Wonder Woman

The Eagle has Landed! 

 After an all day hand sewing marathon the Eagle on the Lynda Carter replica Wonder Women costume was completed.  I say that a bit tongue in cheek because as soon as you take photos of it you can see where a bit of tweaking needs to happen.  But overall I am pleased with the results.  Thanks again to our wonderful client who not only provided this opportunity but also supplied an abundant amount of well organized research material.

 This close up shot helps you to see the the unusual texture and beading. 

 The Costume designer  Donfeld stated that the Tiara was constructed out of leather but due to the limited amount they had, the rest of the gold was something else.  The color match on the leather to the lame is so well done you are easily fooled into believing that all of the gold is leather.  I believe they used a gold lame flatted to an under structure to give it the same appearance as leather...a neat trick. I replicated this by fusing the lame to felt.  Below you can see the individual feathers that were created, tried and rejected.  It required a lot of finessing to acquire all of the correct lengths and shapes.

The bodice and trunks are both made from a poly duchess satin.  The trunks are lined with a flesh colored moleskin and boned along the back princess seam to help keep the seat from creeping up on her.  This is a detail we noticed from some pictures of the original costume on a hanger, where the  casing for the boning is apparent.  The bodice is built over a custom made  steel boned corset.  This corset is what provides the breast support along with allowing lots of physical activity without upsetting the apple cart....so to speak.  The back closure is a bit of a mystery, the research we did seemed to indicate that it is hook and eye tape and so that is what I used which was a new technique for me, but the results were successful, it seems to replicate the look of the original quite well, where a zipper did not. 

I will post pictures of the inside corset in a few days.  The Tiara will be the next item to tackle followed by the infamous cape.