Liana's Paper Doll Blog

Bella Swan's Anne of Green Gables Inspired Wedding Gown with White Satin and Rose Lace from Breaking Dawn

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In the final book of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, Bella and Edward get married. Bella, whose parents are divorced, has never really seen marriage as a desirable life goal, doesn’t want people to think she’s pregnant and she worries about branding herself a desperate, vapid girl insistent on getting married right out of high school. Certainly nothing says “commitment” like forsaking humanity and spending eternity with someone, so what’s the point of a wedding? Old-fashioned Edward, however, wants to be married, and Bella comes around to his point of view, starting to consider it natural and happy for two people in love to be married, and to heck with the gossips and disapproval of society and her family. She keeps thinking of Anne of Green Gables, of the simpler time she associates with when Edward would have been young, of the high-necked blouse and long skirt she would wear.

Bella guesses that the inspiration was from 1918 when she sees her dress, Alice replies more or less and Liana tears her hair out. Here I thought we were using an Anne-centric timeline, but only in the miniseries did Anne get married during the First World War — in the books, Anne got married in 1890, according to this page, and WWI was her daughter Rilla’s turn as a heroine. So what does Bella’s dress look like? Victorian-style clothes play a large role in her fantasy of simple romance, and she says, looking at the dress, that it’s just what she imagined. Yet, a dress from 1918 probably wouldn’t have that Victorian high neck, or maybe not even the long skirt. It must also be noted that 1918 is when Edward was transformed into a vampire at the age of 17, so a dress from this age would probably appeal to him more than something his mom would have worn. 1918 would also be about right, if Bella’s mother, who thought the gown looked like something from a Jane Austen novel, was a hundred years off. Then Alice was stage-managing the whole thing, and I have a really hard time seeing her send Bella out in an unfashionable wedding dress. No one does high necks anymore, not even LDS members going for modesty, and long sleeves seem to be relegated to the Éowyn look. So what exactly do we have here? An Anne-style 1890 gown with puffed sleeves? A streamlined, more fashionable but still modest 1918 gown? A modern dress with vintage touches? I’ve been trying to decide for the last week.

So yeah, at this point I think I may have pondered the dress — possibly overthought the dress — more than the author, and it’s been maddening. Maybe it’s like the prom dress: however you see it is right. (Witness the range of Twilight wedding dresses on deviantart.) That means I’m going to stop trying to come up with something perfect and just go with a pseudo-1890s gown, taking Bella at her word that she wanted to dress like Anne and got her wish. But you could just as easily assume that Bella only saw the miniseries, so maybe I’ll draw a 1918 gown too, another day. Trying to combine the two — yeah, I got some pretty funny sketches out of the idea, but I think I’ll pass. In my sketches of this dress, she has her hair down and even though it’s old-fashioned, it’s still romantic and sweet.

Tags: 1800s, 1890, 1890s, anne of green gables, anne shirley, bella cullen, bella swan, breaking dawn, dress, emeralds, gown, high neck, lace, old-fashioned, overskirt, pintucks, puffed sleeves, roses, sash, satin, stephenie meyers, twilight, underskirt, veil, victorian, vintage, wedding, wedding dress, wedding gown, white

historical, literature, paperdolls, weddings | Liana February 27, 2009

14 Comments

By Eleanor, February 27, 2009 @ 9:14 pm

I admit, I don’t like the Twilight series for a number of reasons, but I think this dress is beautiful. Old-fashioned, elegant, with that girly swishiness to it. (Though that description would make me go a little crazy, as well. Which is it–Anne or WWI?? *EEK!*)

Your wedding dresses are always great–normally I’m quite bored with white dress after white dress, but yours are always imaginative and wildly different. I’m a big fan of wedding dresses that AREN’T white, though. If you ever decide to draw any. ^_^

Going back to my Cinderellas now.
By Liana, February 27, 2009 @ 9:40 pm

Yeah — I enjoyed the Twilight series for what they were, but it’s certainly not hard to pick apart its ridiculousness and flaws. I liked Breaking Dawn the most out of all of them because I thought it was fun having the other vampire covens showing up, Bella being on an even footing with the others and a larger role for the werewolves, but the way in which Bella got everything — grace, a perfect daughter, skipping the newborn period, even a continuing relationship with her dad – was even more blatant wish-fulfillment than the other books combined. Still… uh… Bella’s prom dress is a popular one, and I get a lot of hits for “bella wedding dress” too so I thought I’d do it :)

It’s too bad white dress after white dress bores you, because since my scanner doesn’t mangle them I might be doing a lot of them until I get it fixed ;) I’d love to go a good red wedding dress, though…
By Eleanor, February 27, 2009 @ 10:56 pm

I wouldn’t mind if you did lots of white dresses, since I love the way you draw them. Scanners can be tricky beasts–I hope you get it sorted out soon! And a red wedding dress sounds wonderful, I’d love to see it if you get around to drawing it! :D
By Camilla, February 28, 2009 @ 12:52 pm

Or mabye a light green wedding dress? ;) in a medival desing. =0)
By Janel, February 28, 2009 @ 8:51 pm

“…and Liana tears her hair out.”

rotflol. I KNOW what you mean when it comes to Anne and time periods! It’s easy to do.

Another great dress. :)
By Liana, February 28, 2009 @ 9:03 pm

Camilla, I have been meaning to do a LoTR style dress for a while, and the Rivendell site reminds me… I’ll think about that one. I think my scanner could manage not to mangle light green. :)

Thanks Janel! :)
By RLC, March 1, 2009 @ 9:07 pm

Have to confess I wasn’t a big fan of Twlight, but as an example of 1980’s costume, this is fantastic. The lace is beautifully done and white has some very nice depth.
By Freyja, March 21, 2009 @ 2:35 pm

Oh when I saw this I fell in love with it, then I read about Twilight and I died a little inside :P Still it’s quite lovely, as all your designs are.
By Liana, March 22, 2009 @ 8:04 pm

Haha, I hear you guys. My running partner read the first couple Twilight books recently and running goes by a lot quicker when one is snarking on sparkly vampires and creepy behavior!
By Bets, April 11, 2009 @ 11:25 am

Hi! I love your site, all of your illustrations and beautiful gowns!

I believe Stephanie Meyer was thinking of the miniseries when she mentioned Anne of Green Gables. I think so based on the timeline, and the descriptions of the high-necked blouse/wildflowers/porch swing in Bella’s earlier flashback. Read more about it here: http://www.lmm-anne.net/archives/2009/blog/anne-of-green-gables-in-twilight-by-stephanie-meyer.html (and I quoted you.)

Can you do an Anne paper doll dress design sometime in the future?
By mamaj40, May 9, 2009 @ 4:02 pm

I enjoyed your design above as a possible alternative to Bella’s dress. But really if your not a Twilight fan how could you even design such a thing. Knowing the character of Bella is a window to her soul and her love for Edward. I believe the 1900’s style of dress will be fitting for her with a few modern touches to it. This is what she would want for Edward the old and new. Old for her past life and new for the life ahead of her. Read the books you might see things differently.
By Jeannette Ng, January 7, 2010 @ 2:13 am

Thought it might amuse you to know that fashion designers have been at the same task. Some of their interpretations seem far fetched, but point is, thought it might amuse you.

http://www.instyle.com/instyle/package/general/photos/0,,20241149_20299475_20661586,00.html
By Melissa, May 12, 2010 @ 11:59 pm

I love the design of the dress you show above. I must confess I haven’t read the twilight books yet but may just to see what all the fuss is about. My daughter just loves the series .