Juliet or Rapunzel?

I bought this dress at a costume sale back in the 90s. My little sister and I were first in line, faces pressed up against the door, waiting for the theatre staff to let us in. It was like that scene from Friends when Monica and Rachel went shopping for Monica's wedding dress. I've got three words for you: Divide and Conquer.

When the door opened, we shot off in opposite directions and grabbed as many clothes as we could carry. Then we met up by the stairs and looked through our finds. I had picked out things I thought she might want and visa versa. We brought home a lot of weird clothes that day. 

What role was this dress made for? A Elizabethan play, Shakespeare perhaps, a Grimm story? You can tell from this picture that this is not the most user-friendly dress. But I loved the red, the velvet, so I always hang on to it, convinced there would be a day were a heavy and dramatic floor-length dress would be just the thing I needed. 

That day never came. So after a long decade and some intense soul-searching I gave myself permission to transform the dress into a coat. 

Even thought a lot could be left as it was, the dress lacked a few essential coat features. Like a collar, cuffs, band in the back, an open front. I could have kept it long, but I opted for knee-length. It's more elegant and a lot more practical. The left over fabric got put to use as all the things mentioned above. 

Even though I feel bad about destroying my one and only Rapunzel dress, I'm really thrilled to finally have a beautiful velvet coat. Now I just need a stormy autumn evening.

"Many can brook the weather that love not the wind."- Love's Labour's Lost