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From Lady Mary's Chanel-influenced chic to Cora's exotic elegance, the costumes of the upper class women of Downton Abbey say everything about their characters. So what should I include on these pages? Well, I'm going to be totally self-indulgent and put some photos of the clothes I like the best. I'm not documenting the history of clothing or the show...I'm playing with color and texture and enjoying remembering all the beautiful things I've seen in the past 6 seasons. I'm not going to put pictures of the men's clothing or the servants. Just to keep things in some semblance of order I've decided to arrange things by "seasons".
Season 1 (1912–1914)
Season 1 (1912–1914)
From the moment we spotted Lady Mary in her horse-riding outfit during the first episode of the first season — that netted hat! That plum peacoat and crisply collared blouse! — We knew we were in for a stylish ride. Each night, Cora Crawley and her daughters dazzled in their evening-wear, sipping from their Champagne glasses that they held onto with satin elbow-length gloves.
The show premiered with the news of the RMS Titanic’s sinking, and the first season slowly, inexorably moved towards the declaration of England’s entry into World War I. This was our introduction to the high-society world of Lord and Lady Grantham, their three unmarried daughters, and their cadre of servants, plus the distant relation who stood to inherit it all. The family changed into elegant gowns and white-tie and tails for dinner each night, and everything was done with a sense of formality and propriety.
The first season's clothes are very lovely Edwardian - 1910's styles, with delicate beading details on evening gowns and lots of lace and big hats for daywear.
The one wild and crazy moment in series 1 is when Lady Sybil, the youngest Grantham daughter, wears Paul Poiret-inspired harem pants to dinner at the end of episode 4. It was shocking!
It is my understanding that, about a third of everything the ladies wore was made from scratch. Vintage dresses were used or parts of vintage dresses were incorporated into new dresses. A woman named Anna Mary Scott Robbins is largely responsible for the fashions.
Season 2 (1916–1920)
Season 2 (1916–1920)
Season two was pretty much all World War I, except for the Christmas special. The men (including Lord Grantham and Mathew Crawley) sport British military uniforms while the women’s clothes become a touch more utilitarian and subdued. The estate is turned into a temporary hospital.
Sybil also takes on the role of nurse, and Isobel Crawley looks quite professional in her trim suits as hospital administrator. All and all the most boring clothes of the production.
After the War, clothes are much prettier with more style.
Season 3 (1920–1921)
Season 3 (1920–1921)
Suddenly we’re in the 1920s. Mary gets married, Sybil has a baby and dies in childbirth, Edith gets jilted at the altar, Bates is freed from prison but we don't really care about that...not when there are clothes to see. The clothes start showing a marked distinction between the generations. The young Crawley ladies are wearing dresses with more dropped waists and rising hemlines, while Cora and, of course, the Dowager Countess remain in outfits closer to 1910s fashion. Cora’s American mother visits, and her clothes are a mix of old and new, being age-appropriate yet not as dowdy as the Dowager.
Twenties styles are evident and the young women in the show start to go a bit wild with the new fashions.
Season 4 (1922–1923)
Season 4 (1922–1923)
Wacky young Lady Rose joined the family, and added a flapper vibe.
Edith was already going 20's headlong (she gets pregnant by a married man).
The clothes are really all about Rose and Edith because Mary’s in widow’s weeds and the Dowanger lives in the 19th century.
Cora is just Mom though being a "mom" I did like some of her elegant outfits.
Fashions head deeper into 1920s styles for most of the characters.
Season 5 (1924)
Season 5 (1924)
Mary is out of morning and attends a fashion show.
Mary looks stunning in her riding outfit.
I love the hats this season.
As the Dowager Countess quipped, "Love may not conquer all, but it can conquer quite a lot." Rose and Atticus had obstacles to concur.
Downton Abbey costume designer Anna Mary Scott Robbins created a wedding dress worthy of their triumph. The wedding dress that Rose wears to the reception is actually an original piece, beautiful beaded on a silk tulle.
All About Rose's Wedding Dress
All About Rose's Wedding Dress
Robbins tells all, "It was just a ghost of a dress, and I stumbled upon it. A trader I'd made friends with has a little shop in London and he actually kept it in a box...and we managed to give it this fairy tale ending, this wedding dress that was a hundred years old and had never been worn. It was an amazing moment when we found it, and when we put it on Lily (the actress who plays Rose). It fit perfectly. That doesn't happen very often. So we then picked this beautiful ivory and buttery silk and made the under-dress which complemented her skin tone. I made the headdress out of roses. My milliner has a way of preserving real roses so that they last forever, so her headdress had real roses in it, and we used them in the bouquet with little wax flowers from the '20s and pearls and gilded ferns, he covered the ferns with gold. It was a beautiful, beautiful costume."
The final season, the elegant 1920s silhouettes grew flashier and flashier as flapper-girl hemlines got shorter — quite to Dowager Countess Violet's despair — and beaded necklaces got longer.
Season 6 (1925)
Season 6 (1925)
Who can forget that sweet little sweater Lady Mary wore?
Lady Rose's return a married woman and Lady Edith's bridal celebrations finally happens, all made possible by costume director Anna Robbins. Lady Mary's second wedding dress, a cream lace-embroidered look finished with a tasteful hat was stellar.
Edith and Bertie find the happiness they deserve.
Mary and Henry ride off into the sunset.
Season 6 tied up all the loose ends of the series. To my way of thinking, it all came to a very satisfying conclusion. The clothes were perfection...the icing on a beautiful cake. I loved the movie that came out later and picked up where the series left off.
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