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You love to snark it! That’s what we’re here for. But which error do you nitpick the most? Can you narrow it down to your top three?
Tell us why you picked those. Did we miss another great thing to snark?
That’s actually REALLY hard to call.
I know! It was painful to narrow down my vote.
ungh that was difficult. All of the above? But yes. I discounted the ones that make me smile, like mullets, because I had to sort it somehow.
How about clothes that are 50 years apart in style appearing in the same movie? Medieval ladies with their hair out? And clothes that appeared in different geographical regions being shoved together in the same place and time?
Yes. We definitely needed an “All of the Above” option.
Why must we only pick one?!? There’s so many to choose from… Can we choose five perhaps?
I also hate historical inaccuracies as a whole.
For me it was “Put up your hair!” and “Wear something under your corset!” that really bothered me the most. If “Horrors of the Wax Museum” can get those two correct why can’t modern productions?
THERE’S TOO MANY OPTIONS TO CHOOSE JUST ONE
MUST PICK THEM ALL!!!!
I needed more than 3 choices!!!
This might have been the hardest choice I’ve ever made.
Put up your hair!!! That’s my worst. Unconvincing old-age makeup! That has ruined a movie for me before (the end of True Women. And I was in high school, I’m sure other things would bother me about it now :p).
But the hair!! Read any period novel (from Little Women to Anne of Green Gables) and putting up one’s hair was a THING. So seeing grown women with it down is just URGH.
Why didn’t you include ‘All Of The Above’?
Bc that’s my choice. But without that I’m going to choose….poly baroque satin.
Corset chafing! It just looks so uncomfortable that I get distracted.
Yikes. Hard to choose since all of them are equally disturbing.
Gotta go with lack of bobby hairpins, prom dresses, and “tits out ftw” since they are extremely common and lazy it’s not even funny.
Just a side note: when watching Middle Eastern and Asian historical, it’s the “Should be wearing a hat/headgear thing” that peeves me the most when it comes to the men.
I want to pick them all! I chose skirt hiking because as a costumer I feel like I spend half my life telling actresses to drop. The damn. Skirt.
THIS
It drives me crazy when women hike their skirts not only because it either means the actress is stomping around like a newborn giraffe who doesn’t understand how legs work or that the dress just doesn’t fit right.
But then when they hike, they usually hike the dress halfway up their legs and there’s almost no point in even wearing the skirt. I just wanna tie their hands behind their backs.
One thing you missed, those STUPID SHOULDER CUTOUTS that keep appearing especially in medieval shows (cough Knightfall cough cough).
The thing that bothers me most isn’t a clothing thing but a food thing: when people pick up a whole chicken in bare hands and chow down. Or stab a dagger into a whole chicken and drag it to their plate in preparation for chowing down.
I picked hats (or other head coverings) because it was the one that applied almost equally to both genders and because it was also a strong class marker.
Yes, hatlessness really annoys me. Both genders, always when out of doors. However regal or impoverished. Zips and shiny polyester are also awful, and hairstyles in the period of filming too, but the headgear irritates me most. (Looking at you, Poldark…)
And then when the hair pin shortage is over, the wrong decade of hair. Nothing like the period equivalent of a feathered poodle in 1954.
Zippers. Hands down. Complete melt down when they rear their ugly tongues..
I really need more than 3 choices, but I had to go with the hairpin shortage, prom/bridesmaid dresses, and zippers. I quit watching The White Queen when I saw the infamous zipper, and certainly won’t watch anymore Philippa Fucking Gregory.
All of the above! And something that you didn’t include: gloves. There was etiquette connected with gloves in most periods. And people in movies kiss gloves, wear gloves when swearing fealty, and worst of all, picking up their turkey leg to chow down on it. They were expensive: take them off!
Unfortunate Bigginses make me LOL
I think “hair of the filming era, not the historical era” would cover the most annoying things, esp. in the 60s and 80s.
I picked what bothered me the longest. In the 60s I hated 60s hair and makeup in movies. It always ruined it for me.
Only three?? Inconceivable!!! (I had to narrow it to hairpins, corsets, and grommets).
Corset chafing, everytime. Uncomfortable for the actor and causes a lot more work for wardrobe and wear on costumes.
Oh I thought of something else too – men wandering around with open doublets and unlaced corsets – think Shakespeare in Love or The Medicis – you Just Didn’t Do It.
Seems to be found with the Contracturally Obligated Leather Pants.
Honestly I didn’t notice most of these until I started following this blog! For me the biggest problem is something ‘period’ but blatantly out of the period it’s set in, or several actors in garb from different periods together.
I didn’t notice bad white wigs, back lacing, loose hair, grommets. I get why the loose hair is so common because modern period films usually feature ‘spirited young ladies’ and that of course means maidenly flowing locks or something.
I see a photo of Julie Christie above. When will you address the costumes from 1967’s “Far From the Madding Crowd”?
Someday? When we get to it? ;)
I could have ticked them all, but one thing always bugs me in films and with re-enactors too – the clothes always fit too well and they’re far too clean. In an era when deep cleaning your skirts meant brushing them for a bit longer, it’s jarring when actors wear skin-tight clothing that’s so obviously freshly washed and pressed.
Honestly, I never noticed any of these things until I found your blog. Now they infuriate me as much as they do you, though probably less so, considering I typically prefer pretty pretty princess historical movies.
So hard to choose just three!
Three options is not enough!
But I would say hair/makeup that is contemporary to the film’s production rather than the period it’s set, clothing that is historical but of the completely wrong historical era (extra annoying if it’s out by more than 50 years), and clothing that is pure fantasy like modern prom dress or something.
Ultimately, I had to go with “shit that doesn’t fit” because even if you don’t know squat about history, there is no damn excuse for a professional not being able to fit clothes to someone!!
So hard to choose! But the hair thing–I get so happy when I see a good period-appropriate hairdo in a film. Especially when it’s on the star, and it’s not particularly becoming but someone has clearly made an effort for historical accuracy. Ex. the recent BBC The Moonstone, in which the young heroine wears a rather severe ‘do complete w/lots of braids in her chignon and some very tight curls in front of her ears, and not a single wispy anywhere! Hooray!
Can’t we vote for six?
Hair and makeup, always. I hate it when the designer is more guided by cover page of GQ or Vogue than anything even close to authentic. I’ll give a pass to anything pre-1970s, because it was a whole other world back then, but with anything mid 1990s onwards (with the 80s a weird case-by-case grey area) you should know better. The nadir, as far as I was concerned, was the 2000s BBC Robin Hood series. Ugh, it was just bad to the core.
I feel like the 80s was especially bad because 80s hair was SO styled with perms, frizz, and unusual bangs. I’ve found 90s and 2000s films hold up better. Even though they almost always feature hair down there is more of a focus on simplicity and the makeup is a lot better. I’m talking more serious films- Robin Hood doesn’t count to me because they made no effort whatsoever.
Biggest gripe for me will always be:
Using Metal Grommets before they were invented – it will make even the loveliest costume look amateurish- there is a legitimate historical option, here… use it! Metal. lacing. rings
THIS WILL ALWAYS BE THE THING THAT SETS MY TEETH ON EDGE, TAKE AWAY A DEGREE OF ENJOYMENT & IS USUALLY THE FIRST THING I LOOK FOR/ NOTICE- & I’M NOT EVEN AN EXPERT.
However, after that;
– Anachronistic hairstyles – they cannot. be. unseen, especially mullets and perms- and I say this as an Australian… who has seen many a mullet and perm – that being said, I can forgive ‘simplified’ hairstyles- if there’s been some effort put in, in other areas of costume.
Corsets – whether they are being worn without the proper accoutrements (looking at you, ‘WILL’ trailer and ‘Tudors’… among others), whether characters (or the actors) are constantly whining about them, forgoing them, or when they are out of time for the setting (archaeologists, historians and such have plenty of info to draw on, why do so many productions refuse the knowledge?)- and it’s frustrating to hear the same old tropes in relation to corsets trotted out time and time again.
WHERE IS THE ALL OF THE ABOVE choice!!!!!! ALL of the items mentioned are the popcorn kernel in the teeth irritant. they are all equally infuriating and annoying. so please add an “hey! EVERYTHING mentioned pisses me off like nothing else.” I can put up with a character meeting EVERY SINGLE important personage in the world (think Winds of War, War and Rememberance, and North and South.) but sloppy clothing and horrific accents are where I draw the line!
Medieval and Renaissance men in trousers. They wore hose made of wool and I find it really annoying they go all Jim Morrison and stick them in leather trousers. The jeggings in Mary Queen of Scots were particularly awful.
We definitely needed to be able to do Top 5.
The 2000s Robin Hood series just bugs me so much, I mean the BBC had proven they could do better than that with a kids sitcom that deliberately played up anachronisms for comedy a whole decade earlier with “Maid Marian and Her Merry Men” and they had a Rastafarian as a main character on that. The 2005 version was worse than the kid’s parody version, not just in costume but in stories too. How do they even!?
Can I just say “any form of really fucking up the hair”? Mullets, hair down, hair shorter than it should be, bangs – it doesn’t matter. I hate it all.
That was so hard to narrow down. But I had to include hats because Mom almost kicked me out of the room the last time we watched an 18th-century costume drama for screaming “PUT ON A HAT YOU HUSSY! AND PIN YOUR HAIR UP!”
Missing from my person hate list is leather and fur “vikings”
also, whatever the fuck was going on in GoT with the oversized lacing and BACK LACING ON A MEN’S DOUBLET WTF
I also really hate a misplaced hem
Oh, and I forgot corset/stays/bodies miss information. You know, all those fainting and can’t breath, can’t move, can’t walk tropes.