Inspired by the Golden Era. Part 3 - finishing touches

Another of my 'catching up' posts.

The main parts of the costume were made, now I just needed the final details to complete the Golden Era look.

The veil was made specifically for this costume. Because it is tucked in the belt throughout, it needed to be much longer than a normal veil. It was made from a length of white chiffon with a subtle silver shimmer through it.

When I tried the costume on, there seemed to be a lot of bare skin between the bra and my neck. I needed a necklace, and found one in black metal with swags of beads which was perfect. The only problem was that the chain would get in the way when I tucked the veil ends into the halter neck. One solution was to remove the back part of the necklace, and attach the rest to the halter strap, but then this wouldn't leave enough space for me to get my head through! Instead I sewed the necklace to the strap at one side, and on the other side of the strap I sewed a jump ring to which the necklace could be fastened.

Necklace attached to the bra, with the fasten on the right

I don't usually dance in shoes, but Samia Gamal was famous for doing so, so I bought a pair of black and silver dance shoes, and added some vintage shoe clips which I already had.

Modern shoes with vintage shoe clips

The last thing to consider was my hair. I have quite a long fringe, but all the women in the film clips I watched either had no fringe at all, or a scarily short one like this.

The singer Coca, in the film "A Glass and a Cigarette"

I wanted a period look, but not that much!

The film clips provided a solution. Samia Gamal often had sparkling clips in her hair, so I decided to copy her look. I bought a cheap metal hairband and covered the band part with brown bias tape to match my hair.

The completed hairband

I used this to hold my fringe back, and relied upon the fact that from the distance of a stage, only the silver flowers would show.

Look, no fringe!

Finally, here's a picture of me performing in the show. Thanks to Ann Cook for allowing me to use one of the photographs she took.

The finished costume