Wearables A Wardrobe for Jupet: 01 (Reproduction 19th c. caftan)

Hey! I'm going to try and put together some journals for my current doll project. This project revolves around my Souldoll Lev, Jupet, and his wardrobe, props, and modifications. I'll include a directory to the other journal threads here in case you are curious about how another part of the project is going. ​

[Project Journal: Wearables] you're here!
[Project Journal: Props]
[Project Journal: Modifications]

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The outfit I am working on making for Jupet at the moment is going to be based off of this early 19th century caftan, which was designed by Leon Bakst. Bakst created this costume for the character Shah Zeman in the ballet Scheherazade. I've been completely obsessed with the look of this costume since the first time I saw it, and am determined as ever to put it together for my little guy!


It's a bit hard to come by pictures of this costume, but I managed to find a couple of angles, and even a few close up photos! Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any images of the back, or of the pants alone, so I will be leaving it up to interpretation. I'll be taking some artistic liberties with my recreation, obviously, since I will have to make this at MSD scale. I'm thinking a lot of the compromising will have to come in with whatever trims I'm able to find that could replicate the border at the bottom of the skirt portion, but I will be trying to find something with as close of a similar shape as I can, possibly with some layering of trims.

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In addition to the caftan and pants, I am also planning to make a matching hat and pair of shoes, which will be inspired by these pieces:

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The hat is a late 18th century Russian headdress (currently in the MET's collection). I'll mostly be trying to recreate the basic shape and placement of designs, but I don't plan on doing any 1:1 reconstruction of that embroidery. I think I want to change it up enough, especially with the colors, to make it look like a hat that was designed to go with the rest of the outfit.

These shoes I found on pinterest, but I haven't been able to trace them back to a source I can read/access. EDIT: Kettle was able to track down the maker of the shoes! Pisaverde.official on Instagram is the maker! I will have the same approach with the shoes as I will with the hat, with more of a focus on making them look like a match to the outfit while keeping the general shape. I really like the eyes, though, and am debating taking the eye motif from the shoes and incorporating it into the hat and clothing if I can figure out how to do that in a cool way! I'm hoping that the way the shoe is built will make it easy to slip on and off of his foot, too.

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I've already started working on this project a little bit, but I'll be updating my progress in separate posts in the thread, just to keep things tidy!

Thank you for checking out my journal, and I hope you enjoy watching my progress!
-WK ​

 

Oh my gosh thank you so much, I'm glad to finally have a name to attribute to the shoes! This is giving me too many ideas for other shoes to make now

 

Thank you all so much!!! I'm really excited to recreate historical pieces for this character, and I can't wait to share some updates. I'm hoping I can get my sewing machine in working order soon so I can make mockups for the shoes, but I may share some masking tape patterning in the meantime!

 

It's going to be quite the project for sure! I'm working on a model carriage and modifying an American girl doll horse at the same time as this outfit, so I have a few things to rotate between if I get stuck or frustrated.

Thankfully I only have two dolls right now, so these are the only projects taking my time and attention. I hope you enjoy watching the process!

 

Small update:
I have started the project journal thread for the props portion of this doll project! If you're interested, feel free to check it out through the link at the top of the first journal entry here!

Thank you so much!
-WK

 

Update 2:
I am at a bit of a standstill with this project until I am able to order the fabric for it, which keeps going out of stock immediately after it is restocked despite me having alerts for it turned on
I may take some time to share some pattern mockups if it takes too long to order the material, but until I have the final fabric and know how it behaves, the mockups aren't going to be perfectly accurate... In the meantime, I've gone and replaced the broken image imbeds in this thread as well as the props thread.

Regardless, thank you for your interest if you check in here, I promise this project is still happening!

 

Update 3:

Finally, FINALLY, after nearly a full year of trying to get my hands on the fabric I need for this project, I have finally been able to buy it before it sold out again immediately after restocking! It may take a week or two to be delivered, but after that I am going to do my best to get the ball rolling on this. Now that I'll have the main fabric on hand, I can also bring it with me to some fabric shops and find the rest of the material I need in colors that match nicely.