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Green Dress from Atonement
Reference Photos
Very high-res photos. Fabric This article in Entertainment Weekly says Durran created a gown of featherweight silk satin, custom-dyed emerald. Since the Ian McEwan novel on which the film is based treats the frock as a character unto itself, partly responsible for igniting the couple's passion, Durran felt it was crucial that "instead of being constructed around Keira's body, the dress skimmed her [frame] and added to a feeling of semi-nakedness." At first I thought the fabric is silk crepe because it doesn't look very shiny and close-ups reveal a great deal of texture. In some promo shots, especially in those taken outside when it's dark, the fabric looks like silk charmeuse but I believed it was mainly due the lightning and the way silk sometimes behaves when photographed. After reading the article cited above, I've had second thoughts. I've never dyed silk satin but I once had a silk charmeuse top that my boyfriend accidentally put in the washing machine. The silk - that was supposed to be dry cleaned only - lost its sheen and looked a bit like the fabric of Cecilia's dress. So maybe dyeing changed the appearance of the satin? Here's another bit of finding the right shade taken from an interview with Jacqueline Durran in Los Angeles Times: Joe [the director Joe Wright] said he wanted a green dress. Green is a very symbolic color, but I never wanted to pin down exactly what green meant to him. It's an open-ended symbol that means many things to many people. I think of green as temptation but that's just me. -- We found all the green silk and organza fabrics in London and ended up with three green choices: a lime-green silk, a black and green organza and another green chiffon. Then we took the swatches to a master dyer in London and had him special dye 100 yards of plain white fabric into that rich green. The dress was the composite of those three hues.
The dress is bias cut for most parts so it clings against the body. The bodice is cut as one piece and there's a lot of fullness to it. This article from Los Angeles Times says The backless, emerald dress is almost a character itself -- in the film and in the novel. Durran's creation boasts a flowing hemline, delicate, twisted shoulder straps and a slit up its front high enough to make a coal miner blush. On the lithe Keira Knightley, who portrays headstrong aristocrat Cecilia Tallis, the loosely fitted silk gown is provocative but supremely graceful. The dress is worn in the passionate love scene that ensues after Cecilia and her secret crush -- the housekeeper's son, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) -- confess their mutual amore. Its sexy front slit (which Durran would have sewn up had she been adhering to strict period guidelines) was meant to add "an element of nakedness." Had Cecilia been wearing a period dress with underpinnings, she never would have been able to wriggle free of it so fluidly. I'm not sure of this front slit mentioned in the article. I don't remember it being slit and none of the promo shots show a slit of any kind. Instead, there seems to be a vertical seam hidden behind the drapery at the center front (white line in the picture below). The seam opens to form a pleat that adds fullness towards the hemline. I haven't spotted any other vertical seams in the skirt though I'm assuming there must be at least one more at the center back. Note that the part of the skirt above the hip drapery doesn't have a center front seam, so it must be a separate piece. In that case there must be horizontal seams hidden beneath the drapery (yellow lines).
As usual in moviemaking, several gowns were made. When looking at reference photos, it is good to keep in mind that different versions of the dress may not look exactly alike. In another article by Los Angeles Times Jacqueline Durran reveals: We had lots of the gowns. The fabric was so fine that the bodices kept tearing. We had three or four skirts and 10 bodices and when they tore, we would quickly repair them. So the bodice and the skirt are actually separate pieces or joined only by a single seam, easily ripped open. The neckline edge is finished with a very neat hand rolled hem. You can just barely see the stitches in some photos. All the other edges of the garment seem to have been finished with a rolled hem, too, except for the lower edge of the hip drapery: you can see in some photos that it is finished with overcasting the raw edge. The dress has a waistline sash that extends into a complicated drapery at the back. I haven't been able to figure out what is going on there. Here's a quick look at the drapery from different angles.
The front parts of the drapery are actually sewn to the dress along their upper edges. The front knot looks like it's probably fake i.e. sewn to place.
If I'm right and the drapery doesn't open at the front, the opening has to be hidden somewhere in the back. Also, it looks like most of the fullness of the skirt is gathered at the center back. Decoration The bodice edges are decorated with a cutout pattern of small holes, sizes ranging from 1-5 mm. In the Los Angeles times article Jacqueline Durran says: "Instead of traditional '30s beading on the bodice, we used laser-cut patterns." Laser cutting provides a clean edge free from loose fibers. In some synthetic materials a thin microscopic seal would be created. Natural fabrics such as silk would still fray a little in use. I think a tightly-woven fabric, like charmeuse, would not ravel excessively. Laser cutting services are available in reasonable prices so this would actually be an option for an amateur costumer, too. A similar effect would perhaps be achieved by pinking, a method of punching holes to fabric. I've never tried pinking so I can't recommend any tool. Here you can view examples of hole punch and eyelet setting tools that might work. The decorated edge looks very fragile and Jacqueline Durran has said that the bodices kept tearing because the fabric was so fine. We have even some visual evidence. In some promo shots the decoration is intact. In others, you can see that a small part of it has ripped and a piece of skin tone material is added to support the broken part. Adding this type of support to your replica gown would not be a bad idea.
Hair and Makeup Ivana Primorac, who has many historical and fantasy movies in her resume, did the hair and makeup. The following bit is taken from this story: When creating the hair and makeup to go with Keira Knightley's green dress in Atonement," Ivana Primorac had one mandate: to make her look like a real girl. "We didn't want her to look like a Hollywood version of a '30s film star." Primorac used Chanel make-up shades that were popular in the 1930s and are still available today, but she used her pigments sparingly. Women didn't wear a lot of makeup back then," Primorac says. The palette was quite limited at the time."
As for the hair, Knightley here wears marcelled waves, but they are loose and a bit frizzy, casually pinned to one side with a cluster of diamond stars (also Chanel). It's nearly impossible to replicate this without a trip to a hair salon; Primorac says that women in the '30s would perm their hair to near-breakage to achieve this look. In this scene, Knightley wears a wig cut and permed by Primorac. As with her dress, Knightley's hair and makeup was done with an eye to be accurate, but very nice and young," Primorac says. And I think it will absolutely resonate." The Chanel Ad In the light of the previous article (Chanel makeup, Chanel jewellery), it is interesting to note that when the movie came out, Keira Knightley was the spokesperson for Chanel's Mademoiselle perfume. The well-timed campaign takes all advantage of the hype surrounding the film by styling Keira in a very Atonement-like '30s way. |
The dress is worn by Keira Knightley's character Cecilia Tallis in the 2007 film
Atonement. It's designed by 
Construction
On Knightley, Primorac used no foundation, mascara or eyeliner - all of which,
she says, would have made her look older. Instead, she used red polish on her
nails (with the half-moons exposed, which was in vogue then), blush and a deep
crimson lipstick that Knightley's character impetuously decides to blot off
until all that's left is a very faint, very modern stain.