nly Liv Tyler could wear a cloak of such simple drama. We had been experimenting with the hood shape of this cloak, wanting a style for the elven world, for Elrond, Arwen and Legolas. When Liv wrapped the hood about her face, it became this soft watery frame, quite luminous and biblical. In the scene in which we see her waering this the audience is not sure who it is.... a dark shadow rippling across the staircases, finally to reveal that amazing face. Underneath it is a blue-black silk gown, with a gold lattice detail on the wrists"

-Ngila Dickson in "The art of the Return of the King"


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For the moment, this site will only have the few images of the cloak and gown (from the design gallery on the RotK EE and from 'Art of...') and some sparse notes until I have time to write down some more theories on the cloak (and do a pattern sketch). The notes on the dress are complete though.....enjoy!

The cloak is a deep plum color, although it looks black in the movie. Actually the color is so rich and deep that it's almost black, but if you look at the highlights you'll see that it's actually a very very dark plum/purple.

Scroll down for the Dress

This dress is constructed a bit like the Requiem/BR/Coronation dresses as it *looks* like there might be an over- and an underdress, but I actually think it's one piece made from different fabrics. Maybe the black thing with the sleeves attached is also a sort of vest/blouse ('shrug') that goes underneath. I can see no shoulder straps of the blue gown though, so I really think it is one piece.

Just from looking at it, I would say this gown looks very soft (the skirt portion and bodice) and I would guess it's -as always- silk. Maybe crushed or crinkled. The pictures are not good enough to make out any structure, but I think it'd look good in crinkled silk chiffon.

* Ngila says it's a blue-black silk gown,so...I was right on the silk part

The Gown worn under the cloak. It's basically something very simple that was never meant to be seen. The only fancy thing are the sleeves, but even the "gold lattice detail" goes only just until the elbows and stops there, because they knew that nothing more of the sleeves would be seen.
It's a bit of a pity that Ngila and her team didn't create something fancier here; especially when you compare with all the detail that they went through in other costumes.

The sleeves look already great, but the rest of the dress is just patchwork. This is a great opportunity for an original design!

So....
I can see two basic colors here, dark blue and black or maybe rather a blackish plum like the cloak*.

The skirt and the 'bodice' are blue, the sleeves and upper neck portion black. The dress has a drop-waist that you can see on close inspection.
The lower sleeves with the lattice pattern look different again. I would say this is a double layer of the fabric, but maybe it is another fabric, I really can't tell for sure. It's see through though and probably some sort of Organza as it looks rather stiff in the Hadhafang picture (and you'd need a stiff fabric for the embroidery to hold up).