Pre-Raphaelite Gown Inspired by Sidonia von Bork

When I heard there was a Pre-Raphaelite ball at Carnevale 2025, I poured through paintings for inspiration. I love this style and have several pre-raph prints hanging in my house, so there were many to chose from. But being me, I also wanted something dark and gothy, which isn’t as typical of this genre. Then I remembered this painting by Edward Burne-Jones (which had inspired a costume in the movie Sleepy Hollow) — it’s titled Sidonia von Bork 1560 and the image is inspired by a gothic romance novel Sidonia the Sorceress, which, in turn was inspired by the real Sidonia von Borcke (1548-1620) a Polish noblewoman who was tried and executed for witchcraft. PERFECT.

Now, there was no way in hell I could find (much the less make!) that exact fabric. Costume designer Colleen Atwood did a very cool version in the movie, but I’m no Colleen Atwood.

I hunted around for something that gave the general impression of the design and settled on this weird polyester material:

I used a Tudor bodice as a base, rounding and raising the waistline a little and giving it a deep square neckline. I had a big 1530s sleeve pattern from a past project and enlarged them, although I don’t think the sleeve is as wildly exaggerated as in the painting. The last touch was a long curly black wig with a sparkly hairnet (I added more than the one flower in the painting just because).

Since I’d made this in a vaguely 1530s style, I decided to wear it at the SCA West Kingdom 12th Night, which was almost two months before Carnevale.

There was also a photographer at 12th Night who I worked with to recreate the painting pose. He got the shot and then I inserted it into the painting here:

Pretty close!

At Carnevale, I unfortunately missed the Pre-Raphaelite Ball, so I ended up wearing this gown around town for a gondola trip with friends. And I wore my favorite big messy goth wig with some of my own purple hair showing!