Construction Details:

The "Blood Red Dress" is my second favorite of Arwen's dresses from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, which appears in the Rivendell library scenes in Return of the King. It is also known as Arwen's "Dying Dress" since it is in these scenes that she shows signs she is beginning to fade from Middle Earth and is convinced by her father to journey to the Grey Havens. Like the Coronation Gown, I did not make this; this gorgeous dress was a limited edition high quality gown created by Museum Replicas Ltd. It is made out of red and midnight blue velvet, with gold embroidery along the neck and sleeves. It laces up the back, and is incredibly heavy, with the sleeves weighing several pounds each. It remains lighter than the Coronation Gown, but not much. despite the weight, it is very comfortable to wear, especially in cooler weather. It is not recommended for summer conventions.

Personal Thoughts:

I knew almost nothing of Lord of the Rings until my senior year of college; some friends had previously tried to get me to watch the first Peter Jackson film, Fellowship of the Ring, and I was so lost in my ignorance of Tolkien's universe I fell asleep from boredom. However, as an English major my senior seminar was on Tolkien, and I was assigned The Hobbit and LOTR for class and loved them (I had to read The Silmarillion as well and struggled). It helped immensely to read the books with a Tolkien and Anglo-Saxon scholar for a professor and have a context not only for the universe Tolkien created but the medieval cultural traditions it borrowed from. When I re-watched Fellowship of the Ring knowing the story, I was fully invested and rather than fall asleep, I cried at the end when Sam insists on joining Frodo on his solo quest to Mordor. I also loved how the film interwove the story of Aragorn and Arwen into the main plot, as it only appears in retrospect as an appendix in the books. I enjoyed this interpretation of Arwen's character, which is nowhere nearly as fleshed out in the original story, and of course I adored her clothes. I knew if I was going to cosplay from Lord of the Rings, it was going to be as Arwen.

Sorry, you must be a registered user of and logged in to view and add comments. Either log in or register now!