Famous Dresses #3 Keira Knightley in Jacqueline Durran

The partnership of Knightley, Durran and director Joe Wright has led to three beautifully shot, acted and designed films; Pride and Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007) and Anna Karenina (2012).

That green dress

Jacqueline Durran's Sketch

Created by Durran for Knightley to wear in Atonement, this cut green silk gown is instantly memorable and unusual primarily because of its colour. If you think of all the dresses that feature in films or even on the red carpet, green appears very rarely. I would say that this is because it can be quite a strong colour and is considered to be symbolic of envy/jealousy by some.

As I mentioned before, the dress is very fine silk with a bias cut bodice (this means that the material is cut diagonally). As such, the dress is very floaty and seems to cling to Keira's body. Given the amount of detail in the book regarding the dress and how it should make Cecilia look like a mermaid, the fluidity of the material is paramount.

In fact, the dress was so fine that the material kept tearing. 4 skirts and 10 bodices were created!

There is a laser cut pattern on the top half of the dress, which is barely visible for most of the time. As well as highlighting the fragility of the dress, this feature also furthers the sense of nakedness; that there is only an extremely thin piece of silk, which is already revealing the body beneath through the lasered pattern and v-shaped neckline, to cover Cecilia.


There is a wrap of material around the waist to create more of a floaty feel whilst hiding the stitching that connects the bodice and skirt.


In order to achieve the green, Durran and the director Joe Wright went to a dye specialist in London with swatches of three different shades of green. 100 yards of white fabric was then dyed with all three hues to achieve the end result.









Anna Karenina's Black Ball Gown

Durran's sketch and a still from the film

 Made from 16m of fabric and accessorised with jewellery from Chanel, this black tulle dress is perhaps the most memorable dress from the 2012 film Anna Karenina.

The decision as to whether to stick with a black dress, as prescribed in Tolstoy's book, was broached by Wright, Durran and Knightley. Ultimately, they chose to keep it black and create a contrast through the sour pastel coloured frocks of the other dancers.

To highlight Anna as being separated from society, she wears a black ball gown at her moment of triumph when she gives into temptation with Vronsky; a white dress when she later attends the opera and is humiliated.

Whilst the shape of the skirts are in keeping with the period setting of 19th Century Russia, Durran looked to the 1950s bodices from Dior and Balenciaga for inspiration.

I think this dress is perfect for the scene and for the character; the image below is striking with the contrast of the black and white

Which dress do you prefer? 

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