Fellowship Cloak
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The Fellowship Cloaks

The airy grey cloaks that Galadriel gives the fellowship in Lothlorien are worn by the group in the final part of the Fellowship of the Ring movie.  They will be continued to be worn by some characters throughout the rest of the trilogy.

These simple appearing, yet elegant cloaks have captured the imagination of many folks.  What we are going to do in this section is study these cloaks in detail and help you recreate this for yourself... to whatever level of detail you are interested in.  While the basic cloak is really easy, the quest of the perfect weave of the perfect fabric will go on.  These are a good mirror for many of the costumes, simple on the surface, but with much depth.

Cloak lore: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LOTR_Costume/message/1210

Cloak Index

The Cloak Pin

The replicated Elven leaf brooch is the only piece of Jasmine's jewelry where they actually made a mold of the original to use it for mass reproduction.  As a side note,  they made 60 brooches for the movies in all (for scale doubles, stunt doubles, etc.).

  
Actual movie pin from ROM exhibit Slightly enhanced look at veining Nobel Authorized reproduction.  Color difference is probably not this pronounced, but shading and shape are a tad different.
From London exhibit, on Boromir White version of the leaf.  As seen on Galadriel's Grey Haven's cloak.  FIDM 2004 Another slightly different angle, same cloak
 

Cloak Pin detailing

Back of the pin

  • Scale of Measure mark

    • 4.8-5cm  - hobbits

    • 7cm - human

    • 9.5 cm - large scale

 Side view of the pin fastening.

Fastening look to be hand made and is very stiff to work.  The pin goes the whole length of the broach

Art work by Anárien

The Authorized Retailer

Cloak Images

(higher rez pic)

  
Strider Frodo and Sam  

(higher rez detail)
Fabric Detail Fabric laid out flat, check out the wonderful pattern Detail of the clasp

Yes, there are slits in the cloaks to get the quivers and packs to lay properly.  Not a good thing to do for a real life cloak, but it looks ever so much better for the film. ;-)

  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LOTR_Costume/message/4753
  • Movie magic.... If you spend a couple of hours trawling through all the available pics, you come to one conclusion - there were two cloaks for each character. (Actually more, if you count the stunt doubles, the 'midget' doubles etc...) There are some scenes , minus packs, where there are back views, no slits, just nice cloaks. There are some views where the cloaks are simply bunched up at the back where they've pulled them through the straps on the packs. Then there are the pics where the cloaks mysteriously hang down, although they are wearing their packs. This also applies, not just to the Fellowship cloaks, but to the cloaks they wear in the early part of the movie too - classic example is the Art of FOTR - hobbits pics. In those pics, the only way to get the cloaks to lie flat is slit cloaks, and it would also necessitate having to undo the straps on the packs every time you wanted to get them on or off - which is certainly not what they normally do!

    There have in fact been many smaller threads on the slit topic, usually dealing with 'how do I make them so I can get the cloak to hang flat with the pack on, and then not have the holes visible when I take the pack off?" Answer - you can't. Even if you do like the movie and have slits maybe a hand span long, they will still show. Conclusion: for the aesthetic sense of the film, they can do what we cannot, that is, have multiples of everything. You need to choose how you will be wearing your cloak, with or without pack, and then decide what to do.

    Naomi

Researched Details

  • In the movie, the cloak often appears a grayish-green. The cloaks are a natural grey wool.   They take on that color because the scenes have been "sweetened" in post-production, adjusting the colors... often towards green.
  • Original description: "It is made from alpaca and something else, merino I think, all natural fiber." Carolyn Fenton, Wardrobe Supervisor, LOTR, www.lordoftherings.net .  Later we found out the true fibers were custom to one flock in NZ.
  • Fibers
    • While the Wardrobe supervisor said it was "alpaca, maybe merino" the people who created the fabric said it was all wool--specifically Stansborough Gotland wool.  ( I got that directly from Cheryl Eldrige of Stansborough fibers.)
    • They have bred a specialized sheep that has been named the Stansborough Gotland (officially classified as a separate breed from the Gotland). The fleece is a clear grey color (from charcoal to silver), grows in ringlets, and (at least in the two fleeces she sent me) has no undercoat. The fleece almost reminded me of mohair--the fibers have no crimp, rather like a lincoln. So the resulting yarn is a bit hairy--you can see the "halo" on several view of the cloak.
    • I have samples of the yarn they used (talk about having a holy relic!). It's a fine millspun 2-ply, about 35 wraps per inch.
    • The Stansborough roving--the cloaks were made in a combination of the dark and the light grey--not the medium.
      • If you want to shop locally (meaning the in U.S.) the fleece rather reminded me of a soft Romney--or maybe a baby Lincoln. You can get those in shades of gray, too. The thing that was nice about the Stansborough is that it was a true gray--a lot of "gray" fleece tends to have brownish tones, so you'd want to get samples first.
  • Fabric
    •  in the very last scene of the movie, Sam raises his arm, and the cloak fabric looks almost gauzy. Of course, it could be both, if it was done in a very open weave so it could be fulled enough to obscure the pattern, yet still have that gauze effect.

      *Fulled: for those non-textile persons, this means washing the  fabric with some agitation after it's off the loom. This shrinks the wool slightly (or a lot, depending on how much you full it) and  becomes thicker, softer, and fuzzier.

     

  • Color 
    • Grey. To reiterate from an earlier message, the fabric was produces by Stansborough Fibers, Inc. in New Zealand, from their Stansborough Gotland sheep, a breed developed for a fleece with good luster and a clear grey color. They specialize in creating a naturally-colored fabric for high-end fashion houses (source: Spin-Off Magazine, Spring 2002).
      • Note: the silver-grey does pick up the colors around it.  However, Stansbourough now makes a version of the cloth in the green tones.
    • Of course, I can't say whether or not the wardrobe people overdyed the fabric after they got it, or if the different shades we seem to see are a trick of the light. The wool does have some shine, which might create a perceived color shift.
      •  (Additional note  from Cat: there's too much color shifting back and forth for them to be over dyed, they're green part of the time because of the lighting and the post production color shifting.)
      • What we've seen at exhibits, looks grey.  However, even on exhibit, they are very susceptible to color changes, based on the lighting.
  • Style
    •  They have some flair, but aren't exceedingly full. I think they look like a half-circle. They look remarkably similar to a Moroccan burnoose (see http://www.folkwear.com/132.html )
    • I'm using this for my point of departure. The difference is that the movie cloaks fasten fairly high up, while the burnoose fastens lower on the chest. And the burnoose hood is not nearly as long as the movie one.
    • The cloak alone is simplicity itself--a simple unlined half-circle. Although cloaks usually have a cut-out neckline, in the burnoose there isn't one; the hood is sewn to the straight side of the fabric.
    • The hood is the complicated part. For one-- it must be double thickness. They hang in heavier folds than the cloak itself, and the  edge around the face seems to fold back on itself (see http://www.warofthering.net/photos/tttfrodo/imagepages/image87.shtml ) So it's either a deep facing or self-lined.  I can't see any gathering in the hood where it attaches to the neck. Again, this is like the burnoose, where the hood (made of two squares) is sewn without gathering to the neckline. (see http://www.herr-der-ringe-film.de/v2/media/galerie/drehorte-sets/amon-hen/frodo-aragorn.jpg  )

      --Ann, who can make something complicated out of something as simple as a cloak.

 

The artisans  that  wove the fabric for these cloaks are from Stansborough Fibres .  They are currently working on their own website but we have ordering information over in our artisan section.

Easy Shortcuts

  • Pattern - if you need a pattern and instructions, this will get you close
    • Folkwear Moroccan Burnoose - a half circle cloak with rectangular hood. http://www.folkwear.com/132.html
    • See an example of the burnoose cloak pattern laid out flat:
      • http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/tilke/plate/004.jpg
      • This is a Moroccan burnoose laid flat from Max Tilke.  This is almost identical to what we think the cloak pattern is except the fellowship cloaks are shorter, the bottom hem is an exact half circle, and the cloak hood is doubled.

See our cloak pattern

 

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This page was last updated 04/22/08