
I feel like costume designer Marianne Agertoft has done far more frock flicks than she actually has! Maybe it’s because we did so much coverage for the first season of Poldark? Nonetheless, she’s been on my list for a look at her work for a while now. Coming up, per her website, is a version of The Lord of the Flies, but I can’t tell you whether it will be a period production.
Let’s run down Marianne Agertoft’s designs in historical films and TV series!
Villa des roses (2002)
A Frenchwoman works as a maid at a run-down pension and falls in love with a German painter just before World War II.


Death Comes to Pemberley (2013)
A combination murder mystery/Jane Austen sequel that continues the characters from Pride and Prejudice.




Poldark season one (2015)
The massive reboot about various interconnected characters in late 18th-century Cornwall.
“Research is key. Due to limited prep time, one only gets to scratch the surface of how people lived and dressed… It was truly exciting researching all the various social levels that Poldark moves in. Miners, middle class town folks, judges, sailors, soldiers (British and American), the upper classes, the list goes on and all the big events that take place like weddings, funerals and christening. Once one has gained an understanding of an era it also frees one up to find ways of creating a look for the characters which feels real. We aimed to create a world, in which the audience visually would be able to relate to all the social levels and just enjoy the story as it unfolded” (Talking Frocks and Breeches with Poldark Costume Designer Marianne Agertoft).




Les Misérables (2018)
A no-singing, more straightforward/restrained adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel set during the 1832 French “June Rebellion.”
“As a BBC production there are always people who are very keen to keep things exactly of the period… It’s important, too, to make sure that it doesn’t look stuffy, and that it’s visually interesting for a prime time audience. You want it to not upset people, or distract from the story, but the costumes also need to be striking and keep their attention. It’s all about getting that balance right” (Les Misérables: how Olivia Colman, Lily Collins and Ellie Bamber were transformed with ‘punky, romantic’ costumes).




Cursed (2020)
Filling things out with a fantasy show, which is a reimagining of the King Arthur story.



Persuasion (2022)
A modernized take (yet still period) on Jane Austen’s final novel.
“We decided to lose the period accuracy when it was necessary—bonnets and hats can stifle an actor’s movement, and we felt the permission to use them when we wanted to, but we didn’t have to be as strict with them as was dictated at the time. We aren’t historians, but it was wonderful to have access to historical references to draw upon” (Persuasion’s Costume Designer Had Patti Smith and Debbie Harry on Her Mood Board).



What’s your favorite of Marianne Agertoft’s period designs?
Zero love for Netflix’s Persuasion and the costumes. Blech. Les Miserables is very nice.
The costumes vary between basic (Poldark) and awful (Persuasion). And why is prosperous Fantine wearing what looks like a regency dress with itty-bitty sleeves in, presumably, 1832?
Fantine was being kept by her worthless lover in 1817. She’s Cosette’s mother and Cosette would have been little older than a baby at that time.
Les Misérables always lack hairpins, because poor pll?
I REFUSE to believe that Poldark season 1 aired 10 years ago!!!! Also, what a treat to dress and undress Aiden Turner. I liked the costumes in both Death Comes to Pemberley and Poldark. Re Cursed: The costumes were the LEAST problematic about that show!
Valmont in les misérables ?
Did he shag Cosette too ?
Wasn’t that wretched fellow long dead by the French Revolution, much less the turn of the nineteenth century?
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa – I thought Ms. Dakota Johnson looked quite fetching in PERSUASION and I cannot claim to dislike that particular adaptation, in part because of that happy fact.
Mea culpa! Mea culpa!
I love your site so much! And I think you’ll be saving me during the next 4 years with titles of Frock Flicks I’ve never seen!!! Thank you for all of your hard work!