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« on: July 07, 2006, 03:15:56 PM »
What a great thread! thanks to Pansity for getting it going.
I love all the historical costumes on the show, but I disagree that they were anywhere near accurate in the period. The dresses worn by Naomi and the Countess are MID 18th century--1760s at best, I believe. I read somewhere that the costumes for 1795 came to the production from a play or film for which they had originally been made. I've often wondered whether the availability of those costumes had anything to do with the date switch in the "origins of Barnabas" storyline from the original ca. 1837 date to the 1790s. I'm by no means an authority, but the costumes for Joshua, Barnabas, Forbes and Jeremiah all look more Revolutionary War than Federalist to my untrained eye. Anybody have a URL handy for men's clothing of the mid 1790s? The arrival of Napoleon on the scene seems to have brought a lot of innovations in its wake--in fashion and elsewhere, although when I was reading Dangerous Liaisons I remember the notes saying that some years before '89 the women's clothes had already been streamlined and the character of the Marquise was Laclos's comment upon proto-feminist thought in the 1780s.
I do think Angelique's clothes in 1795 are more correct--for a lady of middling class but not for a servant girl. The mob cap is a nice touch, of course.
The women's clothes for the 1897 serial seem a little nearer the mark to me, but a friend told me that the men's clothing (Quentin, Edward, et al.) was more 1870s than 1890s. Carl's suits do look like old photographs I have seen of 1890s men's holiday wear--appropriate for a gentleman of (aspiring) leisure.
I'm not sure that people in early modern society had all that many changes of clothing. I've heard Americans who travel comment that people of good background in, say, Italy, tend to have three outfits--the work outfit, the relaxing-at-home outfit, and the party outfit. They'll accessorise those outfits with changes of tie, scarf, gloves, whatever. The idea of a closet packed with 40 different outfits is an innovation of US consumerism of the 1950s and 60s.
Just a few thoughts from me on this topic...
G.