I am going to come out and say it: I have been enjoying Victoria (2016-) despite the fact that it’s pretty much, as one Frock Flicks commenter said, bad historical fanfic. Still, it’s entertaining bad historical fanfic and the costumes are on the whole pretty good. There are a few “what the frock” moments, though. In the US episode 2/UK episode 3 (I’ll never understand why they do this to us), Victoria hosts a fancy dress ball in honor of her uncle, the King of Belgium. She’s obsessed with Elizabeth I, especially after her proposal was rejected by Lord M (hence the “bad historical fanfic” description) and she’s determined to rule forever alone. It’s all so very 18-year-old angsty drama, so I give the scriptwriters props for capturing the correct amount of emo, even if there’s no way in hell the real Victoria thought of the real Lord M as anything other than a father figure.
But I’m getting sidetracked…Â The fancy dress ball is a great excuse to throw together a huge amount of costuming into one scene and there’s plenty to feast your eyes on.
But, of course, it’s Victoria who takes the center stage as Elizabeth I wearing a rather decent 16th-century gown.
I just want to pause right here and reiterate that I think this is a very nice costume. It’s the right silhouette for the “young Elizabeth” that Victoria is trying to portray, it fits her beautifully, and I really like the fabric choices. Then this happened:
I’m not irritated about the faux stomacher… Hell, I’m not even irritated about the floating ruff because these are Victorians, and they practically invented the trope of the floating ruff to begin with. No, what irritates me is that the Queen is wearing a petticoat with a forepart AND NO OVERSKIRT.
I’m not sure why this decision was made, other than maybe it was deemed that Victoria looked too covered-up in the full outfit with the overgown. It certainly obscures the little spray of flowers that she pins to her bodice and which are important to a conversation she’s shortly going to have with Lord M (who is playing the Earl of Leicester, natch) in which his gaze trails down over her décolletage, and she tells him “they’re very beautiful.”
The series costumer, Rosalind Ebbutt, had this to say about the costume in an interview with The Telegraph:
“It was a mixture of three different dresses we found at the costumier then we tried to copy the portrait of Elizabeth I with her hair loose, which features in the series.”
Ok, so it wasn’t custom-made for the series, I can deal with that. It looks great on Jenna Coleman, but I just wish they’d kept the overgown on! Or found another overskirt! Or something!
Alas, my desires were not taken into account. Whatever, I am not going to pout about it; instead I will close this post out by showing you all a bunch of images of one of Queen Victoria’s extant fancy dress gowns and paintings of other fancy dress costumes she wore in the early part of her reign. Because I love you.
And here’s a portrait of Victoria in the outfit she wore to the “1745 Ball” in 1845:
And this portrait by Landseer of the Queen and Prince Consort in their costumes for the fancy dress ball in 1842:
What did you think of the fancy dress costumes in this episode? Share them in the comments!
I’m enjoying Victoria, too. Her Elizabeth I costume gets two thumbs up for the bodice and a thumb up for the forepart/petticoat without overskirt, a LOL at the Victorian version of the ruff and yummy for Lord M .
Hopefully we’ll see the Philippa of Hainault gown in Season 2.
I thought the fancy dress stuff wasn’t bad. Probably not far off from what it likely was, probably better than our fancy dress parties. At least, no ‘sexy nurse’!
Have you seen the photos from the fancy dress house parties, late 1890s, The Prince of Wales and his crew? Some really awesome stuff there- if I can find the links I’ll post them.
Emo Albert is amusing and annoying at the same time. But I loved the one heavily bullioned jacket her wore that was supposedly English court wear. *I*’d wear the damn thing!
Victorian cosplay! https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/fancy-dress-1897-the-duchess-of-devonshires-diamond-jubilee-ball/
Victorian cosplay!
https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/fancy-dress-1897-the-duchess-of-devonshires-diamond-jubilee-ball/
I’ve been trying to post links- and not having any success. Is there a reason why they aren’t going up?
They usually get stuck in the moderation queue, and it might take us a few hours to approve them! We try to do it as quickly as we can.
The dress that she’s wearing is actually a reuse of the bodice for this one from the virgin queen.
http://www.recycledmoviecostumes.com/tudorelizabethan141.html
Later Victorian cosplay-
https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/fancy-dress-1897-the-duchess-of-devonshires-diamond-jubilee-ball/
When I saw this outfit, I was pretty sure that I had seen a version of her dress before. I think it’s this one from the Tudors, but altered a bit.
http://recycledmoviecostumes.com/tudorelizabethan141.html
OMG. The Tudors really is the gift that keeps on giving. Like herpes.
Or Like Cancer!
Oh my god, could you imagine if the Tudors had gone into the Elizabethan Era?!
SO THERE IS AN OVERSKIRT TO THE BODICE.
WHY DID THEY LEAVE IT OFF???
Yeah, that’s really weird that they removed it. And I feel like there’s some commentary in a costume that’s been used in productions actually set in the 16th century now being used as Victorian fancy dress….
I kind of really want to see an adaptation of one of those Victorian/Edwardian novels set in an earlier period where the costuming is more like say, 1890s doing Elizabethan or whatever. So it’s kind of WTF as Elizabethan costuming but works as 1890s costuming if that makes sense.
Cos a lot of those historical novels are more of their time, thinking wise and morally, than they are accurate reflections of the period they’re supposed to portray so it could be very interesting.
I’m imagining someone snarking at the 1745 Ball dress in 1845.
Sarah you’re so much more into this show than me! I felt like Victoria’s costume was way too The Tudors-meets-Elizabethan and not really a Victorian take on 16th c.
As someone else noted, the bodice is re-used from a gown that was originally made for Anne-Marie Duff in “The Virgin Queen.” I’m guessing they didn’t use the original petticoat because it’s probably way too long for Jenna Coleman and they couldn’t hem it because it was a rental.
Why couldn’t they hem it? A few quick tacks would have done the job. Or safety pins.
Ah, I see it now. It’s just the bodice not the whole dress that’s been reused. Still a pretty fugly skirt to put with it.
Why not hem it? We used to alter rentals going out to productions all the time when I worked at a prop house. Whatever was needed was done. Then the rental was put back into original sizing when returned whether it was removing a hem or tucks to fit.
Probably because it would have 1) taken time to pin or magic tape it each day and between takes 2) no-one thought of it 3) Rental contact
The gown immediately brought to mind a costume that Alexandra of Denmark wore in 1871: Mary Queen of Scots.
I watched finally the first episode and must say that I quite enjoyed it! Yes, it has its lenghts and changes the actual facts of history… but I found that, when I started seeing it as some kind of historical telenovela, it can be rather entertaining! Can’t wait for this fancy dress episode!!
Apart from the weirdness of the skirt lacking an overskirt what’s bothering me is its limpness. I feel like this is such a trend right now – Love & Friendship, Poldark, now this. The skirts in each of these periods are supposed to be full and floofy and they just look so sad in these productions, very underwhelming. Is it thought that modern audiences would somehow find them less attractive if they were fuller? Or is it a logistics thing? Can’t afford the extra dress or petticoat fabrics or afford the time for dressing or something? And while I know this one is fancy dress it’s not like 16th century skirts were limp and as we see fancy dress costumes were heavily influenced by the silhouette of the time they were made/worn in.
Eh, just a little pet peeve of mine. And I admit I haven’t watched the episode yet. I’m looking forward to when I have the time to watch this show properly – if only for Rufus (yum).
After a bit of squinting… I think Victoria’s Fancy Dress crown is reused from Gertrude in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The shapes all match.