Have you seen what she's wearing? Costuming in The Gilded Age

[OtterMommy]

Let's talk fashion!

[Melina22]

Carrie's shiny ice blue dress is the one that astonished me the most. It was... architectural. I froze the scene a couple of times just to stare at it. 

So many of the dresses were astonishingly beautiful, but they all looked so incredibly uncomfortable. They'd show the women sitting ramrod straight at the dining table, and you had to wonder how they could manage to choke down more than a few bites with their midsection squeezed in a vice for hours at a time. You could tell it affected the way the actresses moved and held themselves. 

I'm not sure if it was exaggerated for the show, but we kept seeing women sitting around their own drawing rooms dressed like they were about to be presented to the queen, even though they were only going to kill some time embroidering before heading for bed. 

Imagine the incredible relief at bedtime to finally pull down your hair and take off your corset!! 

As beautiful and feminine as the gowns were, even among less affluent women, I have so much sympathy for how the women had to work all day draped in so much heavy fabric, plus the constricting corsets. And to think how much the modern women resents having to wear a bra! 

Last comment - how did women keep their hems from being endlessly filthy? I cringe watching them walk through dirty streets, their silk hems dragging in the dust. Were the dresses shorter than is usually shown? 

[PRgal]

8 hours ago, Melina22 said:

Carrie's shiny ice blue dress is the one that astonished me the most. It was... architectural. I froze the scene a couple of times just to stare at it. 

So many of the dresses were astonishingly beautiful, but they all looked so incredibly uncomfortable. They'd show the women sitting ramrod straight at the dining table, and you had to wonder how they could manage to choke down more than a few bites with their midsection squeezed in a vice for hours at a time. You could tell it affected the way the actresses moved and held themselves. 

I'm not sure if it was exaggerated for the show, but we kept seeing women sitting around their own drawing rooms dressed like they were about to be presented to the queen, even though they were only going to kill some time embroidering before heading for bed. 

Imagine the incredible relief at bedtime to finally pull down your hair and take off your corset!! 

As beautiful and feminine as the gowns were, even among less affluent women, I have so much sympathy for how the women had to work all day draped in so much heavy fabric, plus the constricting corsets. And to think how much the modern women resents having to wear a bra! 

Last comment - how did women keep their hems from being endlessly filthy? I cringe watching them walk through dirty streets, their silk hems dragging in the dust. Were the dresses shorter than is usually shown? 

Or it could be their view of "casual."   Pre-pandemic, I'm sure many of us would look at wearing PJ bottoms/yoga pants (I prefer the yoga pants, personally) at work (working from home, that is) is just a big no-no.  Many of us are still working from home or are on a hybrid schedule, so it's still okay to do PJs when you're not at the office...as long as what you're wearing on top is Zoom-appropriate.

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by PRgal

[MissLucas]

16 hours ago, Melina22 said:

Last comment - how did women keep their hems from being endlessly filthy? I cringe watching them walk through dirty streets, their silk hems dragging in the dust. Were the dresses shorter than is usually shown? 

Walking/Promenading dresses came with detachable ruffles that could be washed and they had also tiny contraptions to tie the trains up. Here's a good example that roughly fits the epoch, if you are not interested in stockings and underpinnings scroll to 8:40.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz1dK9w1_E8&t=538s

The costumes are gorgeous (of course they are this being a Fellowes production). I expected to see a bit more bustles, I wait for Miss Banner to weigh in on the matter on her YT channel. And Mariane's Belle dress felt a bit off too. That said I loved little flourishes like the mad hats worn by Mrs Russell and Mrs Chamberlain at that charity event. And Mrs Russell's corsages are designed with few trimmings making them look like elegant breastplates (kinda) - very fitting for the character.

Edited January 28, 2022 by MissLucas
Wrong link

[Melina22]

8 minutes ago, MissLucas said:

Walking/Promenading dresses came with detachable ruffles that could be washed and they had also tiny contraptions to tie the trains up. 

That's so interesting! I never knew this. 

Watching that video, you see why the richer women had ladies maids to look after their clothes and help them dress, and do their hair. I get claustrophia at the thought of having to be encased in a corset and/or all that heavy fabric. Just getting dressed and undressed two or three times would have taken up half their day. 

[tljgator]

Tom & Lorenzo's take on the costuming...fabulous, as always.

[mojito]

On 1/27/2022 at 5:13 AM, Melina22 said:

Imagine the incredible relief at bedtime to finally pull down your hair and take off your corset!! 

This was the first show where I heard a "lady" declare she was going upstairs to get out of her corset. It was the turkey hat lady, I believe, who said it. 

[sempervivum]

Just watching these folks in the incredibly restricted corsets, bodices and sleeves coupled with the heavily draped shelf-bustles was making me feel uncomfortable. I hope we get to see some rebels-male and female- in Aesthetic Movement fashion at some point.

I assume Marian's relatively simple hairdo was meant to suggest her rural background. Loved her blue coat in the party scene.

Taissa Farmigia with her long, loose hair and pastel, simple gowns looks too young even to be 'coming out' age (18)-I couldn't believe it when I read that she's 21.

I'll be re-watching this for sure- I need to check out the decor more closely next!

[JenE4]

The peacock blue silk dress that Mrs Russel wore while just getting ready for her party was STUNNING. I can’t believe that was just like “a bathrobe” before she put her real party dress on!

I was really interested in the Rhode Island “resort wear” that differed so much from the “city wear.” The men’s looks in particular almost reminded me of 1920s rather than 1880s…but then I guess I don’t know what the “Tommy Bahama style” of the 1880s would have looked like, lol.

This was in far contrast to how Mrs Russel dressed the servants for her soirée—they looked like footmen from 100 years prior!

[MissLucas]

1 hour ago, JenE4 said:

This was in far contrast to how Mrs Russel dressed the servants for her soirée—they looked like footmen from 100 years prior!

Since the whole house looked like she dismantled every 18th century chateau within reach of her husband's purse the liveries looked spot on ;)

[Snazzy Daisy]

The ‘Gilded Age’ costume designer completely changed Bertha Russell’s aesthetic after Carrie C*** joined the cast

[yellowjacket]

The costumes mimic the era, but those who sew, like me, can tell they're faux.  They don't have infinite budget, so I can live with it.  Some of the costumes on Mrs. Russell are appropriately hilarious.

However, the hair.  No upper class woman (is the term WASP ok?) dyed her hair in the 1880s.  Agnes and Ada would have grey-white hair, as would many other of the older ladies.  

[MissLucas]

Interview with costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone by Tom and Lorenzo.

https://tomandlorenzo.com/2022/02/interview-with-the-gilded-age-costume-designer-kasia-walicka-maimone/

[Affogato]

On 1/27/2022 at 10:17 PM, Melina22 said:

That's so interesting! I never knew this. 

Watching that video, you see why the richer women had ladies maids to look after their clothes and help them dress, and do their hair. I get claustrophia at the thought of having to be encased in a corset and/or all that heavy fabric. Just getting dressed and undressed two or three times would have taken up half their day. 

I seem to remember from a tour of the newport mansions years ago that they changed their clothes more often than that, of course that may have been when they were on vacation! And there were entire floors given over to closet storage. I wish I remembered it in more detail, but it was completely alien to me, then and now.

[PRgal]

8 hours ago, Affogato said:

I seem to remember from a tour of the newport mansions years ago that they changed their clothes more often than that, of course that may have been when they were on vacation! And there were entire floors given over to closet storage. I wish I remembered it in more detail, but it was completely alien to me, then and now.

I wonder how often they changed their hair.  I'm so low maintenance that I basically wear my hair in a ponytail or messy bun every single day.  

[Affogato]

https://www.nps.gov/elro/blogs/gilded-age-fashion.htm
 

an interesting overview. 

[eejm]

This isn’t exactly a costuming question, but rather a hair question.  My mom and I disagree on George’s beard.  She thinks it’s fake.  I think it’s real, but dyed black.  Thoughts?

If it is dyed black, was that something men of the time would have done?  If not, I’m surprised that production did it.  Morgan Spector is 41, so I imagine he has at least some grey hair.  I think George is supposed to be a few years old than Spector as well, given that Larry is 22-23.  Why would George still have black hair at that age unless dyeing was a vanity craze at the time?

[Affogato]

24 minutes ago, eejm said:

This isn’t exactly a costuming question, but rather a hair question.  My mom and I disagree on George’s beard.  She thinks it’s fake.  I think it’s real, but dyed black.  Thoughts?

If it is dyed black, was that something men of the time would have done?  If not, I’m surprised that production did it.  Morgan Spector is 41, so I imagine he has at least some grey hair.  I think George is supposed to be a few years old than Spector as well, given that Larry is 22-23.  Why would George still have black hair at that age unless dyeing was a vanity craze at the time?

https://thehistoryofthehairsworld.com/hair_19th_century.html
 

Fun but doesn’t directly address the issue. This is fun  

anyway people dyed their hair in the ancient world. He could have. 

[SailorGirl]

Can we just take a minute to appreciate this outfit? I thought this was the best out of all of episode 3's costumes . . . 

[Hiyo]

Here is an article that describes various luxuries of the elite. This is the part about what they wore:

Quote

The industrialists and their wives sailed once or twice each year to Paris, where courtiers at Paris fashion houses kept the women’s measurements on file so that they could have the latest designer dresses ready for them to try on.

“They would come back with five dresses, and roll them out at social events during the year,” Block explains. Back in the United States, “newspapers wrote about what these women were wearing.” The couples also would stop in London, where the men went to Saville Row, where tailors made bespoke suits for them out of the finest materials. (Banker and industrialist John Pierpont Morgan, for example, was a customer of Henry Poole & Co.)

Industrialists’ wives also employed dressmakers back home to make additional clothing for them, because their social status required them to wear a different outfit to each engagement on their calendars. “Many of them were changing outfits five or six times a day,” Block says.

Wealthy Gilded Ave women sometimes even coordinated their clothing with the décor of their mansions, Block says. Caroline Astor, for example, had a life-size portrait of herself in her home’s reception hall, dressed in Paris-made finery. When guests arrived for a dinner party, she would greet them standing beneath the portrait, dressed in the latest fashion for that particular year.

Gilded Age ladies also used jewelry to flaunt their wealth. One socialite, Mrs. Calvin S. Brice, attended a ball wearing what a New York Times account described as a “magnificent” diamond tiara, a pendant of diamonds, and a bracelet and brooch decorated with black pearls and diamonds, according to the book Gilded New York: Design, Fashion and Society, by Phyllis Magidson, Susan Johnson and Thomas Mellins.

 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Hiyo

[RedHawk]

On 2/2/2022 at 10:03 PM, yellowjacket said:

The costumes mimic the era, but those who sew, like me, can tell they're faux.  They don't have infinite budget, so I can live with it.  Some of the costumes on Mrs. Russell are appropriately hilarious.

However, the hair.  No upper class woman (is the term WASP ok?) dyed her hair in the 1880s.  Agnes and Ada would have grey-white hair, as would many other of the older ladies.  

I’m not good with ages but some of the women appear to be in their 40s and 50s. Not all women go gray so early, or fully gray. Ada is, I believe, 60 so probably would be gray or faded blond. I’m 59 and have very little gray in my mousey blond hair, which I’ve never colored.

[JenE4]

Marian is always wearing light yellow. With her fair skin and blonde hair, she almost disappears into a blur of background light. Or, maybe I should wear my glasses when I watch TV. But it’s an interesting as opposed to Bertha who is always in peacock blue or red or other colors that have a wow-factor. The two aunts are usually in muted reds and greens that also seem to fade into the upholstery.  So, it’s sort of like she’s bringing light to their house but isn’t standing out beyond them—unless you count with Mrs Chamberlain, I guess.

[MCMLXXVII]

Marian wears a lot of light blue too, it always reminds me of Disney’s Cinderella. Definitely bringing sunshine and light into that house.

Bertha’s got some amazing looks but she reminds me of that passage in “The Age of Innocence” about how the old money women put away their new Parisian gowns for a couple seasons but Beaufort’s mistresses wore theirs right off the “runway”.   

[Maisiesmom]

I also enjoy the gowns. The red number that Bertha wore out to the symphony was just stunning. The costumers have done a nice job on hiding Carrie C****' pregnancy. It's too bad the writers couldn't have incorporated the baby coming into the storyline, but I don't know what the rules were for expectant mothers back then. She may have had to be confined to her room or something, therefore, no plot.

[Melina22]

22 minutes ago, Maisiesmom said:

The costumers have done a nice job on hiding Carrie C****' pregnancy. 

I'm usually good at spotting that, but I would never have guessed Carrie was pregnant if I hadn't read it here. Maybe it will be more obvious in upcoming episodes. 

[MissLucas]

As soon as she starts carrying around volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica, huge carpet bags (not full of old shoes), aspidistras etc. we will know for sure. Actually, my money is on amazing fans ;)

[MCMLXXVII]

I’m only halfway through and Marian’s wardrobe is excellent tonight.😍

[Trillian]

On 1/27/2022 at 10:04 PM, MissLucas said:

The costumes are gorgeous (of course they are this being a Fellowes production). I expected to see a bit more bustles, I wait for Miss Banner to weigh in on the matter on her YT channel. And Mariane's Belle dress felt a bit off too. That said I loved little flourishes like the mad hats worn by Mrs Russell and Mrs Chamberlain at that charity event. And Mrs Russell's corsages are designed with few trimmings making them look like elegant breastplates (kinda) - very fitting for the character.

According to frockflicks.com (an incredibly fun rabbit hole of a site with great recaps of this show from a fashion perspective ), the bustles of this period were actually smaller than portrayed.  I like their analogy to jeans:

“The early bustle shape, called the natural form, was very slim and body hugging. This started in the mid- to late 1870s and was going out of fashion by 1882. A rather architectural bustle that projected directly back from the body came in around 1883 and was popular until the end of the decade. (For reference, the first bustle style in the early 1870s, was much softer and rounder in shape.) While this may seem like nit-picky minutiae, it’s the same as following jeans fashions today, when boot-cut becomes passé and skinny jeans are all the rage. The most wealthy and fashionable people would know these trends — and The Gilded Age is chock full of wealthy and fashionable people!”

https://www.frockflicks.com/the-gilded-age-2022-recap-episode-1/

[The Union Club]

The ball was fantastic, John Singer Sargent incarnate, especially with the quadrille that opened it. And Marion’s gown of pale green moiré, with its burgundy accents, was perfect. The costume designers outdid themselves and must have an encyclopedic knowledge of Charles Worth. I completely agree on the utter blandness of Mr. Raikes. No devilish gleam in his eye at all.  Fellowes is famous for borrowing freely from other sources for his stories, and Marion waiting forlornly at Mrs. Chamberlain’s came straight from the novel Washington Square, and film version, The Heiress (and cleverly connected the Henry James remark? Okay.). At least things turned out better for Marion. I love all the Bway greats in the cast: Kelli O’Hara, Donna Murphy, Audra McDonald. And by far the best relationship is that between Agnes Van Rhijn and Peggy Scott. I love the way Baranski so truthfully converts cynical distain to real respect and concern. And Nixon’s Aunt Ada is a revelation. Put me down as a member of the Bertha Russell fan club, too. I’ve been loving the whole series and can’t wait for Season Two. But hey: do we really believe that no one’s twigged a fiddle about Oscar and John Adams? Ward McAllister at the very least.

[izabella]

On 3/11/2022 at 7:36 PM, Trillian said:

According to frockflicks.com (an incredibly fun rabbit hole of a site with great recaps of this show from a fashion perspective ), the bustles of this period were actually smaller than portrayed.  I like their analogy to jeans:

“The early bustle shape, called the natural form, was very slim and body hugging. This started in the mid- to late 1870s and was going out of fashion by 1882. A rather architectural bustle that projected directly back from the body came in around 1883 and was popular until the end of the decade. (For reference, the first bustle style in the early 1870s, was much softer and rounder in shape.) While this may seem like nit-picky minutiae, it’s the same as following jeans fashions today, when boot-cut becomes passé and skinny jeans are all the rage. The most wealthy and fashionable people would know these trends — and The Gilded Age is chock full of wealthy and fashionable people!”

https://www.frockflicks.com/the-gilded-age-2022-recap-episode-1/

So according to this, bustles should be getting bigger instead of smaller.  Aunt Agnes was right again!

[Scarlett45]

On 2/7/2022 at 7:43 PM, PRgal said:

I wonder how often they changed their hair.  I'm so low maintenance that I basically wear my hair in a ponytail or messy bun every single day.  

There were different hairstyles for day time and night time. If there was a ball or cocktail party- your hairstyle at breakfast wouldn’t be appropriate. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

‘The Gilded Age’ Season 2 Behind the Scenes: How Fashion Defines Each Character