Hi! If you don't know who the Tall Vampire Lady is then you haven't been on the internet lately,
because she is stepping all over- sorry she's all over the internet
So basically this whole obsession started a while ago when Resident Evil's new trailers came out
and the new Resident Evil: Village game features a character of Lady Dimitrescu
I know there are several uh I can't speak I know there are several several articles
online on how to pronounce the name but I'm gonna stick with the Romanian pronunciation
since it's all Romanian inspired so I'm gonna stick with what Romanians have to say though
So it's Lady Dimitrescu to me She's a nine foot six
vampire sort of lady living in a castle with her daughters and not gonna lie, I'm not a gamer,
I freaking hate horrors, I hate jump scares, generally speaking all this morbid sh*t is
not appealing to me, while Lady Dimitrescu on the other hand is- stop it, you're straight
Anyway I just thought it's really an interesting internet culture phenomenon
Oh I have a hole- oh noo my poor vintage dress and not to mention a great meme and every time
I saw the Tall Vampire Lady on YouTube or on Instagram somewhere all I could
think about was her iconic look, obviously So today we're gonna break it down and attempt
to figure out the inspirations behind it, because it's obviously very vintage/historical inspired
So I looked up numerous interviews with the designer and he himself said that there are
elements of the Great Depression era incorporated into the overall design
And truth be told, upon laying my eyes on the Tall Vampire Lady for the first time,
I did notice a lot of 1930s inspiration And if I was to date her- if I was to date
her char- if I was to assign the character to a particular time period, I would probably say 1930s
That's the hint that I get from the hair and makeup, the pleat at
the back of her dress, and some accessories So I did a lot of research and I watched all
of the Lady Dimitrescu footage (because I'm obviously not going to play the game because
I don't want to die of a heart attack) I watched all the cutscenes, all the meme
compilations - and boy, y'all are dirty - and I read articles on it and I came up with the
possible inspiration and it turned out to be all useless because there actually is a single
particular 1930s photo that is quite literally Lady Dimitrescu. I first saw it in the Cosplay
Central article but it's possible that it was unearthed earlier by someone else, I'm not sure
Anyway it's clearly a very similar if not identical dress paired with a big black hat
and gloves, and judging by the length of the dress combined with the hat it's a designer
eveningwear piece- and it actually says so under the picture except it's in Norwegian I guess
So we have this slightly raised waistline which is typical 1930s style and we have the square
neckline, the long sleeves and the front gathering There is also a sort of a short pleated cape
at the back of the dress which gives off 1930s vibes as well and the back of the skirt features
a set of small fabric covered - I think - buttons, again a very typical 1930s feature
So overall a lot of 1930s elements and styles and trends dumped together to create this outfit
However! In my personal opinion if you look at the Tall Vampire Lady not
everything about her silhouette screams 1930s. She's- she's curvy. You know, a typical 1930s
silhouette was not that. It was feminine, true, but it was- I mean no offense to Hollywood
1930s movie stars, but they had no ass What is this video um-
So she's curvy, and the dress is very tight as we all know, that's what people love about her
and also the skirt has a bell shape at the bottom- is that what you call it? A mermaid
shaped skirt- Basically it's tight around the thighs and then it, uh, gets wider-
can someone please bring my english back? And it also has a train,
so it all looks slightly more Edwardian than 1930s And I have a solution to that! Like I know what
inspiration combines both 1930s and Edwardian and being curvy
So a very strong visual hint that I personally get from Lady Dimitrescu is Mae West!
Mae West was a 1930s actress with a very strong screen presence, she basically created her own
character type, her own acting style even She also started her film career when she
was almost 40, which was very unusual at the time and it kind of still is
and she played glamorous sexy women. She was curvy,
she was confident and she was very controversial So hear me out - some of her most famous roles
were those in sort of like historical comedy films that were set in the belle epoque era
and because of that, her iconic look is a huge hat and a very, like, curve-hugging floor-length dress
Like literally, if you google Mae West that's the look you're gonna get
Not even like your typical 1930s day wear, it's more like the glamorous belle epoque vixen
And I'm gonna say not only the outfit, but also the way Lady Dimitrescu carries herself- CARRUS?
The way she speaks [LADY D: Oh, be careful what you wish for]
Even her face give off some major Mae West vibes to me
So judging by that it looks like we have a 1930s does belle epoque situation here, and considering
that Lady Dimitrescu is apparently sort of an immortal being it makes sense that the outfit
is like a mashup of several different styles So apparently when creating the character,
the game creators were also heavily inspired by a Japanese urban legend, Hachishakusama,
which is a spirit taking a form of an extremely tall women- woman and she is typically depicted
in a long white dress and a big white hat So to me it looks like the designers
were looking for a 1930s look that will fit that particular Hachishakusama-like character,
like something that will work for both Lady Dimitrescu's hair and makeup is
definitely 1930s inspired as well, except makeup is maybe a little darker than it would be
when worn by an elegant 1930s middle-aged woman - which I guess works for a literal vampire
There is a certain element of her outfit that seems to me like it's an um- homage? fromage?
to "Breakfast at Tiffany's", which is the long cigarette holder I think \
While it was already a trend in 1930s it it hasn't really become a fashion item
until the 1960s, which is when the iconic Audrey Hepburn look was created
And you can also note the cigarette holder plus the big hat combo
that Lady Dimitrescu also pulls off When it comes to other accessories, she's
wearing an elegant jewelry set mostly made up of pearls which were again, definitely a big trend
in the 30s, and there is also a black - I think - flower on her dress which looks like a corsage
Now a corsage was a decorative piece worn on the side of the dress and while it's a
trend I would say is more iconic for the 1940s, it was already becoming a thing in
like late or second half of the 30s. So all in all, Tall Vampire Lady's
outfit is surprisingly historically accurate I would say for an even more historically
accurate look she could be wearing a more conical 1930s style bra, but that would take away a lot
of the mommy appeal which I think increases the simp- simp-friendliness of her character
So considering that she's a video game character and those are famous for being a little bit spiced
up, I'd say it's a- it's a pretty nice 1930s inspired vampire you have- you have got there
Is there a problem?
Anyway that's all I have to say about her and- I don't even know how to end this,
like I'm not even sure if I should post this video to be honest, like what am I doing
Let's get back to sewing after that because this sh*t is weird