8 thoughts on “Finishing Out The Cook of Castamar

  1. “…this caramel-colored court dress. It is cut relatively correctly for a court dress, with fitted bodice and back-lacing.”

    Eh???
    I have never seen back-lacing on an 18thc dress with a stomacher (which is what an échelle of bows invariably sat on). The stomacher was always real, not a decorative appliqué. Back-lacing gowns had a plain front.

    1. Very nice point.

      However I have the impression that such aspects doesn’t matter in such a mix of costumes from different decades of the 18th century and as it was explained perfectly even aspects from the 19th century.

      It’s almost always the same that the producers think that the style of the first half of the 18th century is too boring or just not what the audience would expect from 18th century costumes and therefore they make a mish-mash of all decades with a favour for the 1770s/80s because the hairstyle was very elaborated. We see the same (with better costumes) in “Thieves of the wood”, “Tom Jones…” (1997) etc..

      I ask myself if that is of any real significance for the audience or if the audience would not like the series with correct hairstyle and costumes too. Is not storytelling, weapons, actors etc. of more signifcance for me?

  2. “I feel like that print is suspiciously close to paisley…”

    To me, it looked more like something with a Moorish influence. But no idea if that’s any more plausible or appropriate.

    Great coverage and pics, BTW. I love it when you watch these things so I don’t have to!

    1. It’s not Spanish court fashion either (which, by 1720’s would be very similar to French court because the king was French and had won a war to sit on the Spanish throne, so everybody was trying to suck up to him).

      The thing is… the flashbacks are not accurate either, because those are French fashion, and Spanish fashion in late 17th Century was very different from the French.

  3. BTW, that last framegrab:

    I could see the one dumb head necklace getting used, because even though it’s a lulu (an obvious “dog collar” choker?) it’s still par for the whole series– “Hey, just stick something sparkly in her hair, and we’re good!”

    But WTF happened in that last shot? Was she on the losing end of a snowball fight with the contents of the jewelry chest?

  4. I don’t have a lot to say on the costumes as I don’t know the period anywhere near as well as you. But if that “special occasion” for Clara is what I think it is, it shouldn’t be outside; that’s not even allowed in Catholicism today without some sort of special permission. It’s so odd to me that they were so good about having her wear a cap a lot (which so many miss) and but miss things that they seem like they could have known.

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