5 Historical Films That Got the Costumes RIGHT.

So there's a lot of talk on the Internet about

costumes

in movies and inevitably how they get them wrong, and I'm starting to get the feeling that we're giving the false impression that any attempt at period

costumes

is by default deeply flawed in terms of accuracy. , which is definitely not the case, there are definitely some very well done costumes in movies and TV shows and today we're about to give those folks some love. By the way, this list is by no means exhaustive, but simply a personal selection of things that I have seen and that have greatly impressed me, contrary to what much of the Internet would have us believe, many period costumes in cinema and television are actually, although sometimes a little imperfect, generally acceptable, so I continue to maintain that I have no plans to do reviews of individual costumes, no matter how many people insist on your review and with an e here is my review, the costumes are fine, this is also not to say that there are no precision flaws in some of the pieces that we are going to discuss once.

I will again give the usual disclaimer that there is no such thing as

historical

accuracy and that, due to the passage of time, inevitably some crucial bits of information have slipped through the cracks, preventing us from achieving true 100 recreations of real history. and some of the least sartorially successful

films

we've explored above is that there's a very clear and palpable sense that real research was done, that real

historical

garments were consulted, that serious attention was paid to silhouette, proportion and the fit, there are details in These garments are so fine, like the hand finishing, the thread worked buttons, the strange cutting techniques that are so nuanced and period specific, that it is very clear that the designers knew in incredible detail of what material they were drawing from in order to effectively tell a story that serves both of them. the character of the plot, as well as the historical setting, which is surprisingly extremely crucial to the world-building of a period film, this video was also very kindly brought to you by our friends at acorn tv, which I will tell you more about at the end of this video.

First of all, number one in all my books is Gentleman Jack. Did I write this entire video solely as an excuse to rave about Gentleman Jack for about five minutes? Irrelevant, let's take a moment to contemplate the thread-worked buttons, the royal suspenders, the cabled suspenders of the 1830s. with the hand-sewn busk with purple holes, folks, this is just the opening sequence, buckle up for the rest of the show, so gentleman jack is a biographical story of anne lister and is based on events recorded in her real diary, which means we have very specific information. 1832-33 dates in which the season 1 story takes place, I think there are two vague portraits of the real one and the lister we know, and although designer tom pai went to extraordinary lengths to reproduce elements of these in the fictional annelister Even the collar brooch there are still elements that must be conjectured, for example, the heavy men's boots and the top hat that he wears in the series, which we can see, were chosen to add different visual elements to his character, but not in that modern, dissociative style.

An identifiable aesthetic way in which many period adaptations used to convey the character to a modern audience. The crucial victory in Anilister's interpretation for the screen here is the actual existence of all the interpretations in the real story, for example, the decision to change his hairstyle. the more there was in the feminine side curl style of the 1830s in his original portraits to the more historically masculine horizontal buckles seen in the series, yes it is a deviation from the historical evidence we have, but it is a deviation from a historical style verifiable to another made intentionally. to convey a crucial element of the character while staying firmly within the realm of period credibility, that's how you do acting for a modern audience, folks, making changes from one questionable historical element to another preferable but equally historic element by the sake of the character and the narrative, not for the sake of modern beauty aesthetics, sign me up again talking about hairstyles.

Major props to this entire production team for embracing the weird and wonderful madness that was 1830s hairstyles. I feel like a lot of modern interpretations of the 1830s tend to avoid this element. with the excuse that it is not relatable to modern audiences, but gentleman jack is the main evidence that this is not a valid excuse at all. Yes, they are rare, but within the context of the equally peculiar general fashion of the 1830s, which is also fully accepted, there is a very specific one. world constructed here, the contrast between Ann Lister's more subdued, masculine styles is intensified when juxtaposed with the more elaborate everyday styles seen on some of the other women and is further contextualized when the high fashion version of the Ridiculous supreme hairstyle as seen in the dance scenes. but here's the funny thing: something extraordinary happens when one is exposed to a thing repeatedly over a period of time, far from perpetually seeing it as strange and foreign for the rest of eternity, most of us actually adopt a familiar acceptance of bliss. thing and we learn to appreciate it.

There is a little, if not a substantial amount, of beauty in it. That's why I'm so adamantly against this philosophy of having to appeal to a modern beauty aesthetic. We are not even giving our audience the opportunity to appreciate the styles as they were within their own range. context anyway, still on the topic of hair, one of the things I appreciate most about the hairstyle in this series is that, particularly on Anne Lister, the hair isn't perfectly perfect all the time, nothing weird bothers me more than seeing those period dramas. where the characters are running around outside in a windy war doing something slightly strenuous while having perfectly sculpted hair, this just detracts from the sense of reality of the human relationship with these people, which is why 10 out of 10 appreciate the bits that slip away and fall and the completely undone of some of the hairstyles here, a quick moment of appreciation for the literal detail of the thread drawn on Enlister's shirt here, but I also want to point out the attention paid not only to the details of the specific period in which story unfolds, but also a A broader sense of logic has been put into the design of these clothes, that is, not everyone suddenly starts dressing in the latest fashion on January 1 of the new year; in fact, some styles remain somewhat fossilized in their traditional nature, for example, the domestic staff of houses.

They have a very clear 18th century silhouette, these suits within the context of history would have been considered uniforms, a particular set of garments that denoted a particular professional position and would not have evolved as quickly as the latest fashions, this is an extremely specific detail The general social practices surrounding human clothing, not just the details of the dress itself in a vacuum, this shows that the designer is thinking not only about recreating historical replicas of clothing, but also recreating the variety of clothing within contexts. particulars to create this wonderful realistic and believable world in which yes.

Sometimes people wear things that are a little old-fashioned, sometimes on purpose and sometimes simply out of habit or necessity. This is further demonstrated when we contemplate this moment in her robe, which, if you look closely, literally looks like she's wearing a repurposed robo la francaise. 18th century with those wide ruffled cuffs, the ruffled robins on the front and the pleated detail on the back, this is so historically accurate in practice, this repurposing of old dresses into new, more modern or simply home wear garments , this is the level of attention to detail that I am. Here there is also, of course, the interpretation of the fashionable silhouette between different classes.

Again we have the delightful application of the logic of practicality that makes these foreign period garments feel so human. Big sleeves were a thing in the 1830s, very much so. A large number of dresses were cut, but the difference between the upper-class ladies sitting in their drawing rooms with sleeves padded to the ridiculousness of haute couture and the simpler, more practical sleeves, still large but not padded, worn by the girls of working class, serves to create a unified world of what humans are like. When dressing back then, we didn't have that strict, boring, unreal division between the upper and lower classes, where only the upper class ladies get anything remotely eccentric in their sartorial silhouettes because, guess what, lower class ladies too?

They could plant things, but the distinction is made more in how. These fashion items fit the practical demands of what that character specifically needed to do during their day. This is the basic element of contextual interpretation of historical clothing that is often overlooked in period costume design. Oh, what is that? It could be a zipper, no, no. we wouldn't be disappointed like this dress hooks hand sewn dress hooks moving forward a little to 1849 the next movie on my very impressed list is harriet, the recent biographical story again of harriet tubman once again, from the first shot, we are given a Incredible amount of minute historical detail in the clothing that also immediately tells us a lot about the character and his situation.

We see the mismatched buttons and careful shoulder pieces, which immediately also establishes the historically accurate value of not only the fabric and materials themselves. but the clothes as a whole and the value of the clothes is something that comes into play immensely later in the film, when part of Harriet's plan to help her family members escape is to literally bring them the clothes they visually represents greater value and therefore helps them. they escape to freedom by returning to the previous point of the fashionable silhouette and its adoption by various classes of people. We can see this at play in skirt form throughout this film.

It's only 1849 at the beginning of history and steel. The wire crinoline was not patented until 1856, so it is too early for widespread adoption of a substantial skirt support at first. However, the crinoline was invented in response to the already growing trend for large skirts that were previously made with layers. and heavily starched layers of petticoats, these were extremely heavy and time consuming to maintain and these or an even more voluminous primitive crinoline structure would not have been worn by anyone who had to do much physical work, so we can see a history of Really interesting background of the character as told. by the shape of the skirt, here Harriet and her family members, particularly in the earlier scenes, have very thin skirts, although still gathered or pleated at the waist in accordance with the standard construction of dress making in this period, a As Harriet escapes to freedom, she herself begins to adopt more layers of skirt. in the form of petticoats probably since her skirts still do not appear to be as large as a structured undercoat would provide Marie, on the other hand, who comes from more privileged circumstances and therefore more closely follows the dictates of the high fashion, it seems I have significant understructure to help with what I think is the biggest skirt in the movie.

One thing I really appreciate in this movie is the totally realistic handling of underwear. Do not misunderstand. I love a good historically accurate and gratuitous corset scene, but in general. The reality is that we don't tend to mention or even think about our underwear on a regular basis and neither do the people in the story, they're just doing their job. You can see that all these actors are supported as necessary with those two darts in either of them. The front side of a dress was a natural construction of dress making at this time and doesn't really sit

right

unless it has the

right

construction to fill out that tapered shape of the dress created by Harriet darts or someone who really doesn't have laces tight they would.

It can be wildly impractical and it's good that we understand that corsets and tight lacing exist as completely separate entities, but this film is a great example of how corsetry is used in subtle and practical ways for the strictly functional purposes it served. in history, rather than aesthetics. Depictions of Today's Vanity Oppression Harriet walks from Maryland to Philadelphia without even mentioning the underpinnings of it, so I really don't want to hear any more complaints about historical female underwear oppression from actresses as usual.Okay, controversial opinion time, but I'm trying my best. It's possible that I just don't like Jane Austen, which is why it was such an extraordinary testament to the absolute brilliance of the costume team led by Alexandra Byrne that I managed to watch the whole movie, whatever Emma was, but seriously, this one movie was so beautiful. done in every aspect, the silhouettes of the characters were so precise that they all literally looked like they just stepped out of an 1815 fashion and they still have the time and energy to put in so many bold details that we have miles of curler cutouts that we have the white embroidery, we have the timed stockings and the ear slit collar and basting and yes, hand sewn private holes, but the one detail that made me literally scream was this extremely unnecessary but extremely necessary moment where she lifts up her gets dressed and shows us that no, she's not actually wearing underwear because divided drawers didn't exist yet and yes, believe it or not, before divided drawers were a thing, you just didn't wear anything, this is something that no one addresses.

So this moment literally brought me so much joy that I can't even begin to describe, not to mention of course that the underwear we saw was made up of completely appropriate corsets with yes, 1815 changes underneath. It's kind of sad how unreasonably excited we are about this. but then again, when we have been betrayed so consistently by lazy people that we wear ourselves out for so long. Many long years should not be added by feeling those sensations. Thank you very much, but let's return to the silhouette, which is obviously so successful due to the intense attention to the appropriate lower structures.

Personally, I was having a great time playing dress spot, as many of the items. What you see during this film are literal reproductions of real regency dresses preserved in museums. Yes, there is something to be said about costume design as an art form in itself, but there is also something to be said about the sheer, absolute magical experience created when seeing that dress you were drooling over one afternoon at the vna in a real body moving dancing breathing watching it come to life as a real human being this is time travel basically there is a warning that there were so many different costumes in this movie almost everyone wears a different costume in practically every scene which isn't the most historically accurate, since we're technically still in the era before sewing machines and, in theory, everything is still painstakingly hand-stitched, but this is a jane austen story, so presumably all of these people They have at least 10,000 a year or so, which means they can probably afford extravagant hordes of hand-embroidered dresses, so why not?

In any case, it kept me watching the movie, so I'm not really complaining. The only minor complaint I had was with the obviousness of Emma's wig, which was lovely and not just any historically accurate 18th century wig. The makeup, if present, is so subtle. Seriously, there's nothing more frustrating than a beautifully dressed period film featuring the 2010s. Block eyebrows, obvious contouring or blatantly modern lip colors into men's fashion territory, we see the progression again. of fashion reflected in the social class of each character. The smart blonde boy's coat is longer, with a flat collar and narrower lapels, more in tune with the styles that developed throughout the 19th century.

The century farmhouse type, on the other hand, has the shorter coat with a high collar and wider lapels, more fashionable at the beginning of the regency period. His coat is of an older style, as presumably he doesn't usually go looking for a new coat. Custom made for him according to the latest fashion, Tulip Fever takes us to Amsterdam in 1634 and if you haven't heard of this movie, I don't blame you, it's not a movie I would have seen let alone twice if I hadn't. I would have listened. such amazing things about clothing and indeed on that front it did not disappoint from the start, we are once again greeted with what to all appearances appears to be a beautiful hand cut hem on that linen cap and the theme of glorious hems by Feinfeld continues to the end.

Through the copious amounts of ceilings, I understand that designer Michael O'Connor worked with many costume makers who originally worked on the original practice at Shakespeare's Globe, so it's not the slightest surprise that, especially in these small pieces of linen, the rough caps and cuffs specifically are really exquisitely made, but getting back to the ruffs, they went to great lengths with rough play in this film, which is extremely appropriate considering the early 17th century Dutch were extremely hard with wide ruses, thick ruses, ruses folded in all sorts of intricate patterns. all of which were impeccably recreated with wonderful variety in design, there is clearly incredible skill among the creators of the clothing here because it takes hard, seriously practiced work to recreate the fold pattern of something like this with just the help of the portrait.

Also, it's a little vague here, but it really looks like the folds of this eraser are held together with little pins, which is such a minor complexity of how these things actually worked that I'm pretty sure you have to have read janet arnold at least yes I haven't delved into the murky depths of primary account records to discover this stuff, so it's okay, you've earned my trust. I'm always particularly biased towards things from the 17th century because, especially from the beginning of the 17th century to the Restoration, there are periods that are so underrepresented, probably because, like the 1830s, it's a bit strange to our modern eye, far from the delicate dresses wide Regency or hourglass silhouettes of late Victorian times, the seas of the early 17th century, apart from the sheer directness of the generally raised ruffs. extremely deep waists, arms, eyes and generally very large dresses, but we also get to see such glorious eye candy as beautiful hand-made lace and I'm not going to lie, I definitely spent a substantial portion of this movie wondering where the hell The design team sourced so many gorgeous laces because truly authentic looking lace is extremely difficult to find these days and takes a long time to make by hand and inaccurate lace is one of the easiest things to take you out of the era completely, once more, there were some Here are numbers that point directly to truly surviving garments, like this pair of plain-topped stays in the Darmstadt museum in Germany.

Basically, again, everyone in this movie looks like they literally just walked out of a friend's portrait, which is probably a good thing, considering the portrait is a central plot element number five on my list, it's a bit misleading because technically it's not a movie but a filmed version of a play and that's the 2012 production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on the Balloon, that's how it's designed. by slash costume historian, costume designer jenny tiramani, when the world was kind of an experimental archeology project where they were trying to recreate shakespeare's works as they would potentially have been done during his lifetime, which i don't think they were anymore make, except all the clothes. in this work are completely hand-sewn using late 16th and early 17th century sewing methods, royal clothing patterns and drawing techniques of the period, all natural fiber materials to the point where silk velvet for Olivia's dress was literally hand knit, the ruffs were starched and pinned.

Every night, every detail, down to the buttons, had to be verifiably present in the story on or before the year the play was originally performed. I couldn't not mention this one because if you're looking for historical representations, I think this is possibly the closest to historical accuracy represented in post-period entertainment, as always, as you can tell, all the movies and shows I selected for this video were produced in the last eight years or so, this is not a coincidence. In fact, I think this greatly signifies the growing public interest in period clothing, which means there is more pressure on costume departments to get it right and of course more attention is placed on reproducing real history, Furthermore, it is increasingly difficult for

films

to come to light. with frustrating inaccuracies because the public is getting smarter, I mean look at the comments section of any youtube video that tries to spread misinformation about victorian corsets today or janet arnold forbid, try using the word corset to To say "it's well done", folks, this brings me immense hope for the future.

Audiences of the future will have the opportunity to learn things while watching period films and to develop their own unique appreciation for old styles, rather than simply being fooled. continually making them believe that there is only one true aesthetic of beauty and that we are physically incapable of appreciating anything we can. I don't watch it every day, believe it or not, the demographic of people who watch period films tend to do so because we like to explore life in previous eras. Surprise speaking for those of us who enjoy edutainment and period entertainment, this video has it very kindly. has been brought to you by Acorn TV, an online app or television-based streaming service that specializes in clever and sophisticated storytelling.

For just $5.99 a month, you can get ad-free access to thousands of hours of binge-worthy content, including some period drama classics like the Miss Fisher murder mysteries, Poldark Agatha Christie adaptations, and amazing related non-fiction content. with historical dress, including 1900s Island, where a group of contestants strive to recreate life in a 1900s fishing village, Savilro, a three-part miniseries about London's iconic tailoring district and what I know it is already A favorite among you, Point in Time, the six-episode miniseries that follows the original hands-on reconstruction of a selection of portraits throughout history. Acorn TV also highly recommend the other, a quirky British comedy that follows two sisters from completely different backgrounds. worlds that are completely unaware that the other exists until her father falls dead.

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