Recently, I’ve been following the blog of Terry Dresbach, the costume designer on the show Outlander. Her research into eighteenth-century fashion is fascinating, and like many others I adore the statements she makes with the outfits for the court of Louis XV, particularly for the heroine, Claire:

I’ve no doubt that the fabulous costume design for Outlander will please the many fans of the book series, and create even more – because, quite simply, women love to dress up!

Take Kiera Cass’s series The Selection, for example. It is clear to me that the stunning costume design in the cover art has played a big part in the success of the books:

‘Fairy tale’ springs to mind when I look at these covers, and I think that is the truth underlying women’s love for beautiful period dresses: they make us dream as we did when we were young; they are so quintessentially romantic.

In my own writing, I love to weave in an occasion for which the heroine can dress up. InIndiscretion and Masquerade, I devised an annual masked ball at the family’s estate, El Pavon, a fiesta to celebrate spring and the end of the late orange harvest. Here is the heroine of Indiscretion, Alexandra, dressing for the ball:

At last she was ready. It had taken a while to don her outfit: the magnificent sultana’s costume was made up of six distinct parts. First, there was a transparent jerkin that moulded to her body perfectly and was worn under a bodice with loose-fitting sleeves, in such fine ivory-coloured silk as to reveal the delicate curve of her small breasts. Over the bodice came a short bolero jacket, entirely embroidered with silver thread, seed pearls and precious stones. Loose-fitting trousers, also in ivory silk, clothed her legs in graceful folds; they were bound at the ankles with a bias band and held in at the waist by a wide belt, similarly embroidered with pearls and stones.

Agustina had skilfully plaited the lustrous hair on either side of Alexandra’s head and brought it up into a braided chignon. The veil resting on her crown was fastened in place by the tiara her grandmother had given her. Dangling at the centre, was a pear-shaped pearl, resting on her forehead like an iridescent tear, while the matching pair of drop earrings swung gently from her ears.

Alexandra studied the willowy image gazing back at her from the mirror, excitement lending her pearly complexion a glowing hue. Her large eyes, rimmed with thick brown lashes, seemed a deeper green now, seen through the narrow slits of the black velvet mask drawn across her face. She ran her fingers lovingly over the fabulous necklace encircling her swanlike neck and lifted her head proudly, smiling back at her reflection. Her image really did call to mind the mysterious characters from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed writing this aspect of the book. The image of Alexandra in all her finery so resonated with me that when I came to write the second book of the trilogy, Masquerade, I had Alexandra’s daughter Luz dress in her mother’s costume for the ball. The scene is then set for both women to encounter mystery and passion.

Do you think fashion plays a part in romance? Do you enjoy romance novels in which the heroine, and hero even, get to dress up? Does period costume stir different sentiment to modern-day attire? Do you feel a pull toward fairy-tale fashion? I would love to hear your thoughts.