14 thoughts on “Flowers in the Attic: The Origin Has Surprisingly Great Costumes

  1. That knit sweater! I love it, and if I thought it was knitted, I would be studying how to copy it. I don’t think it is knitted, though. I’d be interested to know if anybody has any idea what the method was – a combination of crochet and macrame perhaps?

    1. Agree not knitted. It could be reproduced with crochet, I think, and with Irish Crochet for the bulky ornaments that evoke macrame.

    2. You can also look up ‘filet crochet’ which was really popular back then. Iva Rose has plenty of repro patterns but you can probably find some for free too.

  2. Nice to see Jemima Rooper getting some love! I saw her on Broadway 10 years ago in One Man, Two Guvnors with James Corden. I have never laughed so hard in my life. :)

  3. I saw that, because my mother was watching. Hated the story, I’m not into oppression porn, I kept telling Olivia to just stick a dagger into her hateful hubby. But the costumes were lovely.

  4. Yes, I am now inspired to watch this film based on this post. These costumes look gorgeous!!!!!

  5. Thanks for covering the costumes. I was interested when I saw the ad but once I looked up the source material plots I was pretty horrified, so I am glad to see the costumes without having to watch the story. The earlier stuff I quite like – it can go a bit baggy/sacky approaching 1920 but lots of pretty details. :-)

    1. Since Alicia is supposed to be “a very young and pregnant trophy wife,” this definitely could be, since Pickford was solidly associated with the early silent film archetype of “the sweet young maiden” and even played children far into adulthood.

      However, Pickford generally had longer than shoulder-length hair in distinct long sausage curls– they were her defining feature, since she was first known to audiences as “The Girl with the Golden Curls” before she broke through and achieved name billing:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Pickford_cph.3c17995u.jpg

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Pickford_1916.jpg

      While a lot of actresses doing similar ingenue roles in pre-1920 silent films copied the Pickford curls outright, there were a number of them that had less-defined curl to the hair and somewhat shorter lengths.

      Unfortunately, a lot of the pre-1920 images I’ve found are just not quite as short as what’s shown in the miniseries, and it’s hard to tell if they depict a contemporary hairstyle or an attempt at a “period” look.

      And it should also be noted that in addition to bobbed hair on young girls being fairly common, a number of women did bob their hair prior to 1920– largely eccentrics and women doing it for practicality.

      The French singer/actress Polaire– sort of the Lady Gaga of her day– was known in the 1910s for her thick cropped mane, her incredibly tight-laced “16 inch” waist, and nose rings:
      https://alchetron.com/cdn/polaire-3b33323e-d994-4217-8172-3e3612ce292-resize-750.jpeg

      https://alchetron.com/cdn/polaire-78681137-dc13-48c4-a58e-d4c9b9a911b-resize-750.jpeg

      while in Greenwich Village, the artist Clara Tice claimed to have been the first to adopt this hairstyle, as early as 1908 (photo is said to be 1916):
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Tice#/media/File:Clara_Tice_and_her_dog.jpg

      However, the look didn’t really catch on as a popular style before 1920, possibly due to the influence of dancer Irene Castle– who sported “the Castle bob” in 1915– combined with women volunteer laborers during WWI who cut their hair for sake of convenience.

      But as early as 1920, you get a very similar style to what Alicia’s wearing on popular actress Betty Compson:
      https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Betty_Compson#/media/File:Betty_Compson_-_Feb_1920_Shadowland.jpg

      OTOH, given that the other hairstyles framecapped from later periods seem kind of half-assed to me– like most 20th century period pieces, they suffer from a kind of loose sloppiness you don’t see in actual period images– I seriously doubt they really put a lot of effort or research into this look.

  6. Oooooh, I read so much V C Andrews trash when I was in jr high!

    This looks pretty interesting. I may try to watch it if only for the clothes.

    Seeing the 40s section reminded me…will y’all be doing a fashion review of the new A League of Their Own series streaming on Amazon Prime?

    It’s really good so far!

  7. The daughter’s hair reads more 1940’s, IMO. Maybe it’s supposed to be the late 1930s?

  8. You ought to review the first two Flowers in the attic films. They’re set in the 1950’s.

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