Jacqueline Durran designs one of the most remembered and iconic ball gowns in the history of fairy tales. It is the yellow gown of Beauty and the Beast’s protagonist princess, Belle.
Durran is also known for her masterpieces on the award-winning movies Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, and Tinker Tailor Soldier.
Despite being an Oscar winner herself, Jacqueline also experienced challenges along the way while working on an epic remake of the classic tale. The original movie was shown in 1994.
In an article where the designer’s preparation for the movie was told in numbers, it described how much effort was put to create a stellar production for “Beauty and the Beast.”
Eighteen weeks were allotted for her team before the movie was filmed. Creating her final gown took 12,000 hours. There were 2,160 Swarovski Crystals to give the dress an accent. An estimated 3,000 feet of thread was used in sewing and around 180 feet of satin organza feather was used to embellish the yellow dress. The dance floor, where Belle would dance, was made of 12,000 square feet of faux marble while there were 10 glass chandeliers sparkling above it. Lastly, a total of 1,500 pieces of roses were grown and bought for the movie production.
To bring all of the characters to life, designer Jacqueline based her creation on the mid-18th century of France and came up with a modern touch.
Durran said that they did not want her to show a delicate princess side. Instead, they wanted her to be an active heroine. The costumes made for Belle were purposely designed to have pockets where she could carry books and other things with her as she runs around their village.
The yellow gown has been an iconic part of the film. Durran also shared that it was always her aim to craftily recreate costumes from the original ones. She would give added texture on the materials. They were able to create a simple gown in the end because what was more important to them was the movement the dress would make as she dances and walks through the marble floor.
The dress made by Duran extravagantly made use of yellow-colored silk fabric that was in circular cuts to emphasize every movement she made. Jacqueline also produced a gold leaf and placed it on the silk dress because Garderobe, a magical character, would dust Belle with some gold in the movie.
The princess’ gown used at the film’s ending was made from a woven 18th century silk apron pattern that Durran bought back when she was only a student. She said that they found an artist from England who made a painted design from a floral pattern. The said design was painted on a canvas and was enlarged to be digitally printed.
The team of Jacqueline had put a great effort in going through an ethical process in designing the costumes that are aligned with the extensive sequences in the production set.
Durran also sought help from a consultant at the Eco Age. This company aids various industries in improving their sustainability standards. For Jacqueline’s team, they made sure that they were able to adhere to a set of standards for the materials they used in the production, which included the natural dyes, trimmings, threads as well as sustainable leather.
“Beauty and the Beast” will hit the theaters on March 17.