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
