In my re-interpretation of “A Masked Ball“ I mixed the eighteenth-century silhouette with elements of dress in the works of the Romantic and Pre-Raphaelite painters whose works depicted deeply dramatic scenes within nostalgic historical settings. I found the historicist elements of the clothing in their paintings matched quite well the theatricality of Verdi’s music. I aimed to incorporate those visual elements with the eighteenth-century silhouette, creating a temporal pastiche that could still look cohesive and visually pleasing.

Amelia is the perfect heroin for a nineteenth-century audience, a wife and mother who falls in love with someone else but remains faithful to her husband and is described as “pure”. A red gown with a pomegranate print (pomegranate symbolising fertility and abundance), a sleeve modification, “a finestrelle” from which a chemise with oversized bishop sleeves peaks through.

The fabric is silk satin dyed and screen printed

Worn by Nejla Yasar