Reply to The Gilded Age

Forum Index » Entertainment and Pop Culture

Reply to "The Gilded Age"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I find the formal costumes to be (generally) completely unbelievable.  Every time there’s a formal occasion - the opera, a ball, etc. - the women look like they’re dressing up as princesses for Halloween.  Just ridiculous.[/quote]

LOL, so you know nothing of the actual history of the time period. Don’t you feel stupid admitting that?[/quote]

Wow.  Are you generally this unpleasant and nasty to everyone you disagree with?  [/quote]

I am not the one who wrote that comment, but I am surprised when people complain about things /costumes in this show when they are historically accurate.  All you need to do is have a simple search to find this out.  It is one thing to say you don't like the dress of that time period, but it is another to complain that the costume designer and team are making costumes that match the time period!

It always baffles me how little people know about history.

I recently stayed at a hotel that mandated dress code and getting dressed up after a certain time at night.  Dinners were multi-course affairs that took a long time.  It was fun, but I can't imagine doing that every night like what they did in the Gilded Age.  I did not visit because of the Gilded Age, it was an extended family trip situation.

I like the show and think season 3 is the best so far.  I love the costumes and the sets.  The production cost much be outrageous-renting Newport mansions, sets for NYC, etc.  Plus, they always need to wear new outfits because during that time the wealthy did not repeat!  [/quote]

What I find interesting is what the producers didn't get right. The NYC mansions would have been much bigger and extravagant. Agnes' house is closer to an UMC brownstone (and not a good attempt at a brownstone) than the actual brownstone Caroline Astor had with the famous ballroom, and that was before she built her even bigger house. I mean, it's mostly computer generated now so might as well get it right!

I thought, as did quite a few others, that Fellowes really missed the mark with Martha Levinson in Downton Abbey and his lack of true insight into the Americans comes through too often.

Costumes, however, are excellent. And as for formality, changing for dinner was standard expectation for the British upper classes and the gilded age Americans were keenly aping the British upper classes. A wealthy woman would easily spend more money on her clothing allowance every year than in her lady's maid wages. We're talking about spending the modern equivalent of hundreds of thousands in couture clothing annually. And it does happen today among the very rich. Add to it that expectations were decidedly more formal across all of society. Even middle class men wore ties every day rain or shine. At work or at home, even when working in the garden. A clothing historian explained to me that men felt naked if they didn't have a jacket on. To go out in public or even your family with just a shirt and no jacket and tie was akin to parading around in underwear today. That's why all these old photos of city streets circa 1900 show everyone fully dressed up, men and women. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics