"We clean up just fine!"
I was flying home from a long stay in Paris, and saw Les Misérables (2012) on the in-flight options. Having just listened to an audiobook about the history of the lower-class side of Paris, I was in the mood! Plus, high school me was a HUGE Les Mis fan. I could sing the entire thing, right now. I could even do parts of the French version! I’d seen it before, but probably not since it came out in 2012, so my memories had faded. That being said, I honestly feel overwhelmed at the thought of trying to do a deep dive into the historical accuracy of things just because there’s so much menswear and so many eras, so much so that I’ve put off this review for several months!
Designer Paco Delgado (The Danish Girl, Jungle Cruise, Death on the Nile) is quoted in several places as saying that the story covers 1815 to 1848…
Do you want to read all of this review (with over 4,000 words and more than 120 images) about Les Misérables (2012)? The full post is here!
Don’t want to wait next time? Pledge a small amount each month on Patreon to keep our site running, and in return, you’ll get access to subscriber-only content like this.
To dispel the confusion over Delgado’s comment saying his work extends to 1848, it should be noted that it technically does. Though we see very little of it in the movie, the final scene with the “One Day More” reprise is meant to allude to the 1848 revolts that led to the fall of the July Monarchy, the rise of the Second Republic, and inspired similar movements all over Europe. In the script that was circulated online circa the 2012-2013 awards season, Marius and Cosette are supposed to be shown among the 1848 revolutionaries. I assume Delgado must have dressed the crowd on the streets according to 1848 fashions, even if the final edit never lets us see very closely, focusing only on the ghosts atop the elephant and the barricade.
The poster child for the Great Bobby Pin Shortage!
I found it deeply adorable that, throughout the original article, the author assumes that:-
(A) The Thenadiers were even remotely sober when they picked their original outfits.
(B) That the gruesome twosome actually bothered to pay for their outfits (Well, strictly speaking I strongly suggest that ‘rent, then pretend we bought it outright’ is their eternal mantra).