Bitter Orange: Designing Myrtle's Dress

I had the great honor of designing the costumes for Hope Larson’s debut film Bitter Orange, a short film set in 1920’s prohibition era Los Angeles. For those of you unfamilar, Hope Larson (www.hopelarson.com) is an amazing visual storyteller and New York Times Bestselling Author. She both wrote and directed Bitter Orange. Working with her on this film was a wonderful experience.

Hope and I worked closely throughout the design process of Bitter Orange. She made it clear from the start that she wanted her film to be true to the era. In our first meeting she brought several inspirational images and was very specific about what each image represented to her vision of the film. I love working with directors like this because they know what they are looking for, and they trust me as a creative partner to draw from their vision and continue the design from there.

Hope and I discussed Myrtle’s character at length. Myrtle is the lynchpin of the entire film. We had to figure out what 1920’s silhouette most defined her character before setting the style for the rest of the characters in the film. We started by sharing research. We drew from many 1920’s sources including vintage photographs, sculptures, fashion plates, and design motifs found in everyday items. Looking at period evening gowns we determined early in the process that fringe, though popular for the era, was too “flapper” for Myrtle and didn’t reflect her ambitions adequately. She’s not a flapper, she is a secretary. An ambitious secretary. Her style needed to reflect both her professionalism and her personality.

I then did a series of sketches. Over twenty-four designs were thumbnailed, all with characteristics Hope and I had discussed. From those twenty-four we narrowed it down to two designs, which I then rendered with greater detail. From those two renderings we chose Myrtle’s dress.

The design we chose was really two dresses in one. It featured a beaded sheath under-dress and a wrap over-dress that had a large bow tied at the hip. This silhouette made the statement we were looking for. Simple, elegant, yet with dramatic flair in the beaded design and the large bow. We wanted it in a jewel tone, so I started sourcing fabrics to swatch for approval.

It was important to me that the beaded design on the under-dress be true to the era. As most beaded fabrics today do not feature 1920’s motifs, and we didn’t have the budget to have something custom beaded, I turned to vintage shops and the internet to find what I was looking for. What I found was a 1920’s evening dress remnant for sale online. The dress itself was unwearable but the skirt panel featured a gold metallic embroidered beaded design. It was perfect!

Once the vintage fabric arrived, I got to work finding fabrics to match. At first I didn’t find anything that matched exactly. Everything was either too pink, too orange, too purple, or too dull. I wanted something vibrant and bold! After many trips to local fabric stores and orders of fabric swatches from NY and CA, I found a match to the color of the vintage fabric.

The dress was custom patterned by referencing vintage patterns of the 1920’s. I re-drafted the patterns and adjusted the shape to that of the dress I designed. Since the dress design was two dresses in one, two separate patterns were drafted and mocked-up. (A mock-up is a sample dress made of cheaper fabrics, usually muslin. Mock-ups are essential in dressmaking as you can see what areas need to be adjusted for fit and shape.) It was important to me to get the proper amount of drape in the front wrap of the over-dress. The first mock-up did not have enough drape, so I once again adjusted the pattern and created another mock-up. After the pattern was perfected, construction on Myrtle’s dress began.

The vintage beaded remnant became the top portion of Myrtle’s sheath under-dress. To showcase the design of the vintage fabric I deepened the underarms of the over-dress and created a peek-a-boo “v” in the sides. The dramatic bow of the over-dress was made from two three-foot sashes. To finish off her look I created a matching beaded hair bandeau from a base made of remnants of the vintage fabric combined with a vintage choker necklace.

Brie Larson as Myrtle in the short film, Bitter Orange

Watch Bitter Orange HERE

Birth Movies Death interview with Hope

CBR’s interview with Hope

See more images from the film in my portfolio