ohrbach's and old lace.an informal poll.

[michael c]

i just completed the 1897 storyline and are several episodes into the leviathan storyline.

i enjoyed 1897 but i'm always glad to see my favorite characters again after a time travel story.
it's comforting to see carolyn and maggie and elizabeth...no matter how strange the plot.

but it was more than just seeing familiar faces that i found comforting.
it was the bizzare contrast of the "present day" fashions played against the dark gothic interiors.if anything the clothes got even brighter and the skirts got even shorter during the time that the show was set in the past.carolyn's outfit upon return to the present was dizzying.a brilliant poppy red blouse and a pastel polka dot print wraparound chiffon miniskirt!in one episode miss olivia correy gets a fox fur over paisley silk lounging pajamas...an eye-popping combination that will be burned onto my retina forever(please don't forget cassandra collins' blinding ensembles,julia's electric tweeds or vicki's any-dress-as-long-as-it's-sleeveless).

for me this sets up a visual dissonance that is one of the most striking things about the show.
the juxtaposition of the setting(ancient,heavy,somber)and the jauntiness of the clothes is the most visually arresting thing that speaks "dark shadows" to me.it's one of the first things that caught my eye.while the historical costumes make more sense within the ancient setting during the time travel stories i always feel as if i'm watching a period piece.in the present it feels more like d.s. to me.

this combination of ohrbach's,gothic settings,robert cobert's soundtrack and of course our actors set the mood for me.perhaps because i wasn't yet born when the show originally aired these fashions have a novelty for me and that's why i find them so striking.

so on to the subject of this informal poll.what do you guys think?storyline aside what do you think visually represents the show better?the present day or the time travel episodes?

[retzev]

the juxtaposition of the setting(ancient,heavy,somber)and the jauntiness of the clothes is the most visually arresting thing that speaks "dark shadows" to me.it's one of the first things that caught my eye.while the historical costumes make more sense within the ancient setting during the time travel stories i always feel as if i'm watching a period piece.in the present it feels more like d.s. to me.

I agree completely, well said -

so on to the subject of this informal poll.what do you guys think?storyline aside what do you think visually represents the show better?the present day or the time travel episodes?

I prefer the present, I find it much more surreal.

Great topic!

[Sandor]

Ditto - the threat of Nancy Barrett being chased down by a werewolf while clad in a miniskirt and mod scarf seemed more immediate. The show that preceded DS at the time, "One Life To Live," also used fashions by Ohrbach's, so while the stories and tempo between the two series were vastly different - the similar clothing brought a thread of continuity when both shows were taking place in present day (i.e., Viki on ONE LIFE wasn't concerned about her mother being buried alive, but she and Carolyn on DS could have easily crossed paths while shopping for sweaters).

[Charles_Ellis]

Well, considering that the DS storyline has a 302-year time span (1692 - 1995), I've always considered the show timeless.  (And let's not forget PT which goes from 1680 - 1970). But purely stylewise, I think of Vicki's sleeveless dresses, Barnabas' Edwardian suits, those tweed suits that Grayson hated wearing as Julia Hoffman, the wiglet Joan Bennett wore for 2 1/2 years as Liz Stoddard, false eyelashes on KLS and endless miniskirts.  (The 1970 PT fashions were even more outre than those in 'regular time')  Since most of the story was contemporary, it has a '66-71 background, but because of the supernatural themes and the time travelling  (not to mention the quality of acting/writing/production), it has gone beyond being a Sixties show, and that's why it's timeless.

[Gothick]

 Of course I love and adore all of it but the shows set in "the Present" (as opposed to "the Pahst"--don't you just love Joan Bennett's diction in that phrase?) seem to have a more "hardcore" DS feel to them, probably because I watched when it was first on and those clothes help bring the time and place back to me all the more vividly.

I also have to comment how impressed I am by the color and image clarity on the DVDs.  I only have one set, the one that includes the introduction of Cassandra.  On her first day on the show, Cassandra wore this coat I'd always regarded as hideous (and maybe the powers that be agreed, because she never wore it again).  Well, after watching the episode on the DVD, I felt as if I was looking at that coat for the first time, and it's actually kind of pretty!  Fior some reason the color scheme did not "read" nearly as well in the VHS as it does on the DVD.

I also love being able to see minute details such as shoe design, jewellry, those incredible hair styles, and so on through the magic of digitization.  I think Darren explained why the DVDs have a greater degree of clarity--it's something technical about how much visual information a digital format can carry as opposed to analogue tape.  Seeing is believing as far as I'm concerned, so I never paid attention to these things until I saw the proof in something I know as well as I do these episodes of Dark Shadows.

Of the historical episodes, I think my favorite costumes were in 1897, especially the amazing get-ups worn by Magda and "Pansity," Count Petofi's fur coat, Quentin's dashing ensembles including those wonderfully tight trousers, Edward's very "Late Victorian gentleman at home" wardrobe, Judith's journey from black-clad spinster to triumphant newlywed--I could go on and on.  It's just too bad they didn't give Angelique more interesting clothes for that period.  Parker wore some wonderful clothes as Cassandra.  I know I am one of the few who likes those clothes but I take comfort in the fact that Luciaphil also enjoys them.  Mscbryk, what do you think of Cassandra's wardrobe?

G.

[Barnabas'sBride]

I have to say I adore the period clothes, but I've always had a fondness for them, it's not just a DS thing. I think the period clothes fit in well with DS. However, I love the present day clothes, too. Some of them make me cringe (many things Victoria and Julia wear), but some of them I genuinely like.  I just recently started paying more attention to the clothes as I'm going back and watching my dvds.

The bright colors off set the gloom and doom atmosphere.

[michael c]

gothick,

cassandra's wardrobe blew me away!the color combinations were so weird.i remember particularly a psychedelic caftan.lots of green.the coat you mention in cassandra's opening episode too...very swingy...worn i believe with white kid gloves.i loved it!

i was impressed with the expense they lavished on the character's wardrobe.especially for a character that was only on the show for about three months.hardly the same outfit twice.this when most of the other characters wore the same things time and again.perhaps because angelique/cassandra hadn't been on the show before 1795 they had no choice but to go out and buy her a whole new wardrobe for the 'present' when the characters who had been on before could still wear what they had been wearing.considering a department store furnished the clothes in exchage for credits on the show they were rather skimpy.

i also thought cassandra's glossy black wig was striking on lara parker.it made her eyes pop.

[AndreDuPres]

I think my favourite period for clothes on DS is Parallel Time.  Everything is so gaudy and tacky and colourful, and I love Roger's clothes the best--especially those day cravats/ascots he wears!  It makes me want to go out and get one.  I never thought they did Parker justice clothing-wise during 1897.  Only four dresses?  And two which she wears only once?  Still, she looks great as Cassandra and Angelique PT.