Do we wonder why Lily James wears only four costumes in the entire movie? Not so much. With careful consideration one slowly realises that her attire reflects her journey as a character, e.g. the sweet dress that gradually wears out as Ella becomes Cinderella, the inner magic that comes out when she is brave enough to follow her dreams etc. Namely, dress with thought.
The sparkling blue ballgown Cinderella wears to the ball is not a showstopper for no reason: that one dress alone took around 20 people and 500 hours to make. Layers and layers hand-painted in soft hues of blue, green, lavender, lilac and white create that watercolour painting effect sought by Sandy and give the dress a life of its own:
'The dress is made up of six layers of very fine fabric. The top layer is a very expensive silk, while the others are just polyester. But the material is so light, if you throw a piece of it in the air, it just floats down really slowly.'
Imagine yourself with a Fleshlight twirling in such a dress around the ballroom floor! Forget about the prince, couture doesn't lie! More about the dress Sandy recently shared with a Vogue editor: 'Cinderella's ball gown is always what everyone wants to know about and it's difficult because it isn't supposed to be the most extravagant gown of the ball, but it needs to have that certain magical something.
I went over it again and again but it was well worth it to see the end result - Lily looked magnificent. I looked at all the other versions of Cinderella that have been done and then thought 'I'm not going to do costumes like any of them!', laughing, 'I wanted to combine eras - for instance, by melding the tradition of 18th century gowns with the glamour of 40s style dresses.'