9 thoughts on “Costume Designer Phyllis Dalton: The Frock Flicks Guide

  1. I see that she did code-breaking at Bletchley Circle during WWll. Said it was boring.

  2. I loved what she did with ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and the costumes worked fine for me as the play happens in an indeterminate place at an indeterminate time. I like the way she can weave real history with fantasy. Perhaps that is why I will choose ‘The Princess Bride’ as my favourite and particularly Prince Humperdink’s houppelande. Still, Anthony Andrew’s Sir Percy Blakeney makes a determined challenge. ‘Sink me!’

  3. Sink me! I loved the Scarlet Pimpernel and Princess Bride. They are my favourites. But I also loved her costumes for Angela in The Mirror Cracked, Ken’s Henry V and Omar Shariff in Lawrence of Arabia. Dr. Zhivago is an honorable mention.

  4. I would vote for “Henry V”. The costumes and hair are very harmonious while “The Scarlett Pimpernel” has some weak points such as the hairstyle of some male roles and some weapons (although these are not her fault).

  5. The shape and style of uniform coats in Much Ado are more-or-less based on the Napoleonic-period British flank company or light infantry officer’s coat (centre company officers’ coat tails were longer), except for having no cuffs and a slit up the sleeve. The lapels, like the collar and cuffs, would always be of a contrasting regimental colour to the body of the coat. The coat could be buttoned right over so that the lapels didn’t show at all; or the lapels could be buttoned back so the contrasting colour was visible right down to the waist, and the coat fastened by hooks; or just the top corners of the lapels could be ‘triangled’ back, as in all but one picture here.

    1. Short uniforms in white are a lot looking like the uniform coats of Prussian cuirassiers during the period after the Prussian defeat at Auerstedt and Jena and the treaty of Tilsit (1807). I loved that my of imaginary nations uniforms with a link to Napoleonic uniforms and fantasy-like female clothes. It’s somehow better than historical clothes mixed with not historical clothing such as in the new “Cyrano”-version.

      Cheers,

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