These are my answers to the Tag Questions posted by Miss Elizabeth Bennet for her Period Drama Fashion Week at Elegance of Fashion. She's been posting many interesting posts daily including a fun Period Drama Fashion Game and Who Wore This Dress Better polls.
Also check out the Historic Hairstyles Guest Post written by me and m'dear Melody of Regency Delight, we had such fun discussing the many changes of hairstyle fashions through history!
My Tag Question Answers:
1. Which costume in all the period dramas you've seen is your favorite (list up to three)?
I love the fabric and style of this Regency dress worn by Ramola Garai as Emma Woodhouse in Emma 2009. It's just rather gorgeous and so elegant!
I love this yellow print dress with the blue sash that is worn by Charity Wakefield as Marianne Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility 2008. The color combination is quite eye catching and the style so pretty and feminine!
And because I'm on a role with Regency styles another favorite of mind is this white & blue print drop-front dress worn by Felicity Jones as Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey 2007. The style looked so sweet on her and the fabric is just gorgeous!
2. Which period drama costume vexes you the most (list up to three)?
This atrocious green plaid dress worn by Ann Firbank as Anne Elliot in Persuasion (1970), the fabric really just screams 1970's instead of being Regency.
Many of the Becoming Jane dresses bug me a bit but this jumper dress is quite the worst. An ugly orange color with spaghetti straps? It looks like she's a rustic farmer's wife wearing her undergarments to do the milking instead of the gentlewoman Miss Austen actually was.
3. Which period drama hat or bonnet do you like the best?
I'm picking three since the other questions have been up to three.
This lovely straw bonnet worn by Kate Winslet as Marianne Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility 1995 has always been a great favorite of mine and I'd love to own one just like it! So pretty and sweet!
This very elegant hat worn by Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice 1995 has just recently caught my eye. She wears it in the scene where she's walking with Colonel Fitzwilliam around Rosings Park but unfortunately I don't recall seeing it in any other scenes. The whole outfit she wears in that scene is very lovely it's a wonder the Colonel didn't fall in love with her on the spot! :)
I love the simple elegance of this bonnet worn by Amanda Root as Anne Elliot in Persuasion 1995, definitely a favorite!
4. What costume would you wear today if we could wear period drama fashions in this day and age?
I'd definitely wear Regency styles like in my favorite Jane Austen adaptations. I think Regency is probably my favorite era. I also love the costumes worn in the Anne of Green Gables films and think they would be quite comfortable for everyday wearing!
5. Do you notice historical inaccuracies in the period dramas you watch or do you just ignore them for the most part?
I usually notice them pretty much right away but sometimes it might take a few viewings before I begin to question "would that really have been worn in that era?" Usually costuming mistakes bother me far less than plot holes or bad acting.
6. Pick a period drama character. If you were designing their costumes for a new adaptation (or a new episode), how would you go about designing their costumes?
Hmm...maybe Fanny Price for a new adaptation of Mansfield Park? I'd start by designing her white dress with the "glossy spots" (as Edmund calls them) that she wears for her cousin's wedding and the ball, it's the finest dress she owns. Her dresses would reflect her personality sweet, modest and meek - perhaps in shades of soft blues, browns and maybe light pinks. It would be an interesting job making sure her clothes weren't as pretty as her cousins' clothes and there's weren't as fine as Mary Crawfords!
7. What's your favorite fashion era? Why?
My favorite fashion era would probably be Regency, I just love the elegant and simple silhouette of the Regency ladies. Their bonnets and pelisses also had a very distinctive pretty look.
The late Victorian era might be my least favorite because the hoop skirts, bustles and rich stains don't interest me as much as the simpler styles of Regency and early Victorian.
8. Which period drama has the best costuming? The not-so-great costuming?
Emma 2009 has wonderful costuming and so does Cranford - both miniseries pay particular attention to making sure the costumes fit the characters who are wearing them and there are so many interesting costumes to look at in each one!
Pride & Prejudice 2005 has some of my least favorite costumes, it's difficult to figure out exactly what fashion era there were aiming for as the costume styles run the variety from early Georgian to late Regency in both clothes and hairstyles. The costume choices they made were just very puzzling!
Thanks Miss Elizabeth! These questions were lots of fun to answer!
What period drama fashion era is your favorite?
I enjoyed reading your tag! I'm actually trying to make Elizabeth Bennet's tan hat/bonnet. I think that it was in a couple of scenes or variations of it were in a couple of scenes.
ReplyDeleteIt's so funny, in every one of these tags that I've read over several blogs people mention the costumes in Pride and Prejudice 2005 as ones that they don't like! I didn't like them either BTW, but I didn't know the dislike was so widespread!
ReplyDeleteThat is because many fans believe the costumes for the 2005 "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE" are historically inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteWhat they don't realize is that "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE" is basically a late 1790s story, not an early 1810s one.
In reality, I don't feel the need for "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE" to be limited to either the late 1790s, 1810s or any other period.
Speaking of Austen, both Ciarán Hinds and John Woodvine were wrong to wear naval uniforms, while their characters were ashore in the 1995 version of "PERSUASION". It was the custom of Royal Navy officers to wear civilian dress ashore, unless they were about to embark or have just disembark a ship.