Of Mice and Men - Curleys Wife

Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
Curley's Wife - final dress (death dress)
Costume design by Pamela Rehberg
Garment by Samantha Lemieux, with some stitching by Maggie Halberg and Jason Orlenko
UW-Milwaukee, Spring 2007-2008



Done for UW-Milwaukee's Mainstage production of the classic Of Mice and Men. Which I dislike. But, that's another story...

Again, if you can tell, designs by Pam involve lots of flounces and foof (check the West Side dress) and this was indeed the case. There is an under dress of red silk, that is a strappy number in bright, bright red silk. The over fabric is a sort of floaty chiffon fabric, with what appeared on first glance to be a most gawd-awful print, but worked incredibly well with the red underneath.

The main dress has circular ruffles for sleeves, circular ruffles along the neckline, and insets of full circles (in tiers, none the less!) set into slits in the skirt. Unfortunately, we didn't have nearly enough fabric to do the originally-designed three tiers on each sleeve, as well as three on each inset - too bad, or it would have been another dress she could have killed someone with!

Oh, this is indeed the last dress Curley's Wife wears - the one she is molested and then killed in. I find it quite funny, myself, that I would get that dress.

I am rather proud of this one, as it is so foofy and whatnot...