13 thoughts on “SNARK WEEK: Stripped-Down Costuming

  1. I agree. If the period says fancy and frilly, go fancy and frilly! Stretch the budget to the limit! This would be where all the cheap ass trim and fabric would get used so it would look expensive!! Or at least pretty!

  2. I love your snark!!! I can’t tell you how much I LOATHE the Netflix Persuasion. When I saw sneak preview stills I saw the costuming and thought WTF? It was a bad omen for a bad adaptation.

  3. Looks like Cyrano moved the setting from the 17th to the 18th century? Shame, as much as I love 18th C clothing the 17th C feels very underrepresented in modern frock flicks.

    Anyways, couldn’t agree more!! The 16th C particularly bugs me- just look at any portrait, the nobility were absolutely encrusted with jewels

  4. See Disney’s attempts at historical costuming, Namely the Amazon Bridesmaid dress version of Belle’s Iconic yellow ball gown! Also, Ariel’s sad blue live action dress, I get that this is the Caribbean, but you could’ve gone for stripe patterns, at least! This is the wacky 1830s we’re talking about!

  5. I normally apply a softly-softly attitude to the little misdemeanours of costume departments tackling historical persons whose clothing budget was almost literally the National Budget, but for once I intend to let my Frock Flag fly and NAIL THOSE COLOURS TO THE MAST.

    EITHER GIVE US PUREST SARTORIAL SPLENDOUR OR STICK TO FILMING THE HISTORY OF FILTHY HERMITS, YOU COWARDS!

  6. Oh gawd, don’t even get me started on Poldark (where the men who’ve been working all day in a mine are far too CLEAN!!!). They got a teeny bit better when they made the switch to raised waistlines on the leading ladies, but meh. I couldn’t even call it eye candy when so much of the plot was “sucks to be him.” “Persuasion” – I lasted ten minutes, but knew I was going to hate the costumes from the sneaky filming peeks in the UK press. I watch “Bridgerton” the way other people look at car wrecks – it’s horrible, but you can’t look away. WTF is up with Polly Walker’s costumes? And the saturated colors across the households of everyone but the Bridgerton family… This P&P – just say no. I just feel like stripped down to make it “relatable” or “modern” is just an excuse to go cheap. Do it right or don’t do it at all.

  7. Why bother doing g a.perioed piece if you’re going to ignore the era for “modern ideas?!?” It just looks bland and dull.

  8. I Despise it when the costumer says “I’m making it relatable ” to me it shows they don’t give a damn about accuracy, style, or truth because they don’t respect their audiance.

  9. This recent trend of making everything #relatable is depressing, it just shows that they’re misunderstanding the audience. Many of us watch frock flicks for the historical costumes, the subtext, and historical values.

  10. Also, I am deeply disappointed that a post has no shortfall of replies, yet nobody has yet had the courage to muster up a mildly-inappropriate joke about ‘stripped down costumes’ in the context of historical fiction and the famously-beloved ‘bodice ripper’ genre.

    Why no, I’m not brave enough to actually make those jokes, but I can certainly allude to their existence and give some notion of their entertainment potential.😉

  11. After watching Mary, Queen of Scots, I thought “well, that’s 2 hours of my life I’ll never get back again.”

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