

Saturday, April 15, 2006 7:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cabot:
The dress you are looking for is the one River wore when she did battle with the reavers toward the end of the movie, (the famous, "My Turn" sequence.)

That dress can also be seen at the prop store link provided previously, but it appears about half way down on the first of the four pages of Serenity stuff.

...and yes, please link some pictures of the final result, it should be very cool.

And this particular dress is not exactly blue, more like a greenish color. But it's the dress on all Movie posters, either it be the international ones with the Reaver weapons, or the US blue poster.

*******************************
Wash: This landing is gonna get pretty interesting.
Mal: Define "interesting".
Wash: [deadpan] Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die?

EMMAZULE

Tuesday, April 18, 2006 8:48 PM

Quote:
The dress you are looking for is the one River wore when she did battle with the reavers toward the end of the movie, (the famous, "My Turn" sequence.)

Which explains why it's in so many shots (including those) in the SVC. Thanks for narrowing it down.

Quote:

That dress can also be seen at the prop store link provided previously, but it appears about half way down on the first of the four pages of Serenity stuff.

]

Yay! Shiny! Thanks!

Quote:

...and yes, please link some pictures of the final result, it should be very cool.

Will do!

~Emma

"I swallowed a bug."

EMMAZULE

Tuesday, April 18, 2006 9:47 PM

"And this particular dress is not exactly blue, more like a greenish color. But it's the dress on all Movie posters, either it be the international ones with the Reaver weapons, or the US blue poster. "

Yep! That's the one!

That is so weird, though! I had no idea it was green. The film's cinematography it so dark, it always looks some kind of dark blue... I'll probably request it in blue, so it's more recognizable, but I'll probably used that design. Shiny! Thanks so much for the help!

~Emma

"I swallowed a bug"

1 2 NEXT PAGE