One more time, let’s have a showdown of designers against designers and see who comes out on top! Because ya gotta love a competition where we get to be the judge, instead of some stuffy academy! You voted on current designers and classic designers, both from the big screen. Now here are nine of the most prolific frock flick designers from TV. We’ve picked from costume designers who’s major historical work is on TV shows, miniseries, and made-for-TV movies from the 1990s to the present!
Need a reminder of who’s who? Check our archives as you vote…
- Phoebe De Gaye (The Forsyte Saga, The Musketeers, The Spanish Princess)
- Joanna Eatwell (The Paradise, Wolf Hall, The Miniaturist)
- Rosalind Ebbutt (The Buccaneers, Emma, Victoria)
- Nic Ede (Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot, The White Queen, Indian Summers)
- Andrea Galer (The Way We Live Now, Bleak House, Persuasion)
- James Keast (Aristocrats, Desperate Romantics, Mr. Selfridge)
- Mike O’Neill (Daniel Deronda, Elizabeth I, Mansfield Park)
- Anna Robbins (The Bletchley Circle, Downton Abbey, The Halcyon)
- Lucinda Wright (Fanny Hill, New Worlds, Vanity Fair)
Why did you vote for your fave? Who did we leave off the list?
This was a tough one! I was torn!
Andrea Galer won my vote, mainly for The Way We Live Now and Bleak House, but James Keast’s costumes in Aristocrats, Mike O’Neill’s in Daniel Derona, Anna Robbins’ in Downton Abbey, and Lucinda Wright’s in the Vanity Fair miniseries were all wonderful!
A comparatively easier one.My choice narrowed down to Eatwell and Keast,but I went with the former because of the restrained,daily wear aesthetic of her costumes,while being historically accurate in construction and opulent in their fabrics.
Mine isn’t on there – Terry Dresbach.
She only has 2 historical TV show credits!
You left off Yvonne Blake, who did the 3M/4M costumes.
Those are movies — this poll is just for TV costume designers :)
Tricky! But I enjoyed this. There was one designer who was, like, no, but the others…
Are they all UK designers? Or costumes for UK productions?
Phoebe De Gaye did The Spanish Princess & that was a Starz production, the company is based in the U.S., so that may give you an idea of the quality, breadth, & depth of historical costume design for American TV these days ;)
Tbh, I think Phoebe DE Gaye’s greatest crimes were the eczema skirt, and the Doublet of the Thousand Grommets in the White Princess. And the back stomacher (backacher???) Dress they gave Joanne Whalley. And the elastic waistband dress on Joanne Whalley. And the weird Renaissance do with the badly pleated cape on Joanne Whalley. Just anything Joanne Whalley wore in that whole series.
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Wait, I forgot The Thai Christmas tree they gave Michelle Fairly.
No Lou Eyrich or Donna Zakowska?
Not much on the breadth/depth. Eyrich has mostly done modern series. Zakowska is borderline tho — solid work in two 18th-c. series & one 1950s series.
Gotta got with Joanna Eatwell. Although I hated The Miniaturist, the costumes blew me away.
Joanna Eatwell. Wolf Hall is spectacular, and although it is extremely depressing, the Miniaturists outfits are great.