17 thoughts on “Best Bustles in The Buccaneers

      1. Thanks for naming the designer. I will re-watch it after catching up on rewatching Season I of Outlander. BTW are you podcasting live on Saturday night?

  1. I remember when this first came out, it was ABSOLUTELY critically panned, and the costumes were described as “very shabby.” Looking at these pictures now, I actually don’t think it looks that bad at all. One thing I did note is that there’s not much in the way of whitework accessories – several of these dresses appear to lie directly against bare skin without so much as a chemisette or enageantes to separate the silk from the flesh , particularly obvious in the emerald green dress and Laura’s purple dress (which also seems to not fit quite properly – I wonder if it could actually have been an original dress? I know they used some original pieces, I remember seeing something about the costuming where Jenny Agutter was wearing a shawl draped to hide wear and tear on her original bustle skirt….

    Some FABULOUS dresses here, though! Loving Virginia’s reconciliation bustle and that first white dress with the yellow ribbons is rather yum.

    1. I dunno, open necklines could be worn during the day, esp. at home which Nan’s green gown is. Laura’s purple dress has a pretty high neckline already so I don’t see anything wrong there, & it’s hard to see the fit very well — admittedly, that’s not a great screencap, but she’s moving around in that scene so much! Do re-watch (it’s currently on Netflix in the US :). For the sheer number of costumes used, I’m impressed by how true to the period they all look.

  2. My favorite is Virginia’s blue ballgown she wears to the party where Conchita is wearing the red tassled gown.

    Unfortunately you barely see it, and you never see her in the ball itself, only coming down the stairs.

    That BLUE IS SO BLUE.

  3. I never understood why this production was critically panned. I thought it was very good. Was it because the British disliked the idea of a story about four American women who married into their aristocracy, with the latter looking bad? Surely it cannot be the ending, which struck me as best, slightly bittersweet.

    I thought the costumes were gorgeous. And I liked how they reflected the changing styles of the 1870s.

    1. I think a lot of the negativity was due to the ending — it was deemed “Hollywood-ized” by the British press because Nan & Guy literally run off together. That’s very unlike the endings of Wharton’s other novels, which tend to be far less happy (think Age of Innocence, House of Mirth; neither innocent nor mirthful!). The original Buccaneers novel was unfinished & left off with Nan (married) meeting Guy again at a house party of one of the other girls.

  4. I think you all should know that I blame you for my new found absolute love of ruching.

  5. This movie was a treat! I love Virginia’s black and white gown and, of course, Lizzy’s striped one. Age of Innocence and Anna Karenina are at the top of my To Watch list!

  6. I agree, I believe the ending was meant to be bittersweet. The problem with this adaptation (which I absolutely love) and the finished book it was based on, is that the ending focuses a little too much on Nan and Guy’s happiness, and not the complete mess Laura ends up in. In her notes, Wharton mapped out this ending exactly (at least with each character ending up in the same situations), so there’s really no point in anyone arguing that she didn’t intend for the lovers to run away together, but it’s my belief that if she had finished the novel and had more time to develop it in future drafts that Laura would have become the main character in a more obvious way. The ending wouldn’t have been so much about Nan and Guy getting their happy ending as it would have been about Laura’s tragic but noble decision to help them obtain it.

    But back to the costumes: I love Nan’s coral dress she wears in London when she goes shopping and meet Julius in the church to discuss “the rules”. The color is so much brighter than what she wears throughout the rest of the film (probably because she’s so much happier, up until she talks to Lizzie and then Julius), and the hat is darling.

    The ballgown Lizzie wears to the Parmore ball is also gorgeous. I would call it “peach” colored, and appears to perhaps be done in a sort of sheer two tone fabric? Kind of like shot silk?

    Side note: I had been foolishly watching the Netflix version, and until this week had no idea that it’s heavily edited with many scenes cut altogether and many character development conversations truncated. For instance, there’s an entire scene between Laura and Sir Richard that was really satisfying because a little past history is hinted in the book and it helps explain their later interactions a bit better. Laura actually really gets the brunt of most of the cuts, and I loved seeing the extra scenes with her character, Here’s the link to the long version (which I’m guessing is how it comes on DVD also): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atoa3pnYecU&list=PL6oforB7ir5IgILnOO5AxlbNB-WZ6VV2U

  7. Just finished watching this after getting excited about bustle gowns in the review… holy smokes you weren’t kidding. This was awesome! So so so many gorgeous dresses and a really juicy story haha. Lots of fun twists without it feeling too cheesy. I swear every time my husband walked by I’d so “!!! and then this happened !!!”. Thanks for the suggestions frockflicks team – so glad I watched this!

    PS. Do you have an article of top things to watch or something… I’d love to see a movie list that you updated as you went. Sometimes I’m looking for a good costume flick (w/ a good plot!) and I try searching back through your archives to remember which ones got the high marks haha. I’d love to find a single article with all of this in it! :) :)

  8. The problem with this adaptation (which I absolutely love) and the finished book it was based on, is that the ending focuses a little too much on Nan and Guy’s happiness, and not the complete mess Laura ends up in.

    Oh yes it did focus a good deal on Laura Testvalley’s unhappy ending. In fact, this was shown with one scene of her leaving the Brightlesea estate (she was probably fired); her rather bitter confrontation with Sir Hemlsley, in which they parted ways for good; and her last conversation with Jackie March.

  9. Has anyone noticed the inaccurate description of this on Netlfix? It says four sisters go to England, but only 2 are sisters. I watch this when I am sick and it isn’t bad. Not the best movie ever, but I really like Carla Gugino and Greg Wise is more alluring in this than S&S.

  10. I came to your website specifically to see what you guys thought of the dresses in this series! I don’t usually watch movies from the 1870s, so I’d love to get a podcast where you talk about the accuracy.

    One outfit I thought was really interesting is the one Virginia wears to leave for their honeymoon (she also wears it while going to the pawnshop). It’s yellow and blue.

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