15 thoughts on “A Touch of the ’20s in The Chaperone (2019)

  1. I’ve always imagined how inhibiting, rather than liberating, it would have been to toss aside one’s corset and go without if one had worn one all one’s life; at least for a woman who had any bosom worth the name.

    1. Yeah, I’d feel odd going corset-less. It’s like bra-less — sure, around the house is fine, but never in public! Especially as a middle-aged woman of some size.

    2. I’ve read there were other kind of corsetery for women who weren’t young or slim, and had womenly features. They weren’t propper corsets, but they kept everything in place

      1. Well, of course that was exactly when the bra was invented (or reinvented: there’s always the 15th-century Austrian bras found in Langberg Castle, or the apparently one-off two-piece boned wrap-round Napoleonic-period one in the Kyoto Institute), but even so I bet it must have felt weird and insecure wearing one at first, with the subliminal fear that something might fall out . . . ! Which is why, like Trystan, I just can’t get on board with the trope of ‘woman flings aside her corset to become a free confident spirit’ trope.

  2. The film was cute enough, and I enjoyed watching Elizabeth McGovern do something a little different. It made me long for a proper Louise Brooks biopic, though.

  3. I recognize the ice cream shop. If it’s not my local since-the-Edwardian-era ice cream place, it looks very similar.

  4. You know, I used to hate twenties fashions. The dropped waist silhouette is so not me! But Frock Flicks has helped me see twenties clothes can be beautiful.

  5. I really liked the show. It addressed some pretty daring issues for the times. I have to say concerning the corset issue. My grandmother wore a corset from the time she was 13. When she couldn’t wear one anymore, she was quite shapeless, as she had no stomach muscles to speak of.

  6. I collect and wear a lot of 20s, and this movie hit most of the notes just right. The hats were especially good.

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