The Ornamented Being

“But when the witch bent down to peer inside the oven and check the heat, Gretel gave her a tremendous push and slammed the oven door shut. The witch had come to a fit and proper end.”

“The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just like great white fowls. Suddenly they flew on one side; the large sledge stopped, and the person who drove rose up. It was a lady; her cloak and cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazzling whiteness. It was the Snow Queen.  … The Snow Queen kissed Kay once more … “Now you will have no more kisses,” said she, “or else I should kiss you to death!”“

“ And when she saw her she knew her for Snow-white, and could not stir from the place for anger and terror. For they had ready red-hot iron shoes, in which she had to dance until she fell down dead.”

And thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived.

“When she is fifteen years old, the Princess shall prick herself with a spindle and shall fall down dead!”

“The wolf is carnivore incarnate and he’s as cunning as he is ferocious; once he’s had a taste of flesh then nothing else will do.” 
— Angela Carter

“Well, have you lost your courage? Put out your little tongue that I may cut it off as my payment; then you shall have the powerful draught.”

A huge thank you to the Costumer’s Guide for these photos! I was on the company home page trying to fall out of love with this costume never mind using the screenshot tool! 

I study historic costuming and because I want to go into working with extant pieces I’m a huge stickler for accuracy. But accurate or not the Evil Queen costume designed by Gabriella Pescucci for The Brother’s Grimm remains one of my favorite costumes ever.

I’d like to go ahead an announce my candidacy for President of Team Evil Queen.

(Warning: Clicking the smaller photos may bring about fainting and in some rare cases subjects have lost the will to live.)