13 thoughts on “Indian Summers Costume Recap: Episode 1

  1. I’ll stay with it for awhile, at least. This is what my ex refers to as “well-dressed people behaving badly,” and is usually good story material. India, ever-fascinating, was Britain’s last gasp of empire (if you exclude royal-watchers in America) and was pivotal to their future development. The film “White Mischief” is a great tale of the African outliers during WWII. I can’t decide if Aafrin’s family is Hindu of a different caste or Muslim

  2. Unfortunately, I missed it and I am trying to see it before Sunday when episode 2 airs. Olivia was in Lark Rising. She played the squire’s wife. Also are you fashion reviewing Home Fires?

  3. I enjoyed the costuming and the story line, but I’m having difficulty telling the difference between all of the pale-skinned, dishwater-blonde English roses. Aside from the ginger American, all of the western women look alike. I suspect that the color schemes that you have highlighted (pink for Sarah, and geometric prints and bold colors for Alice) will help me keep them straight in future episodes.

  4. Thanks for posting about this, I wouldn’t have heard of it otherwise and thorough enjoyed the first episode! It’s also making me want to sew 1930s dresses, which I have no occasion to wear, but we can work around that…

  5. Excited to see you recapping this! I don’t know much about 1930s fashion but I loved how Madeline looks like she just stepped out of a period society portrait.

    To shed a little light on Aafrin’s family, they’re Parsi, an ethnic group who are Zoroastrian, and whom the British favored because they considered the Parsis more “intelligent and enterprising” than other Indians. An interesting focus for the series, because of their conflicted feelings about colonial rule.

    1. INTERESTING! I had originally put that maybe they were Muslim OR Sufi, but then I thought if they were Sufi they’d be doing long beards and turbans (I think??) so I ruled that out.

  6. I just have some more about Parsi, also spelled Parsee, a group of followers in India of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster. The Parsis, whose name means “Persians,” are descended from Persian Zoroastrians who emigrated to India to avoid religious persecution by the Muslims. I had a Parsi friend in design school who had been working with an Indian print company. She said that the Parsis originally worshipped fire and that they carried their dead to a wilderness area where vultures could strip them clean.

  7. All of the ladies sport some fabulous 1930s hairstyles, with low, nape of the neck arrangements.

    I’m having a problem with the Western women’s hairstyles. I get the feeling that whoever does the actresses’ hair try to pass a low nape chignon for a 1930s bob. I can understand older women wearing this kind of hairstyle, but the women in their 20s and 30s?

    1. Except that the bob was out of fashion by 1930, and most women starting growing their hair out then. What’s funny is that in season 2, Alice has shorter hair, which is the opposite of what would have happened historically!

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