Water for Elephants Inspired Project

I recently watched the movie Water for Elephants for the first time and was very inspired by Reese Witherspoon's costumes and style.  This movie is set in the early 1930's and is set at a circus.  Reese's look is a homage to the starlets of the time like Jean Harlow and Mae West. She wears a period specific finger wave with pin curls and is a beautiful light blonde.  Her costumes are wonderful too.  She switches between wearing sequined leotards and tutus to slinky satin dresses.

I happen to have my own "starlet" on hand, my friend Buffie, who is always generous enough to allow me to dress her up and take photos.  We haven't done this in quite some time so I thought this would be a great opportunity to use this inspiration and hopefully create something wonderful.

We have a photo shoot scheduled for Saturday and we are going to my step-niece's horse farm so that we can take photos with some horses.  I thought that horses would probably be better to use than exotic animals considering we live nowhere near any and I don't want Buffie to get eaten during the shoot.

I've been collecting and making items for the shoot for the last few days and hope to create a look worthy of the inspiration.  This can sometimes be difficult on a budget, but I think so far it has been successful.

Photo shoot items:

• Nude & black leotards
• White & black tights and black & nude fishnets
• I created two tutu bustles, one black and one white (pictured below)
• I created a crown (pictured below) 
• I already had a small sparkly top hat, a pink feather stole, and satin gloves in different lengths and colors
• I created bows as adornments for the shoulders (pictured below)
• My husband (Brad) and I created structure out of pvc pipe to hold two red curtains.  I think this will look very dramatic when it's set up in a field.  (pictured below)
• I also borrowed a few things from my sister

I always keep my Halloween costumes and remnants from sewing projects, so by now I have amassed quite the collection of wigs, boas, gloves, hats, ribbon and fabric. I am very excited about this project and will be taking photos as I do the hair and makeup.  I will also share the final product of the photo shoot.  More to come...

I made this crown with card stock, metallic paint and rhinestones.

I made these no-sew tutu bustles and ribbon adornments.
My husband Brad helped me make the curtain structure out of pvc pipes. Thanks Brad.