Manga | Anime | Musicals

wedding dress...

manga version.

Admittedly I took several elements from Usagi's wedding dress, when planning my own. Examining this absolutely exquisite dress, who wouldn't? Since wedding dresses (and their accessories) are more complicated than most costumes, this page will be fairly long, with quite a few example images. Just a word of warning. ^^;

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Formal Definitions

Headpiece & Veil

The headpiece is a combination of two styles: a tiara, set in front of a half-wreath of roses, which also surround Usagi's odango and cluster at the nape of her neck. Draped from the roses to the crown are two strings of pearls. The tiara is identical to the crown worn by Neo-Queen Serenity in the Crystal Tokyo story arc. (Since Usagi is crowned Neo-Queen Serenity just four years after her wedding, it is both appropriate and significant that Naoko chose to give her the same crown in her bridal headpiece.) The first row of photos below show the tiara in Usagi's headpiece, and the second row shows Neo-Queen Serenity's tiara, as seen in earlier acts.

In some of her color art, Naoko has varied Usagi's headpiece by varying which of these three elements are shown: a completely different crown, the rose half-wreath without a crown, and the half-wreath and pearls without a crown. These are shown below.

The veil is cathedral-length, with a couple of long layers of tulle and a blusher veil. From the black and white art, the veil appears to have a lace trim, with possible beading indicated in some images. It's hard to see a lot of detail here, but having had a similar veil, I feel fairly confident about my analysis. ^^;

Jewelry

The earrings are portrayed as simple pearl posts, and also as pearl dangles. The dangle earrings appear only in some color art depicting the wedding, with the post earrings appearing in all the black and white story art.

The necklace is consistantly portrayed as a triple strand of pearls, featuring a pearl-edged pendant on the lowest strand. The pendant, while the typical size and shape of a cameo, appears to be a pink stone of some sort.

Ring

Usagi's engagement ring is a large, heart-shaped stone, surrounded by smaller stones. It is a bit hard to tell what metal it is made of, but since Mamoru's ring is shown as white or silver in color manga art, it may be suggested that her setting was constructed of white gold, or perhaps platinum. If the main stone of her engagement is not a diamond, it is certainly surrounded by diamonds, as that is fairly common. An example of a heart-shaped diamond solitaire is shown below.

Updated June 3, 2005: Recently a friend pointed me to an eBay auction, selling what we agreed was the best approximation to Usagi's wedding ring we'd seen. The ring pictured below is cubic zirconia set in sterling silver, and was selling for $12. Quite inexpensive! This gives you a real-life example to work from, or would substitute perfectly well, imho. ^^; Take a look!

Bouquet

Usagi's bouquet is my favorite kind (and probably one of the more expensive ones to get), the round bouquet. The round is composed entirely of roses, clustered to form a solid sphere of blooms, ending only at the base handle. There may be a bow and ribbons extending from the bottom. In her case, the roses are most certainly white. The last image is of an actual white rose round bouquet, for reference. Although her bouquet roses are shown in full bloom, in actuality they wouldn't be that open, as flower arrangements hardly ever use flowers at that level of maturity, as they fade quickly. Round bouquets are typically composed of bud roses, or buds that have opened just a little.

Bodice & Sleeves

The bodice is white and unadorned, with an off-the-shoulder neckline trimmed with roses that wrap around to the back of the dress. It is hard to determine what the bodice is made of, but it is shown as a matte white fabric, with no texture or decoration to suggest lace. Although there are no visible seams in any drawing, the lines of the dress suggest a princess seam in the front, since there are no waist decorations or seams, or a visible line between bodice and skirt. Unfortunately, no image shows how the dress fastens in the back. A long zipper is common, but may be covered with faux buttons. (Genuine button-up backs seem to be rare.) Without any drawing evidence, it's impossible to say.

The sleeves are short, sheer poufs that start off-the-shoulder and end at the elbow. The sleeves are also trimmed in roses, which wrap fully around the bottom of the sleeves. I would guess the sleeves are some sort of fine tulle or other sheer, airy fabric.

Gloves

There are only a few drawings showing Usagi with gloves, but presumably you could create this costume with or without gloves and still be fairly canon. The gloves are short, white, with a scalloped trim that could be lace (and possibly beads), or merely embroidered stitching. The white bow on the back of each wrist is most likely satin. The gloves do not appear to be lace, and thus I would say they are either opaque matte white fabric, white satin or a sheer fabric, matching the dress. In the last image (b/w), it appears that there may be some embroidery or beading onto the back of the hand, but without more close-up images, it's hard to say.

Skirt, Waist & Train

The skirt appears to be an opaque white fabric that descends seamlessly from the bodice. The skirt has a lace and beaded trim, and is floor-length, most likely layered over a set of tulle petticoats, to make the skirt have a full appearance.

There is no waist seam, or visible attachment of the skirt, as discussed earlier in the bodice section, so it is assumed to be a continuous piece of fabric. The only ornaments at the waist are two clusters of roses, one on each hip, which seem to conceal the buttons necessary to gather the train up for the reception.

The train looks to be chapel to cathedral length, from the side-view image of the ceremony. A long train such as hers would be gathered up for the reception, and appears to attach at the rose details discussed earlier. The material is a hard call, as it appears to be uniform with the dress/skirt, but almost every dress I have seen of this style has a tulle or sheer material for the train, which is multi-layered over an opaque lining.

Shoes

As far as I can tell, there are no images of what sort of shoes Usagi is wearing with this dress. With a floor-length gown like hers, you can wear almost anything without showing your toes. Personally (my dress was of similar length), I wore electric blue high heels during the ceremony, and an old, junky pair of Adidas slip-on sandals during the reception. (My feet hurt from the heels and all the standing.) Sky's the limit, I guess.