According to Pip, I once received a Bookie Award for best dressed character in the form of Alexia Tarabotti. I can’t seem to find any evidence of this online, Fashionable Reader, but I trust Pip for she was at Authors After Dark reporting in.
Upon learning of the win, Alexia was suitably honored, Ivy was crushed, and Lord Akeldama took all the credit for loaning Alexia Biffy during her rise to fashionable mavin of London society.
Below, is a collection of some of Alexia’s best moments present to you in the form of cover art, fan art, cosplay, and original fashion plate fodder.
I do hope you enjoy it!
Alexia in Soulless the Original (1873)
The cover that wasn’t; the pose that wasn’t.
The Polish cover shows more of the dress
1883 Dinner Dress Charles Fredrick Worth The Kyoto Costume Institute for color inspiration
1873 fashion plate
Alexia’s first parasol.
Alexia in Soulless Volume 1, The Manga
First Manga
Manga cosplay
,+30+rue+Louis+le+Grand.+pingat1874.jpg)
Emile Pingat, 1874
character sketch from the manga
1874 Fashion plate
1874 Striped dress
Amazing striped Swiss waist with matched bustle.
Alexia in Changeless (1874) & Omnibus Volume 1 & Soulless Manga Volume 2
Polish cover again, shows more of dress; self cosplay of cover.
Omnibus Vol. 1 cover
Alexia cosplay
Manga Soulless Vol. 2 cover art
inspiration for Alexia floating dress
1870 The Philadelphia Museum of Art color inspiration
1874 more diminished bustle
Alexia walking dresses inspiration
Dirigible floating dress inspiration from skirt tapes
Inspiration for the deck of the dirigible scenes.
The new parasol.
steampunk from NY Comic Con cosplay fake cover photo fun
Alexia in Blameless (1874)
,+Paris.jpg)
Emile Pingat (1820–1901), Parisfor color inspiration
Highly modern French influenced walking dresses for Alexia to try.
Inspiration for the frilly dress Alexia is made to wear in Italy, 1874-5 wedding dress of white linen cambric with ivory ribbob and machine silk blonde lace.
More frills!
Alexia in Heartless (1874)
Alexia’s new more flowy choice of clothing
1874 Charles Fredrick Worth The Kyoto Costume Institute
Hungarian painter Szinyei Merse – The Lady in Purple
Day Dress France, ca. 1874 Silk taffeta Biffy has begun “Frenching-up” Alexia wardrobe.
Alexia in Timeless (1876) & The Omnibus Vol. 2
Alexia walking dress
summer day dress USA 1870-1874 Royal Ontario Museum
Alexia’s style has grown more relaxed and breezy under the drone’s tutelage. Although the fashions remain quite severe.
Evening dress, 1876-77 US
the Met Museum; day dress 1876
1878-1880 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Matt Harrison fan art
The Parasol Protectorate mangaka-chan
womens-fashion-1876
I hope you enjoyed this fashionable trip down memory lane. Now you can play a rousing game of “spot that dress” if you read the books! Or reread them again.
One of the things I always tried to do, for example, was find time during copy edits to write in a small paragraph describing the dress Alexia wears on the cover within the text. (Excepting Soulless for obvious reasons.)
The scene for Changeless was particularly fun to write for various amusing Ivy-related hair styles.
And, of course, my hugely non-period German covers show up on stage in all editions of Timeless.
This post first appeared on Retro Rack.
Yours in frilly dresses,
Miss Gail (except Madame Lefoux, of course, no frills for her!).
- Want more behind the scenes info? This stuff goes to my Chirrup members, because I love them bestest. Sign up here.
- Not into newsletters? Get only new releases by following Gail on Amazon or BookBub!
OUT MAY 18, 2019!
The 5th Gender (A Tinkered Stars Mystery as G. L. Carriger).
Preorder on Amazon | Elsewhere | Direct from Gail
Print and audio are coming, but will not be available for preorder.
Sci-fi queer romance meets cozy mystery in which a hot space station cop meets the most adorable purple alien ever (lavender, pulease!) from a race with 5 genders.
UPCOMING SCRIBBLES
- Reticence, The 4th and final Custard Protocol book. August 6, 2019
- Fan Service Omnibus, October 2019 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Soulless.
- Need to know what Gail is writing right now? That’s in the Chirrup.
GAIL’S DAILY DOSE
Your Moment of Parasol . . .
1878 pierre auguste renoir (1841-1919) the parasol
Your Infusion of Cute . . .
Frozen Victorian Garments Arranged into a Larger than Life Bouquet by Nicole Dextras
Your Tisane of Smart . . .
7 Reasons Book Signings are Better than Concerts
Your Writerly Tinctures . . .
Male and female writers’ media coverage reveals ‘marked bias’
Book News:
“It takes an awful lot of time to not write a book.”
~ Douglas Adams
Quote of the Day:
Your Moment of Gail
“I suspect it may be like the difference between a drinker and an alcoholic; the one merely reads books, the other needs books to make it through the day.”
(Interview with The Booklovers blog, September 2010)” ~ Gail Carriger
Questions about Gail’s Parasolverse? Wiki that sheez!