9 thoughts on “Just How Fashionable Are Poldark’s Ladies? Part 2: The Older Generation

    1. If you mean my definition for sorting characters into different posts, here I meant the generations before Elizabeth, Verity, Ruth, Demelza, Keren, and Margaret, who are all in a similar age range.

      1. I was thinking more in terms of what was considered older, to wear different clothing than most women. 40? 50? I’m 50 and I have grandkids, but I still look pretty good. I was wondering if if I would have been wearing the clothing that marked me as older…

        1. That’s a great question! Based on the period images above, it seems like those in the young-mother stage would have still been dressing fashionably, while the grown-children/grandmothers are dressed out-of-date. There was a recent research article on fashion and aging in the 18th c., I’ll see if I can re-find it.

    1. I thought that was obvious! Guess I should have more clearly stated that Agatha is portrayed differently from Mrs C and Mrs T.

  1. OMG I was just looking at the pictures and I recognised the Alloa tower! I live in Alloa! I feel so cool.

  2. I was also laughing to myself about that episode: how did Demelza get into the dress on her own if she needed Ross’s help to get out of it?? But in the book it explains that she used it as an excuse to go to Ross’s room and attract him because she was afraid he would send her back to her father. Up to that point he thought of her as just his young servant girl (he actually brought her home when she was 13), but that night he saw her differently. She wanted to give him a reason to keep her, and, of course, she loved him. But I can’t remember now whether it said the dress was fastened in the back or not . . .

    1. Yes :-) in the book, after their startling encounter when Ross first “notices” Demelza (which is her plan, wearing his mother’s gown to seduce him so he won’t make her go home to her father), he rebuffs her at first, sending her away to take off the gown, but she taps on his door later, needing help.

      “‘This frock.’
      ‘Well?’
      ‘The bodice unfastens down the back.’
      ‘Well?’
      ‘I can’t reach the hooks.’”

      Later, after they’ve been to bed, she admits to him tearfully that she’s been lying about the hooks (or that she could’ve undone them herself).

      It’s unfortunate, from the POV of anyone who cares about accuracy in film costuming, that something this plain wrong should be an important plot point. But it’s there, and fans of the booms or former series would miss it. I guess we just have to take it with a grain of salt, understanding that Winston Graham, writing about 1787 from a distance of 160 years or more, was writing what he thought to be accurate.

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