Disclaimer:
I will put no spoilers so you can still read if you haven’t seen the movie yet! This post
is just me assessing the costumes and their historical accuracy.
First
of all, since the movie came out I had already heard a lot about it
in just those two days that I was very curious to see if it lived up
to the hype and it truly did! It’s well-made with round characters
and a gripping story line. But enough about the movie, let’s get on
to the costumes.
The
movie is set in 1884, and at first I thought she was born in 84
(because of the intro) so I did like a third of the movie thinking
the costumes were outdated until I looked at a closeup of a newspaper
and realized that it is set in 84, so yay for me. But anyways, here
are the facts.
Enola
is 16 years old, therefore considered a child/young woman in society
and would be wearing children’s clothing but we’ll get to that later
There
aren’t many examples of children’s clothing from that time so I’ll
have to refer to the few fashion plates that I can find.
This
blue dress from the beginning of the film has basically everything
one would expect from the very end of the 19th century,
but not necessarily the 1880s. The loose front is a very
end-of-the-century, more so even Edwardian thing, and from the
fashion plates and magazines I could find it seems that children’s
clothing was heavily inspired by adult fashion. It has a very low
waistline and is overall very straight. Enola’s dress looks more 1900
except for the fitted sleeves which are accurate for the period. And
the collar looks completely out of place. But, of course there’s always a but, this is just taking mainstream fashion into account. The Aesthetic Dress movement took place in the 1880s and the dresses would have looked somewhat similar to this one, with a loosely fitted front but they also had puffier sleeves, so it’s like they took some details from different movements and also took some inspiration from the Edwardians and put them all together in a dress.
Another
thing I would like to add, (hence the advert - I had to make collages to fit 10 pictures in this post) I am not sure as it doesn’t fit her
character at all but she looks corseted in those pictures (I added
the first one specifically because I think you’re able to see the outline of a corset? Faintly?). Depending on your age and status and
your parents’ plans for you (aka if they wanted you to get married at
16), teens of that age would either wear a corset or not. But taking
Enola’s upbringing into account and it was rather uncommon for a 16
year old to be wearing a corset, not unseen but uncommon, I’d say
that if the costume department decided to put Millie in a corset in
that particular scene is historically inaccurate. There were
corsets for young women/teens, but they didn’t give you that extreme
hourglass shape, they were straighter and didn’t give you a tiny
waist, like the bottom right one in this corset advert. Unfortunately, I could
not find out when it’s from but it should be somewhat close to the
1880s.
Next
up, I would like to say that the length of the skirt they chose for
Millie to wear is appropriate for a 16 year old! Unlike what we saw
on Anne with an E…
At
one point we get a look at her undergarments and they’re looking fine
for the time! The chemise and the drawers, she’s obviously not
wearing any petticoats as she’s being measured but we saw a glimpse
of a petticoat when she was riding a bike in an earlier scene so yes,
this part is accurate.
Next
up, I’d like to talk about this lady and her dress is just amazing,
fashion plate worthy and absolutely accurate, I have nothing bad to say
about this.
What
I noticed overall in the movie was that the bustles weren’t as
extreme as I would have expected them to be, but it all had to do
with personal preference so it’s not necessarily historically
inaccurate to see more lowkey bustles. But I didn’t see one bustle
that was just crazy in today’s eyes so maybe they could have improved
on that but I’m just nitpicking at this point. Or maybe I’ve just
gotten so used to seeing old clothes that nothing shocks me anymore.
Here
we can see some crinolines being sold and judging from their width
they are somewhat outdated.
They
could pass as maybe early 1870s if not even 1860s.
Now
Enola wants to become a lady, so she has to wear adult clothes! Here,
she goes into a shop and puts on her clothing. We can see here how
poorly fitted the corset is; the lacing gap should be parallel but
you can see in the mirror how it gets smaller towards the bottom.
Maybe it was done unintentionally but maybe it’s just supposed to
show that ready-to-wear corsets just weren’t made for the
person buying them. But in that same scene, we finally get a proper
bustle! That’s historical accuracy right there!
Next
up is her iconic red gown.
Now…
I had a little bit of trouble with that one. The skirt is a little
wide in my eyes, but the overall shape and cut is fine, with that
layer draping over her underskirt. However, her neckline is something
you wouldn’t typically see. You see other characters wear high
necklines, so I don’t know why they chose to give this dress almost
an evening wear look. V-necks did exist in evening wear, but then
again they would be paired with frilly short sleeves and not tight
fitting day wear sleeves. So all in all, yes, the dress is accurate
but the neckline is uncommon.
Next,
we have what is probably the most accurate one of her costumes –
the mourning gown.
It’s
slimmer than the red one and there are so many examples of extant
garments on google pictures that look so similar to hers that I’m
just gonna say, excellent job!
Next
is my favorite despite the neckline problem. She just looks so pretty
in it!
The
neckline isn’t as low as on the red one but still quite uncommon.
Another detail you can see in the second picture is that she seems
to be wearing a bum pad instead of a bustle, which I think is
acceptable. It’s slim, it has a layer that drapes over the underskirt
in the front, and even the sleeves are a little bit gathered at the
top which was very common.
And
lastly, we have this white dress where she goes back to the style she
wore at the beginning of the movie.
And once again, just like I said in the beginning, this is not something you’d really see being worn in that time unless we’re talking about the Aesthetic Dress and now the sleeves aren’t as fitted so it makes sense for the movement, plus it’s kept very simple.
Overall you can say they did a fairly good job at making everything historically accurate but took some artistic liberties here and there, just like you would expect from a movie.
