I loved the sheer amount of detail on these dresses and the rich colour of the left dress with the deep crimson colour reflects the wealth and importance factor really nicely. Common themes with these dresses are the "buttress" structure where the back of the dress juts out and gives a very distinct profile shape that is extremely victorian. Another aspect seen in both is the frills and layering featured at the bottom of the dress. It seems any material on the dress has to have some form of embellishment and complication to avoid any of them looking plain or boring. Extravagance is everything.
It would be perfect to give across the character of an older, wiser lady and would be perfect reference for such a character. I also love the long train at the bottom of the dress inn the top left picture which is a really nice detail. Although hard to animate, I could use them on a more static character where movement isn't too much of a factor but I could give a subtle effects with the dragging of this long train of ruffled material.
The aspect I loved in these images is the over the top, billowed out shapes of the dresses. It had that same buttress structure as seen earlier but to a much higher degree. Any character that may appear more side on than front on could really benefit from having this kind of shapes as its a really key feature of victorian dresses at this time and would give my film an accurate periodic feel.
I included the bottom left picture because it showed me the actual literal structures used underneath the fabric of victorian dresses to give them their distinctive shape and I was fascinated by it and the idea of carrying that whole wooden support underneath your clothing all day. It seemed ridiculous tho me and a certain amount of ridiculousness is present in all of these victorian dresses and particularly I want to use his slight silliness to highlight the differences between the rich and the poor. Where the poor have very functional and plainer more practical clothing, the rich would have over the top and impractical outward displays of wealth and pomposity.
