17 thoughts on “Costume Designer Phoebe de Gaye: The Frock Flicks Guide

  1. Keep P*G away from PDG,and we get great costumes.
    I really like the 1890s-Edwardian stuff here.

  2. Apparently, the 17th century is Not Her Thing. Sean Bean’s out fit seems to have lots of odd bits of lace that make no sense; as for the Musketeers — barf! The clothes are ridiculous and half the weapons are the wrong period. As for the 19th uniform, pretty good, but the trousers, referred at at the time as “cherry pickers,” should be tighter.

    1. I could watch only 2 episodes of the Musketeers, the costumes were so bad, the lighting was terrible, and the “plot” was incomprehensible. As a big fan of the 1973 version of the three Musketeers, I cringed a lot.

    2. I find it b so weird how designers like Phoebe de Gaye and Alexandra Byrne can go 20 years designing perfectly gorgeous and/or appropriate period costumes and then ALL OF A SUDDEN pull absolute crap like MQoS and The White/Spanish Princess and talk about how they were so clever. Perhaps De Gaye was purely beholden to the directors before and then someone (Shekar Kapur/Emma Frost) said “go off, run wild” and now we can’t get the lid on the damn box again.
      It’s kind of like how for 30 years Andrew Davies fooled Austen fans into thinking he respected Austen and then Sanditon happened and we saw what he would do if he didn’t have pesky things like source material pinning him down and preventing him from turning everything into incest porn.

  3. All those outfits in the 3 Muskateers are silly and so self indulgent, but i actually exclaimed out loud at the sight of those ridiculous, totally impractical belted and buckled leather get ups the Muskateers are wearing. Imagine if they were filmed getting dressed – it would take half the movie as they fastened all those unnecessary straps and belts!

  4. I do love it when designers say ‘we don’t want anything too weird’ and then decide to…make something weirder than the original?? Maybe it wasn’t her fault but she just had to spin it that way, but still. Sometimes the ‘modernization’ trend leads to sad brown costumes and sometimes you wonder why they didn’t just give everyone a plain dress with large sleeves if simplicity is what they’re after. That being said, I love all the late 19th century stuff she’s done!

  5. chelmsford 123 was hilarious, and the costumes weren’t bad, but it was very low budget and I don’t think it was ever meant to be totalaly authentic – the tardis turned up in one scene, and I don’t think anyone thought badvoks “dopey the frog” posing pouch was based on anything particulalry roman

  6. That production of Lady Windermere’s Fan is the gold standard. The gown you mention as out of a fashion plate is Lady W herself, and the gown is even more beautiful from the front. As the wicked lady, Mrs. Erlynne wears a black/burgundy taffeta number that looks like an early draft of Irene’s red velvet frock in The Forsyte Saga. And her stripey outfit (even her gloves harmonize!) is the epitome of cool.

  7. I’m not sure why she went from nicely done historical stuff to WTF weird, but I find the attitude that one has to reinterpret the clothing of a certain period so the plebes will “get it” incredibly condescending. We “get it” just fine when you honor the time period with a real attempt to get it right. That was my biggest bitch about “Mary Queen of Scots.” Five minutes of research would have resulted in much better costumes without patronizing the audience.

  8. I know what irritated me – she went around with such a sour look on her face I though she overdosed on Beecham’s Pills.

  9. I liked Irene–although that red dress probably played a part in my emotions. Interesting mix of cultured semi-Bohemian and the learned helplessness befitting a young lady of the time

  10. The Musketeers is full of WTF (the costume of course, and french history also suffers a lot during the show) buuuut, i love it. It’s so much fun to watch. This serie has become one of my comfort objects ! Quel panache !

    1. Here, here, Laura! I ate up The Musketeers once I realized what attitude they were going with it. The cast was awesome and show was fun. And for my taste “fun romp” is what I aim to get out of a Musketeers tale. Even a non-expert like me realized they went crazy with the costumes, but as I said, I really leaned into because it spoke to me. The king’s costumes were lovely. And Kendra, you asked, “Why do we need this many straps and buckles?” To imagine the sweet, laborious task of undoing them! The biggest annoying distraction for me was the queen was a brunette in the first season and a blonde in the second. Overall, I’d say audience attitude goes a long way regarding receptivity to costuming irregularities and anachronisms. The show I absolutely hated in that (and every other regard) was TNT’s Will. (Why oh why didn’t I stop watching when Shakespeare pulled a ballpoint pen out of his skinny jeans to write a poem?!#$)

      The only other one I’ve seen is The Living and the Dead. The costumes looked right-ish to me except there was at least one scene in every episode in which Colin Morgan looked like he walked straight out of a contemporary magazine ad, mostly when he was wearing coats and sweaters.

  11. She seems to go all to pieces when designing anything before the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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