23 thoughts on “How the Spanish Princess Fucks Up Early Tudor Costume

  1. The costumes are yuck. I mean how hard is it to schedule an appointment with the Textiles and Costume Department with 1)V&A, 2)Museum of London, stroll around the National Gallery and other museums studying the paintings and portraits?
    Grade for designer F for failed.

    1. Heck, if they just bothered to do their research on the fucking internet, it would’ve looked better than this!

  2. The only possible explanation for getting everything so wrong is They Just Didn’t Care.

    1. Yeah. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that for the vast majority of costumes what people actually wore was considered largely irrelevant.

  3. Is it just me, or do many of these costumes look like they were sewn by a middle school home ec class out of super cheap fabrics? Aside from the historical inaccuracies, they look really cheap and poorly made.

    1. One of the cutters, Denise Heywood has a FB page and has some process shots of her stuff (including the finale wedding dress). Her construction looks pretty on point and if I didn’t know they were for something historical they are pretty on their own (though she didn’t design them)

      You can also make good costumes lool shitty with bad styling and boy is this show guilty of that!

  4. Poor Princess Margaret especially with that Laura Ashley Does Drapes Burgundian gown. Ugh. And her medieval fantasy look was probably more historically accurate when she was in the Narnia movies (her co-star, Anna Popplewell of Reign, definitely was more historically accurate in Narnia,but then Reign may have actually set the lowest bar).

  5. Poor Princess Margaret! Poor, Poor Princess Mary! All she got was stupid crushed panne velvet, and don’t get me started on Margaret Pole. Margaret’s outfits were too WTF to be derpy like Princess Margaret. And now a short rant on the names in this PFG-verse: Maggie Pole?, Lizzie?, I don’t Fucking Think So! How fucking hard is it to differentiate them by saying Lady Margaret or Queen Elizabeth! These nicknames suck all the dignity from these characters, not that they deserve any, but still!

  6. It’s kind of sad to think what could a good costume designer do if they bothered to make them work with period appropriate designs (at least enough for the general audience). It makes me long for the historically accurate awesomeness of Marie Antoinette (by Sofia Coppola).

  7. The early Tudor silhouette is, as we see, very attractive with it’s fitted bodice, square neckline, full skirts and trumpet sleeves. Good tailoring and good fabric is all they need to be quite stunning. But apparently The Spanish Princess couldn’t afford good fabric so they tried to distract with stupid, overdone designs.

    1. They could have done better with judicious editing, slapping hear gear on, and proper use of stays. Also stay away from the decorators fabrics and using wool, linen and more vibrant colors would have helped.

  8. And what was with all the neutral prints? I swear ‘Maggie’ looked more like a Bronte sister in some of her costumes than an important 16th c. noblewoman

  9. Is it just me or is that high-waisted beige/gold gown of margaret pole’s taken from The white queen set? In which case,, wtf?

  10. I feel like they threw a bunch of colours and weird line patterns on the costumes to distract from the low bling-budget. The Elizabeth mourning gown with yellow and green stripes and Prince Henry’s red like doublet or whatever it’s supposed to be with the arrow-y patterns both look kind of arts and crafts.
    Also, why are all the hats so round? i like whenever they use the period hats but they look rounder than most of the portraits where they are a bit squarer. Correct me if I’ve got a bad impression of what they would look like in real life.

  11. Thank you so much for this site!!! I’m just now watching The Spanish Princess because I am forced to be at home due to Covid-19. I came across this site searching for others who are appalled by the historical inaccuracies in this ridiculous show. You guys hit the nail on the head. I’m laughing so hard at your snark. Finally!!! a site that gets it!

  12. I just can’t concentrate on the series, as the costumes are so unaccurate. It seems that designers are ignorant. They think that it is enough to throw a long dress.

  13. Are there any good examples of the drappy gable hoods in film or tv? I mean the type that Elizabeth of York is wearing in that 1502 portrait. I only ever really see the more Henrican gable hoods.

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