You asked for it, so here’s an occasional open thread to bitch about anything tangentially related to history, costume, movies, or TV shows! Or whatever else is on your mind right now. Note that URLs are automatically held for moderation, but most anything else goes as long as you’re not bitchier than we are!
Here comes the holidays … plus a couple big-screen frock flicks that the team here is hoping to see IRL. We’re looking forward to The Favourite and plan to podcast about that. And we’re not looking forward to Mary, Queen of Scots in December, but we’ll enjoying snarking the fuck out of it in a podcast too. If we actually manage to get two podcasts out before the end of this year, you can all die of shock!
I’ve been a little cooler towards The Favourite since an article of Emma Stone complaining about her corset moving her organs around. I don’t know what upsets me more, her attitude about the whole thing, or the article writer’s.
http://www.vulture.com/2018/10/emma-stone-says-organs-shifted-in-favourite-corset-costume.html
Yes! That shit is So. Frustrating. I’m giving a lecture at a Steampunk convention later this month that’s essentially a PSA about how to wear corsets, and I plan to get REAL SALTY.
Emma Stone is one of the actresses I’ll be mentioning by name.
Salt her hard, my friend. And then take a good, long drink of tea.
Total amateur, lbr, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman aren’t complaining because they know what they’re doing.
^^^This. I’m entirely over actresses whining about corsets & costumes, esp. the young ones. Pay yr dues, kiddos!
Like Dakota Fanning’s character on the Alienist, I think her name was Sarah, Her character complained about the corset EVEN THOUGH SH WAS WEARING IT WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! URRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha I was just going to post about this and saw you all had the same idea! I saw a clip of Emma Stone complaining about her corset “shifting her organs” on Graham Norton recently – the clip is on youtube if you want to see.
But it seems like a common thing for actors new to wearing corsets to almost brag about how bad it was for them – e.g. “oh yeah – it hurt so much I couldn’t breathe!” etc etc.
So her ribs stayed up while all the organs in the ribcage went down? Sure, Jan.
And considering she’s the proud owner of her very own Hollywood flesh corset, I’m sure she suffered LOTS. I liked the article, though. The writer doesn’t seem to have taken her torture woes very seriously, which is right.
Has anyone the photos released of the BBC Les Misérables? Number of hairpins used seems to look a little variable.
I’ve only seen the three of Fantine, Javert and Valjean, and I’m not surprised Fantine has no hairpins; assuming this is after she’s gotten chucked out of the factory. What bothered me more was the 2012 movie when she was literally the only one in the factory who hadn’t gotten hairpins.
Have you seen the pictures of costumes for season 4 of Outlander? Wondering what you think so far.
It airs this weekend, & of the few pix I’ve seen all I can say is no plaid, maybe some cotton prints, & nothing fancy! They’re in the American colonies, which sounds kind of boring to me (maybe I can force Kendra to watch!).
Would love to hear your take on the new regency outfits starting to make an appearance on Season 4 of Poldark.
I’d heard that this season would finally make a costume jump forward, but alas, I am without terrestrial telly right now so I’m not able to watch Poldark. I’ll have to catch up online in a month or so!
I’ve been on a vintage-inspired clothing kick for a few months. Anyone have shops to recommend which ship in the US?
Inspired, as in, not actually vintage? A few US-based shops I know of are https://www.unique-vintage.com/
https://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/
http://www.trashydiva.com/
I’ve bought a couple things from each one & liked them, but they each carry a variety of specific brands, so YMMV. All are in the ’30s-’50s inspired vein!
Note: if anyone’s sharing links, remember that we have to approve comments w/urls so it’ll take a while for those to go thru :)
I am enjoying the new Woman in White in PBS. The women’s costumes are dreadful, but I am loving Marian’s costumes and want to dress like that every day!
I was so annoyed to find out LATE that it was airing on PBS — no big announcement on the usual lists that I follow :( So I’ve missed the 1st couple episodes & prob. won’t be able to review it for the blog until the whole thing’s finished.
Trystan, I missed the beginning of Women in White too, since we were out of the country. But I found it on PBS that you can all episodes. https://www.pbs.org/video/episode-1-wknnjh/
Val
Has anyone here watched The Romanovs: An Imperial Family? The white dresses (in the piano) are absolutely stunning (although not accurate since otma only wore them once in 1914). The movie is in Russian and you can watch it with english subtitles here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLacGlDPS3PTACejT5q4OzKNYmO4BfOco7
For me one of the saddest line was “Because I am sick and I will be sick for a long time. I am always sick. You know it and Mama knows it. I am invalid, a hemophiliac.
There are obviously a few inaccuracies (which I’ll list after this) but it is my favourite movie despite the fact that Maria is barely in it (did they just forget about the fact that she nearly died because she was hiding her illness so she wouldn’t worry her mother?). The film is definitely more Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga and Alexei based. Maria probably has barely even 10 lines in the whole thing
Some of the inaccuracies (SPOILERS)
1: For some reason Nicholas has a picture of a woman he had a relationship with before he got engaged to Alexandra. I get that they needed drama but in the end nothing actually happened with it. She found the pictures, stormed off and then all is forgotten
2: During the murder scene otma still have no hair. By their deaths all of their hair had grown to around shoulder lengths
3: Tatiana still has her 1914 hairstyle in 1916/1917 (which she wore for less than a year)
4: Maria’s hair is still down (she put her hair up in 1914 so why is it still down in 1917?)
5: Anastasia’s hair is also still down. Anastasia had her hair up for only a little bit before it was all cut off so I suppose this one is more understandable
6: This isn’t really an inaccuracy but again Maria is barely in it!!! I’ve read somewhere that it’s because the actress wasn’t very good but still😭
7: I feel like Anastasia is wayyyy too delicate looking. https://i.imgur.com/V2pDodg.jpg
8: I also feel like they gave all of Maria’s sweetness to Olga. Olga was sweet but definitely not more sweet that Maria
There’s more that I’m missing but I can’t be bothered to carry on
I come bearing evidence of a hair pin shortage in the newest (grumble, grumble) Little Women… which I really don’t understand because I thought they were supposed to be a bit older (although they do still have Beth). Surely Meg (Emma Watson) was old enough that her hair would’ve been up. What we do think of the costumes though? I like the checkered cloak, not sure about the scarf… lots covered by cloaks, and wondering why the girl on the right’s skirt looks a lot less full (can’t make out faces well enough to feel certain of who’s who).
https://www.boston.com/culture/entertainment/2018/11/06/emma-watson-braved-snow-while-filming-little-women-in-harvard
On a different note, I have a hard time imaging Timothee Chalamet as anything that doesn’t involve being very emo, troubled, or his character in LadyBird (too apathetic to be a true nihilist).
Emo Laurie… oh, dear, the fangirls will never survive.
It is a running thing in the book that the girls are poor, so they might ration hairpins, but I’m pretty sure I remember Jo wearing a net in her hair a few times even at the start of the book.
Caption says the girl on the right is Florence Pugh, who’s playing Amy. And will be showing up in Outlaw King as Elizabeth de Burgh, making me more fussy about how they’re clearly mucking up ages. Based on the length of Jo’s hair, Amy should look WAY younger, even though they seem to be doing the same derpy-bangs-make-actress-look-younger thing that Lily James had in War & Peace.
Their clothes, I think, could be a little out of date if the idea was that they were all wearing hand-me-downs, but the costumes look too nice for that.