Songful Style Link Party #53: Any Song from The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Onto more dress up games…

About Songful Style

Songful Style is a style challenge series hosted by Shelbee on the Edge, Marsha in the Middle, and Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette. Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. You are welcome to style your own song inspired outfit and add it to the link party or link anything that you want to share even if it has nothing to do with the song.

It was Marsha’s turn to choose our song. Since Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s The Phantom of the Opera is her second favorite musical of all time, Marsha gave us the option to choose any song from the musical as our style inspiration for this round of Songful Style. I saw The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway about 25 years ago and I enjoyed it but I don’t remember much beyond my general pleasure in the experience. So I had to do some research to pick my song and find my style inspiration.

I ended up choosing the song “Think of Me” from the 2004 film version of The Phantom of the Opera starring Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler. I really like the lyrics and the tune but it was ultimately the slave girl costume that Emmy wears at the very beginning of the song that inspired my choice and my outfit.

The Movie Clip

The Lyrics

[CARLOTTA]
Think of me, think of me fondly when we’ve said goodbye
Remember me, once in a while, please, promise me you’ll try
When you find that, once again, you long
To take your heart back—

[MEG, BALLET GIRLS & ENSEMBLE]
He’s here: the Phantom of the Opera
He is with us, it’s the ghost
He’s here! The Phantom of the Opera
He is with us, it’s the ghost

[ANDRE]
Heavens! Will you show a little courtesy?

[FIRMIN, spoken]
Mademoiselle, please

[ANDRE, spoken]
These things do happen

[CARLOTTA, spoken]
Si, these things do happen
Well, until you stop these things happening, this thing does not happen
[MEG, spoken]
Christine Daaé could sing it, sir

[FlRMIN, spoken]
The chorus girl?

[GIRY, spoken]
Let her sing for you, Monsieur, she has been well taught

[CHRISTINE]
Think of me, think of me fondly when we’ve said goodbye
Remember me, once in a while, please, promise me you’ll try
When you find that once again you long to take your heart back and be free
If you ever find a moment, spare a thought for me

We never said our love was evergreen
Or as unchanging as the sea
But if you can still remember, stop and think of me
Think of all the things we’ve shared and seen
Don’t think about the things that might have been

Think of me, think of me, waking silent and resigned
Imagine me trying too hard to put you from my mind
Recall those days, look back on all those times
Think of the things we’ll never do
There will never be a day when I won’t think of you
[The audience applauds.]

[RAOUL]
Can it be? Can it be Christine?

[RAOUL, spoken]
Bravo!

[RAOUL]
What a change, you’re really not a bit
The gawkish girl that you once were
She may not remember me
But I remember her

[CHRISTINE]
We never said our love was evergreen
Or as unchanging as the sea
But please promise me that sometimes you will think

[CHRISTINE vocalizing.]

[CHRISTINE]
Of me 

About the Artist and the Musical

Andrew Lloyd Webber is an English composer and musical theatre producer. Born in London on March 22, 1948, to composer/organist William Lloyd Webber and violinist/pianist Jean Hermione Johnstone, he is the elder brother of world-renowned solo cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. With a musically talented family and a “mum [who] was determined that [he] should be a prodigy in something or other,” young Andrew became fascinated by music at a very early age. He learned piano and violin by his third birthday, French horn and musical composition by the age of 6, and wrote a six piece suite by the time he turned 9.

Introduced to the world of theatre by his aunt Viola, a stage actress, Andrew’s passion for musicals blossomed early. He was a Queen’s Scholar at Westminster School in London from 1960 to 1965, and in 1963, at the age of 15, his father enrolled him part-time at the Eric Gilder School of Music. Andrew went on to study history for one term at Magdalen College, Oxford, before transferring to the Royal College of Music in London in pursuit of a musical theatre degree.

In 1965, 17 year old Andrew Lloyd Webber with 20 year old Tim Rice composed their first musical. Although it failed to get backing, the musical was eventually produced and performed publicly in 2005. Acknowledged as “the most commercially successful composer in history” and credited with single-handedly reinventing the musical, Lloyd Webber has had a prolific career, composing well-known popular musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), Evita (1976), Cats (1981), The Wizard of Oz (2011), School of Rock (2015), Cinderella (2021), and, of course, The Phantom of the Opera (1986).

In the interest of time, I’m going to skip all the juicy biographical information plus you can easily find it Wikipedia if you enjoy a little celebrity gossip.

Let’s get to the musical…

Inspired by the 1910 Gaston Leroux novel of the same name, The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber (music), Charles Hart (lyrics), and Richard Stilgoe (additional lyrics and a libretto). It tells the story of a disfigured musical genius who lives mysteriously beneath the Paris Opera House and becomes obsessed with the beautiful soprano Christine Daaé. The musical opened in 1986 in London’s West End and on Broadway in New York City in 1988 and went on to win the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical. In 2004, Joel Schumacher directed a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the stage musical which earned three Academy Award nominations, three Golden Globe nominations, and a Critics’ Choice Award among others. On February 11, 2012, The Phantom of the Opera celebrated its 10,000 stage performance, becoming the first show to do so in Broadway history. Grossing over $6 billion in revenue, The Phantom of the Opera was the most financially successful event in entertainment history until it was surpassed by The Lion King in 2014.

The song I chose, “Think of Me,” is performed at the beginning of Act I. It’s set on the stage of the Opera Paris House during rehearsals for a new show, Hannibal, when Christine Daaé has her breakthrough performance transitioning her from a chorus girl to the new leading star. In the film clip, Christine is first seen in the slave girl costume worn by the chorus girls before she is magically clad in the dreamy sparkly princess diva dress that spotlights her. It was the glimpse of the pattern on the top of the chorus girl costume that sparked my outfit to life.

About My Outfit

First let me share the slave girl costume that inspired this outfit.

The pattern on the top immediately reminded me of the pattern on these new brown and white trousers I bought for our summer road trip. I wore these pants during our day in Washington, D.C. with the same brown dress and a cropped bell sleeved kimono. The dress was perfect for this challenge since my costume inspiration features a long brown skirt so I stuck with the same combination of long brown dress over brown and white pants.

It’s getting cold out now and the dress is sleeveless so I pulled out this old peplum blazer and it was like a match made in heaven. I wanted to bring in some rich golden accessories to reflect the beautifully ornate collar and belt of the stage costume so I added a gold and teal statement necklace, a new gold chain belt, thrifted copper medallion earrings, gold sequined ballet flats and I topped it off with an old tan felt cloche hat that just felt right.

I’m so happy with the final result of this outfit. Except for the shoes. These shoes seriously suck. But they are just so darn pretty for playing dress up! I can’t bring myself to ged rid of them. But they are literally almost unwearable. They pinch the sides of my feet with more pressure than that thin piece of canvas should be able to pinch with. Once I figure out different shoes, I will definitely be wearing this outfit combination again.

I hope you have enjoyed this round of Songful Style. Won’t you check out how my musically inspired friends have interpreted this The Phantom of the Opera into an outfit. Just click the links to their blogs below for more fashion inspiration. 

Marsha of Marsha in the Middle
Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette

Featured Favorite from Songful Style Link Party #52: “Carolina” by Taylor Swift

If you enjoyed this musical dress up game, remember to stop by again on October 26, 2026, when we will be sharing our outfits inspired by my next song choice…perfect for Halloween week…Thriller by Michael Jackson. There is lots of wonderful sartorial inspiration in the 13 minute video, ranging from vintage styles to creepy Halloween costumes. It will be fun to see how everyone interprets this iconic tune into something stylish. Until then, happy dress up!

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee