You asked for it, so here’s an occasional open thread to bitch about anything tangentially related to history, costume, movies, or TV shows! Or whatever else is on your mind right now. Note that URLs are automatically held for moderation, but most anything else goes as long as you’re not bitchier than we are!
The second seasons of both Sanditon and Bridgerton start this month, so YAY!!, plenty to snark and / or love, depending on your point of view. Say what you will about these shows, and things like The Gilded Age — we’re just happy that TV is cranking out new frock flicks because it was pretty dire for a while there.
Will you be watching either of these Regency series? Or something else?
Oh dear God! More melodrama featuring Charlotte -Sue and Mr. Hero? I’m outa here!
On the other hand I’m totally up for a Mr. and Miss Parker show! 😉
I’m eyeing the Cyrano movie. Maybe for a date afternoon with Spouse.
What’s everyone’s thoughts on “Our Flag Means Death?” Most of it was fairly bland, peasanty menswear. However, the show might have a few opportunities to showcase some nice late 17th century outfits.
The budget looks pretty low, so I don’t have high hopes for extravagant costumes, but the overall silhouttes they’ve shown are sort of passable at least.
Came here to mention this show too. The title card specifically dates it to 1717. I am curious to hear opinions on how they did with the main character, the only person they seemed to spend any money on. He does sport a nice yellow banyan in a few scenes.
Huh, somehow I entirely missed that it was set in 1717 and just assumed it was about 20 years earlier! In that case, I think Stede’s waistcoat is too short and his coat a bit too narrow along the bottom, but I’m not an expert in menswear for that era.
I did like that his neck frills were actually shown to be a separately tied neckcloth edged in lace, instead of being those silly dangling ruffles that are so often sewn onto costume shirt collars.
Yay, more getting annoyed with Charlotte’s hair!
I’m past annoyed and into murderous! Georgina’s persistent hatlessness was also making me psychotic.
A Ukrainian wardrobe mistress turned her expertise to acquiring military clothing for resisters. So, kudos!
Argh another season of the atrocity called Sanditon? Anyone know if we can force feed it to Putin to make him surrender?
Haha, I am down for that!
Me 2!
that is against the Geneva Convention as cruel and unusual punishment. we can’t make him watch the BBC’s version of Little women or the 2019 one either.
We probably can’t force him to watch the new Persuasion for Netflix either! Darn It!
Please do! I hope he chokes at the very first minute (I am from Ukraine, so forgive me for being somewhat bloodthirsty).
I think being bloodthirsty at this point is very understandable. If it would be up to me, I would put Putin in Clockwork Orange -type of chair, and make him watch all the seasons of Reign.
I hope things will get better for Ukraine. Greetings and love from Finland [for those not familiar with European history, we also used to be a part of Russia, and still share a long border with it].
Thank you for your support! We shall win however tough it may be.
Then maybe we can send the people responsible for the atrocity called Sandition a Babushka Assault Pickle?
🤣nice torture,👌🏻 “Bad” period dramas are not forbidden by the Geneva Convention 😁✊🏻🇺🇦.
Can we snark about books? I’m seriously tired of all the books bitching about corsets.
Women of the time regarded corsets as a necessary piece of clothing. Tight lacing was an issue not wearing corsets at all.
Historical novels tend to be very bad on costume, describing outfits that don’t match period portraits at all. Even authors who are quite accurate on the historical events front tend to get everyday life dead wrong.
Seriously! I am in the Army, and I try to imagine doing any of the things I do for work without a bra. I literally would not be able to. Sure, that doesn’t mean bras are always the most comfortable thing in the world, and there are certainly times when I wish they weren’t needed. But most of the time I don’t think about it at all- because it is a piece of clothing that allows me to do the job. It was the same with corsets! Unless you are extremely small breasted and enjoy sitting around a lot and not moving, you need support! It isn’t something (for the most part, and there were certainly exceptions, mostly among the VERY elite classes) that dis-abled women, it was something that en-abled them!
Breasts that hang almost to your knees aren’t very convenient either! 😄
People tend to accept the clothing conventions of their culture without thinking much about them. Dress reformers existed but even they tended to be more about more comfortable, less restrictive foundation garments than eliminating them altogether.
Men’s clothes had their own issues. Nobody really expected comfort in their clothing before the mid-20th century.
One author that got contemporary costume right was Georgette Heyer. She had clearly done her research.
I’m up for some FrockFlick horror shows…guess I’ll have to wait to October to see if anything interesting and/or terrible comes out!
Meh about Sandition. At least the jerk romantic lead who wasn’t fit to kiss her boots is gone, so maybe she can meet somebody nice. Bridgerton might be fun, though I don’t like Anthony AT ALL, so having him be the romantic lead is “ugh” to me.
For some reason (maybe because I recently watched the Halston series), the movie Phantom Thread has been on my mind lately. I’d love to see a deep dive into the costumes for that. I know they aren’t the typical showy historical costumes, but I thought they were lovely.
Thanks, Often Frock Flicks saves me after a wretched day. My question is about the transition from the relative comfort of Regency style to the ouch, contricting styles of Victorian corsets, crinolines and hoops. Was it a man’s idea?
It was almost certainly women’s own idea. Few men have strong views about women’s clothes but women love to experiment. And regency fashion while attractive to the modern eye wasnt particularly suitable for northern Europe in the little ice age. Women got tired of being cold all the time!.
We have another Bridgerton actress whining about how awful corsets are, and how they can’t eat in them or even tie their own shoe: https://www.buzzfeed.com/natalieoganesyan/bridgerton-star-simone-ashley-painful-corsets
Sigh. I’ve worn one and it was extremely comfortable. Not at all the living torture chamber that actresses whine about. ;)
Honestly, I think the women on Bridgerton are for starters not used to them and probably getting laced into them way too tight or being made to wear them in an unsafe way, which is something I’ve suspected since they showed corset sores or chafe marks on Phoebe Dynevor’s back in s1.
I think the idea that corsets always have to hurt is so widespread that I wouldn’t be surprised if there are costume departments or dressers that work under that assumption, especially if they haven’t done a lot of period work before, and it kind of surprises me that people don’t take that into consideration when they talk about “actresses whining about corsets”.