25 thoughts on “The Gilded Age (2022) – Recap Episode 8

  1. In the elopement image, the actress playing Marian looks like Josh Hutcherson from the side and now I can’t unsee it. My brain is yelling “Why is Peeta in a bustle?”

  2. Did any other 90s kids have those color changing markers, where running a clear marker over your marker would make it switch to another color? My favorite was the marker that changed from grape purple to salmon pink. I called it my “PB & J” marker because the colors reminded me of my favorite jelly flavors.

    Anyways, that’s what Marian’s peach and purple dress looks like.

  3. I keep being surprised that, for all his soap operatic tendencies, Julian Fellowes really passes up a lot of opportunities for drama. There are historical characters who in their real lives were associated with a lot of often very dark scandal (Stanford White! Carrie Astor!) whose roles on the show are very boring and conventional. And the “robber barons” of the gilded age were far more ruthless than the Russells, who talk a big game about how far they’re willing to go but are actually pretty milquetoast characters. On the other hand, I think Mrs. Chamberlain is based on Arabella Huntington, who did not end up outcast from high society, although she did move to the west coast.

    I do wish we’d seen more of Bertha’s Newport gown! I did read that Coon was pregnant during filming, and the show probably wasn’t filmed in chronological order, so that’s why we sometimes get full length shots of her and sometimes not (though that doesn’t explain some of the modern satin monstrosities she’s put in!).

  4. I’m curious as to whether Mrs. McAllister’s dress with the black asterisks is a polonaise. Something about the fit in the picture above, and in the episode, made me think that might be the case. Have we seen any polonaises on the show yet?

    1. I suspect it’s a polonaise too, though she’s always sitting & can’t get a full-length view. Peggy’s mom dark yellow gown isn’t exactly a polonaise because it has a waist seam, but it’s a close variation.

  5. I want all Aurora Vane’s dresses. And I want to shoot those stupid hats off Marion’s head!

    1. Aurora Fane’s outfits are all softly colored and, I guess, more restrained than everyone else’s around her. It helps make her character more palatable, and I think that’s why her clothing is more appealing to the moderns, as opposed to the “dump the Crayola Box” mix and match color stories on everyone else.

      I think that Ada has the best wardrobe in the series. It’s all sumptuous and well constructed, and her palette reads well – all deep jewel tones and warm browns and oranges. Even the whackadoodle elephant print fits in with that.

      I do love how they go out of their way to make Bertha Russell look like a tacky tasteless parvenue.

      1. Ada’s dresses have been my favorites from the start! She has the best, most true to the era outfits. I love all the colorful variations she has.

        1. Well, lest we earn a playful scolding by our erudite salonnière, I think many of us take to Ada’s dresses because of the relatively elegant and … restrained color palette, which doesn’t make our eyeballs twitch. As Trystan corrected me before, the actual fashions of the era were almost a pyschodelic array of mismatched, clashing colors and Ada would probably the odd one for that.

  6. Gladys will finally wear her hair up once she’s out in society! Can’t wait!

  7. I’m wondering what Gladys will find out about Oscar? Whether Carrie will mary her suiter?

  8. Marian is the “lost and found purse ” girl. Otherwise useless.
    Ada’ s éléphants dress!
    Bertha’s milner is really good. Marian’s not. Is it the same person?

    1. The costumes were built by a bunch of different ppl in different places (some were started pre-covid lockdows), & that included several milliners too, accd. to interviews.

  9. Thanks for recapping this so I don’t have to watch. Fellowes does less and less for me as time goes on.

  10. I suspect that Chateau-sur-Mer is standing in for Beechwood because the latter was purchased by Larry Ellison from Oracle. As I understand it, it’s no longer open to the public. On a side note, The Preservation Society of Newport is cashing in on the series:
    https://www.newportmansions.org/gilded-age.

    1. Meanwhile, my membership to Newport Mansions isn’t getting any cheaper, AND The Elms is going to be closed for filming almost the entire month of May. Sorry, rant over. :)

  11. Marion’s hats are driving me crazy. The general shape is correct but it is used over and over again with very weak trimming. It’s like someone was turned loose in the Floral section of a craft store with the basic hat and a hot glue gun and told “Make it match.” Those limp ribbons and sad little floral sprays are NOT getting it done – especially when some of the other hats have been so delicious!

  12. Looks to me like it is a fold in Bertha’s gown, not a seam. It seems to be exactly mirrored on the other side with the two stems of the palmate leaves matching up so the patterns mirror each other. Much of the folding, draping, pleating, etc of fabric reminds me of the Vogue Couture patterns I have collected. If you were rich, you could afford to show it off with fabrics as well as intricate sewing details and trims.

  13. Marian or her dressmaker have terrible color sense. She’s either washed out or over bright with weird combinations.
    Thank God Peggy’s outta there. She’s too damn good for those shallow socialites. Work on your career, Peggy! And yes, I would kill for a series centering on the black NYC elite. Too bad nobody wants to write it.
    I understand Oscar needing a beard, or maybe wanting a mother for his children, but don’t pick on a naive young girl! There must be slightly older women with some knowledge of the world willing to enter into an arrangement.

  14. Ahh! Thanks for pointing out the exterior was Chateau-sur-mer, my favorite Newport mansion. I was like “wait, that isn’t an Astor property!”

Comments are closed.