I really love costume dramas; the more repressed and British the better. Of course there are all sorts of great reasons for loving British costume drams: the inevitable sweeping, subtly expressed romance, the thoroughly polite but venomously bitchy matriarch, servant drama!, and beautiful scenery, but its pretty obviously mostly about the costumes. The best costume drama I have seen in ages is Downton Abbey. It has everything you want in a costume drama, and is executed perfectly. There are even two bitchy/polite matriarchs and they are at war with each other! The costumes are gorgeous. The first episode of the first series has them all in mourning so there are elaborately jet-beaded gowns as far as the eye can see:
Above you see Dame Maggie Smith claiming "no one wants to kiss a girl in black". One doesn't like to contradict a peer of the realm, but, well...
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| No one wants to kiss these girls, obvs. |
Downton Abbey earns extra costume drama points for having lots of scenes of the characters dressing, which are always fascinating to me.
The accessories are also fantastic. I was drooling over their wonderful hair forks, but couldn't get any good pictures, but..
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| Don't you want to reach into the screen and snatch that necklace right off. I need a necklace like that. |
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| Also the hats! All the hats! |
I also found this great video for anyone attempting to replicate the amazing hair in the movie without the benefit of a proper ladies maid
3 comments:
Downton Abbey is awesome!!! LOVE the outfits in it :D Great choice!
Isn't Maggie Smith fantastic? I like her since she portrayed Wendy in "Hook".
Unfortunately, I haven't heard about Downton Abbey until now. I'll have to look for it.
And yes: I want the necklace, too! :)
Great pictures of awesome costumes! Thank you for sharing and bringing this to my attention!
Hugs,
Sal
Great choice indeed! That series was absolutely beautiful.
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