While waiting for hundreds of yards of organza to arrive, I took a break from the petticoat to work on Anastasia’s necklace. This was a quick little project and probably the simplest part of the costume! Start to finish, it only took around an hour and a half to complete.
In the animation, Anastasia’s necklace is relatively simple.
However, for this costume, I felt I needed something more than plain baubles.
To coordinate with the pearl earrings I wore, I selected 14mm and 16mm ivory freshwater pearls. Each of the smaller pearls were accented with half-dome 4k gold bead caps; the larger pearls had antique gold bead caps with edging details.
I used a gold toggle clasp for the back of the necklace. (It’s nothing particularly special; I found it at JoAnns.) The beads were strung together on professional steel beading wire.
I separated the large pearls from the smaller pearl sections with Swarovski rhinestone spacers.
And that’s all it took to make Anastasia’s necklace! I really love how the pearls look against the organza fabric for the skirt layers. The bead caps and spacers also add just the right amount of bling so it lives up to the rest of the costume!
Now, for the fun historical trivia…
The use of the gold bead caps was inspired by this vintage Lisner & Co. pearl necklace (upper right). I didn’t want to change the structure of Anastasia’s necklace, but I wanted to incorporate gold based on Queen Alexandra’s dagmar necklace (lower left). Bead caps solved that problem!
Why Alexandra, though? She became queen in August of 1902. The 1905 painting in this collage shows us her coronation gown. Pretty visually similar to the dress Anya envisioned for her dream-self.
According to the movie’s timeline, the “December” scene takes place in 1926. My personal theory is that Anya maybe saw something in a paper about Queen Alexandra’s coronation gown as a child (since the news of a new queen of the United Kingdom would certainly be relevant to a royal Russian family). The memory of Alexandra’s dress inspired her vision during her “December” dream sequence.
Thus, including the gold and rhinestone bling in this necklace is a tiny nod to Queen Alexandra’s significant fashion influence in the 1900s. Maybe it’s not 100% historically accurate, but it works for this cosplay. (Disclaimer: I’m not a history expert. This is all research for a costume. So if I’ve completely bastardized history, I’m sorry!)
Last fun fact: the House of Romanov had a tradition of giving the Grand Duchess a pearl necklace on her 16th birthday. Meaning Anya never received hers, as she’s still too young when the Palace is attacked.
Maybe that’s why she pictures it in her vision. Imagining herself dressed like the queen, with the pearls she never received from her family…