Adventures in Costuming; Princess Sibylla – Kingdom of Heaven

Sibylla from Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven has been my dream costume since the movie came out back in early May 2005. Since that time I have been searching for the right fabric for this costume. Some of it is easy to source, others proved to be nearly impossible. I have such a love for Eva Green’s portrayal of Sibylla, and an even greater love for the period of history in which the film was based that I was determined to finally cosplay her.

I have folders saved on my computer of screen shots, and have lovingly stalked The Costumer’s Guide for years to see if any additional resources have ever been added, sadly it seems as if this movie’s beautiful costumes designed by Janty Yates are all but forgotten.

2015 has marked the year in which I’ve made those costumes that I’ve loved and wanted to make for myself for a decade. The ones that few others will care about, but mean something to me, personally, as a costumer. And in finishing Sibylla and being so completely happy with the outcome–sacrificing my sewing machine of the past 8 years in the process–I feel like I’ve accomplished something that I set out to do over ten years ago.

The dress is made from a wheat coloured stretch silk charmeuse and trimmed in vintage beads along the wrist and neckline, and accented with a vintage mother of pearl Jerusalem cross pendant brooch, and patterned off Butterick Pattern B4827 with some minor alterations. Fabric was purchased from Mood Fabrics.

The lavender robe is made from a limited edition silk sari that I was fortunate enough to purchase the very last of–this is the fabric I’ve been looking for relentlessly for a decade, and finally found something close enough to work–it is lined in a lavender silk charmuese. The sleeves of the robe are accented with freshwater pearls. It was patterned off a vintage 1940’s housecoat pattern that I purchased off Etsy for another project and never used.

The cape is made from six yards of mandarin orange silk dupioni purchased from Silk Baron and trimmed in gold zardozi. It was sewn without a pattern.

The headscarf is a silk lurex marquisette from B & J Fabrics in NYC, accented with pearls and tassles and held in place with multiple ornate pearl stick pins.

The sash is a matte silk duchess satin purchased from thunderlily.com, which provides a plethora of hard to find high end fabrics sourced from fabric retailers in NYC. In all, the costume is collectively 18 yards of silk.

Wanting to capture every detail, I made sure to pay particular attention to my hands in this costume. Purchasing rings and adding henna designs with Temptu alcohol based makeup. Everything is in the details.

Photography courtesy of PhotoNinja and Joseph Chi Lin.