Quick Note! Just in case someone gets a bit bothered by my using the age of 40 in my rant-y rant: I ended up using 40 because of the historical myth around "hOw PeOpLe DiDn'T LiVe LoNg In ThE pAsT" (basically this misconception on how anyone over the age of 30 is ancient) as well as Hollywood's general aging up of characters. While I probably could (and maybe should?) have pushed it up to past 50 or 60, I was trying to make an overall point about historical misconceptions, Hollywood, as well as how society has traditionally discarded women after they reach a certain age. Basically, allow women, at any and all ages, to be free to express themselves through fashion and dress. ❤️ Also, for everyone commenting about breathing, I was a trained actress for years, and I understand diaphragm breathing. I know many, many opera singers who prefer to wear corsets because they like to have something to press up against their diaphragm while they sing. I was mostly just being tongue-in-cheek about the *very* tired "omg I couldn't breathe!" interview snippets that come out of Hollywood every time there is a historical film released. If I'm being honest, I just accept this as a normal part of the interview circuit for actors because "OMG I COULDN'T BREATHE" gets more clicks and media attention (which is important when you're on the media circuit to advertise your movie) then "yeah, they're actually fine!" (See: this interview with Helena Bonham Carter: www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/31/helena-bonham-carter-divorce-is-cruel-but-some-parts-are-to-be-recommended - she actually talks about corsets and how they're fine, but I sincerely doubt we'll see this article get picked up by other media news outlets for that reason...) (Also, I really want to be friends with Helena Bonham Carter, she seems like loads of fun!) ❤️
I think it's a particular problem in this film because Mrs. Bennet was a beauty as a young lady and would have remained quite vain her whole life - this is why Mr. Bennet made the mistake of marrying such an incompatible companion. I believe she would have been as fashionable as she could afford, even past when it would have looked quite right to others.
I feel that Mrs. Bennet may have just stopped focusing on her own style after her daughters reached the marrying age...? (One-track-mind sort of thing). She was quite obsessed with getting her daughters married & most likely was much more focused on proper clothing for her girls & getting her girls attention...? Though I love all fashion, I'm no expert. This is just a thought. I also felt that Lizzy was just not concerned with her clothes. Didn't care much about fashion & felt that if a man were to be interested, she wanted them focused on her mind. I felt the opposite was true for Jane. I think her mother may have paid close attention to getting her married with the prettiest/most fashionable clothes because she was thought to be the prettiest...maybe? The youngest two seem to dress, reflecting their carefree personalities. And our dear, sweet, middle daughter, who seemed to dress based on her mood, which is quite possibly an undiagnosed depression disorder. No disrespect intended! These are just thoughts I had while watching the movie. I always love your videos & insite on historical.... everything! Love this video!
@@joywhitlock3647 if anything that would have likely driven her more towards being as age appropriately fashionable as possible. The more fashionable she was the more respectable she’d look which would make finding a suitable match for her daughters easier. Sort of a “dress for the job you want” situation. This goes for everyone but especially for women, your appearance and your clothing was a signifier of your morals and social standing (ie wealth, poverty being associated with low morals). The most modern version of this mentality is something like “your Sunday best” where dressing too much out of style or informal would have maybe a church congregation/pta/employer etc broadly question your judgement/capabilities etc.
Pet peeve: Movies making mr Collins short and almost forty when in the book he's "a tall, heavy looking young man of five and twenty" who is overly serious, formal and self-important, and silly because he combines this with a lack of integrity, understanding and self-awareness, not because he is a short person with a big ego. I would like to see a mr Collins who is a contrast to mr Darcy not because one is tall and serious and the other short and silly, but because they're both tall, overly serious/formal and self-important but only one of them has integrity, good understanding and the ability to improve from criticism. After all, they both make very mistaken and overly entitled proposals to Elizabeth thinking she is expecting it and must accept, when she actually despises them. Sure, mr Collins proposes from duty and Darcy from passion, but they're both blind.
Yes! The only Mr. Collins who comes close to physically matching the book canon is from the 1980 P&P with Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul, played by Malcolm Rennie. I can’t recall offhand if 1940 Collins matched canon. I’m not saying that David Bamber and Tom Hollander weren’t excellent in their portrayals, just that they didn’t match the canon.
The very first screen Mr. Collins was about 44 when the movie was made. Apparently, a bunch of old Hollywood executives couldn't wrap their brains around the idea that a man of 25 could be utterly repulsive from his manners alone. Or even be potentially good-looking except that his manners are thoroughly off-putting. But David Tennant did a very good job of that as Mr. Gibson in "He Knew He Was Right."
The other thing I liked about this version is that Mr Collins wasn’t pervy, he was just awkward and had no idea how to human. They did a good job making it look like Mary would have been a good companion for him as she was the only one who showed him any sympathy and if Mrs Bennet hadn’t been so focused on just marrying off her daughters in line she may have seen it.
YES I also absolutely love Mr. Collins' actor, he even slipped two jokes into the skript himself. Mary doesn't have a lot of time in this film but the way she shily smiled at Mr. Collins when Lizzie refused him brought it all so well together
Ughhh the more I watch the film the more I'm OBSESSED with the Mary subplot and her love for Collins. The biggest tragedy of the film is that those two people didn't find each other.
Yes! He is by far my favorite Mr. Collins. Collins wasn't written to be smelly and evil. He was young and raised to think a little too well of himself and his position, but he was not evil and he was not portrayed as a physically repellant person. He was not very smart, and he was a little puffed up, and he had no idea how to behave around women. I think this version of the film captured him beautifully.
I love (hate) how so many actresses are like "corsets are evil" when they wear them for a costume, but casually forget to mention all the times they wore a corset on the red carpet.
Tiny costume detail I loved: Mary’s apron looks like it was cut from the same fabric as the blue and white striped dress lizzy wore at pemberly. It’s like a little reminder that fabrics aren’t cheap and they’re gonna use up whatever leftover they have for other clothes!
Yes! Re-using and using every scrap of fabric is, and has been, absolutely a thing in our Western history. That's where crazy quilts come from: the quilter using every scrap of fabric in the house, because she had do.
You know what my biggest peeve with this movie was? They made the Bennets look poor and dirty, which is absurd. This is a family with an income that was roughly 8x that of the average middle class family. EIGHT TIMES. They were rich. The only people in the world they lived in that would have considered them anything other than fabulously wealthy...were people like Darcy (whose 10k/year would have made him one of the wealthiest humans in all of England in 1810). The '95 version got the money disparity right. The Bennet girls were in muslin more often than silk, and this made sense. The Bingley women wore silk and feathers--also made sense. This idea of romantic poverty for the Bennets grates my nerves. They lived a life of fantastic luxury compared to everyone outside of the Upper 10,000. I also don't care for how this movie doubled down on the elderly Bennet parents theme. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are roughly 45 and 39-40 respectively. They are not entering their dotage. They are just entering middle age. Sigh. This makes Abby's observation of Mrs. Bennet's fashions even more pertinent to the overall quality of the movie as it represents her. She was not an old woman. She was just leaving her youth, facing the reality of the second half of her life for the very first time. She would be brand new to the idea of putting her daughters ahead of herself as representatives of the family. The idea that she would have stopped trying to look like arm candy at a ball, herself, is ridiculous. I love the line in the 95 film (which also commits the sin of making Mrs. Bennet look older than she was) where Mrs. Bennet expresses interest in the latest fashions for sleeve length for that reason. Mrs. Bennet is still on the fashion train and still enjoys having her neighbors admire her as a beautiful and fashionable woman in her own right.
I definitely didn't like Elizabeth’s color palette and thought it didn’t suit her background. The lower class wore darker colors to make stains harder to spot. I don't know why this was never brought up.
I interpreted what they were trying to illustrate was more that the father didn't take running the estate seriously, and focused on his hobbies while neglecting properly running his home
@@RandomPerson-bc6td True, however given Elizabeth's tomboyish outdoorsy habits, tracking through fields and mud, it is not unreasonable that she'd wear darker colors for that very reason, whether on her own or by Mrs. Bennet's demand.
While that is definitely true, it's obviously visual shorthand for modern viewers to understand. If a 2005 audience is looking at a couple who's half rich and half very rich, it's not as easy to convey how their union might be undesirable for some/ advantageous for the other. It's a matter of translating the story to a different medium and conveying things most effectively.
My favorite versions are 1980 & 1995. I hated the way Longbourn was portrayed in the 2005 version. So dirty & unkempt! I almost expected to see chickens & livestock wandering thru the house! The Bennett family wasn't as wealthy as Mr Darcy or Mr Bingley, but they weren't poor either. The pig walking thru the walkway shot, filthy doors, walls & door moldings were everywhere, not to mention the stained wallpaper & dirty upholstery. Plus the shot of Mrs. Bennett with filthy shoes & stockings! And they have numerous servants, so I'm used to seeing their home portrayed as the (clean) home of a gentleman. You can show a family living in a house without all dirt & grime IMO.
Have to say the Swedish Historieätarna (probably based on Supersizers but not sure) was pretty great too! The clothes were more focused on, I think and the presenters had really good chemestry, similar to Sue and Giles, but in their own way (so it wasn't like the show was trying to copy anything straight-off really).
On the styles of 'women of a certain age', I think it far more likely women kept hairstyles they preferred for too long, than clothing. Clothing wears out, doesn't fit anymore etc, but once a woman finds a hairstyle that works, it's easy to maintain forever. My Nana, born in 1912 had a 30s perm wave until she passed in 2000, and my Grandma, born in 1927 kept her 50s bob til she passed in 2015. Other than hair, they were always fashionable. Think of how Laura Ingalls' mum always wore her hair in wings over her ears. Teen Laura explained how out of fashion it was, but her mother liked that style best and kept it! Hair style a good 20yrs out of date from 1860 in the 1870/80s.
I read a novel set in the 17th c, & the grandma- while wearing the style of the time, maintains the later Elizabethan hairstyle of her youth - I could well imagine that occurring in real-life, too...
I've been interested in royalty recently and let me tell you that after looking at all of queen Elizabeth 2nd picture from her youth until now, her hairstyle remains the same and your words suddenly make sense and I have never been happier to find a comment that explain this. Thank you.
They DID NOTHING with the hair in this movie. It was “We tried really hard with the costumes so the hair gets NOTHING. We’re too damn tired.” And then they burned down the hair trailer and decided not to rebuild it for the rest of the filming of the movie.
omg 😂😂😂😂😂 "Burned down the hair trailer" - all i can imagine now is some confused PA with a lighter and a can of aqua net going, "ARE YOU SURE THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO?" YES. YES IT IS JESSICA. YES. IT. IS.
The hair is always terrible in period movies. Even if they get the costumes right, the hair is modern. Watching the 1940 PP I cant help but see the same thing.
I felt like the point was that Lizzy was tomboyish and so probably, in everyday dress, wanted to be as comfortable as possible, meaning wearing fewer layers
I'm totally with you, Stephanie. The dresses looked like they were made of sackcloth, not like fabric for human clothing. It's possible to have simple, sturdy clothes for an active lady that doesn't look like it's made from the same stuff Hollywood puts medieval peasants in.
I've always found this P&P film IDNOP (In Dire Need Of Petticoats). If you want to go the 1790s route to lower the waist, you also need to oomph a little the skirts to get the correct "round gown" silhouette (I think the 1995 Sense and Sensibility film did a pretty decent job on that).
@Jonathan Parks the characterization of Lizzy is that she likes to do things that at the time would be considered tomboyish. For instance, her love of walking and her disregard for how it affected her clothing.
@@TheEudaimonya The director was trying to make the Bennetts look much poorer than they really were. And he overdid it. The result was beyond ludicrous - like so much else in the film. I decided at once that he knew nothing about British history or the novel itself, since this was a misrepresentation of both.
The thing I loved the most about this video was that it wasn't a roast- I'm getting a bit tired of seeing creators tear down other people's work. This was so informative- and you took the time to acknowledge the different artistic approaches which go into designing costume for film, and I still learnt about the accuracy and inaccuracies. More of this please!
so much THIS! i was a bit wary about watching this, despite how much i love abby's stuff, because i am sick of watching people roasting costumers decisions. (which isn't to say that it's not often valid criticism, i just find it really tiring! especially the ones that don't really allow for any nuance. personally, i'm as interested in costumes being done the way they were in a knight's tale or marie antoinette where they take ALL the liberties, as i am in seeing historical accuracy.)
@@BarbiesRevenge579 I totally agree! As much as the criticisms are often valid it is starting to feel a little mean spirited- particularly when they ignore any of the films merits in order to thoroughly 'rip' the costume design. In some cases it feels like trying to invalidate a person's argument because they used the wrong grammar! The moment Abby opened this video talking about how lovely the film itself was I knew it was going to be balanced :) xx
I thinks roasts have their place and can be fun (I’m always down for a good roasting of LW19, and I do watch Lindsay Ellis, and I live for her roasting of not great movies). But when it comes to costuming, I need people who recognise that it’s not always about the historical accuracy- like in Marie Antoinette. I think Micarah struck that balance with her roasting of LW19. She acknowledges that sometimes creative liberties heighten the story and the characters. But also sometimes can take you right out of it. It can be a fine line to walk- both the costuming itself and the roasting of said costuming. If it’s just “this isn’t perfectly accurate!”, I’m not here for it. But if someone understands how movie costuming works, and that accuracy isn’t the only important thing, then I’m more than okay with it. Basically, if it’s a MovieSins style roast- no thank you. But a Lindsay Ellis style roast? Yes, please!
This comment!! I love roasting inaccurate costumes as much as the next guy but lately it’s feeling like punching down, l like when videos explain the different artistic choices behind the inaccuracies, and compare them to the historical fashion plates, but when people criticize costume decisions for being inaccurate when they weren’t even aiming for accuracy, idk sometimes it feels like they are assuming costume designers are dumb, they are not, they just have to compromise their vision for the studio and directors Idk point is don’t come at me talking about how the costumes from Anna Karenina, Moulin Rouge, or Great Gatsby are an innacurate travesty, I already assumed that the moment they started singing 2000s pop songs, the moment snow started falling indoors, and the moment sparkly swirly magic appeared in the shot
The first two dresses were exactly what a farmer's daughter would wear. BT Lizzie was NOT a framers daughter, she was a GEBTLEMAN'S daughter which she points out in no uncertain tearms in the text of script to Mr Darcy.
@@jonathanparks207 No, Mr Bennett was not a gentleman farmer. He was a gentleman with a small estate that farmed as all estates large and small did at that time. His income would have come from tenants who actually farmed his land. This was what the 2005 move got wrong. That pigs would have been roaming around just outside the back door and hay was being lofted onto wagons in the courtyard of his manor was completely not the kind of family Jane Austen was writing about. She would have had little to do with such farming families and the daughters of such families would not have been accepted in the drawing rooms she knew at her brother's house, nor would they have been invited to a ball at Netherfield, Mr Bingham's house. Take a look at Emma and see where the class system clearly delineates between a gentlemen, no matter how poor, and a prosperous farmer, no matter how gentleman-like he may be.
@@Enjemnsnens Dear me pet, judge not lest ye be judged. I hope you have never made a typographical error. But yes it was careless of me. Happily my books are all thoroughly edited or my readers would get onto me as you have.
"Older" women have control of more resources. We care a great deal about fashion. I don't imagine this is a modern reality. Clothing is directly related to resources. :)
True. I am 40. I wear what I want. I style my hair how I want. Keeping up with the fads can be exhausting. I prefer vintage/ classic styles. They tend to stick around longer & you can avoid looking at photos in 10 years, or so, and saying, "What was I thinking?!" 😂
I would like to point out that in the 1995 version we get a vain Mrs. Bennet who is wrapt you hear about new trends from Mrs. Gardener..... another point to 1995 and match..
Also, Mrs. Bennet's clothes she wore when younger would probably not fit her after having had five children. So she would have had to alter them, which makes no sense.
A lot of late 1700's clothes were fixed with pins and ribbons - not fixed buttons etc. Therefore you would usually always fit your clothes! People would also refashion their outfits - taking in sleaves and hemlines etc according to the fashion of the decade. Not having fast fashion meant that people had to make things last, whilst still looking as fashionable as their budget and wardrobe would allow.
I am actually smaller after having a child (pant size 6 to 2/4 depending on the brand), because... lactation. Smaller than I was in high school. By about 20 pounds. My sister with five kids still wears some of her highschool dresses.
I have to respectfully disagree about Lizzy’s costumes, one of the through lines of P&P is that Jane and Lizzy are ladies who fit into society with wild younger sisters and an inappropriate mother. Lizzy doesn’t dress like the daughter of a gentleman in this film, she looks like a domestic servant or farmers wife at best. The fabrics looked cheap and and the dresses were somehow both childish and frumpy at the same time. As evidenced in the text Lizzy does care how she and her sisters are perceived in society and understands how important it is for them to make a good match. Being tomboyish or emphasising that they were not as wealthy as the Bingly’s and Darcy’s would be counter productive. They were a respectable country family and she goes to great lengths to show this. The hair and farm dresses in this film ruined it for me.
I LOVE Caroline Bingley's clothing in this version. The red dress especially is just soooo good and it's great to see a red head not just automatically shoved in green all the time.
Also really liked that, but I also wondered if at that time, wasn't it considered bad taste if a redhead wore pinks and reds, just as a blonde wearing yellow? I read that somewhere in a magazine, but that could've been a saucy opinion of the author as well.
It's about complimentary colors. Green is opposite to red in the color wheel, so it would look best to mix green with red since they balance eachother out. This goes for yellow and blue as well, so that's why those colors often get mixed together. (Yellow/green with purple, pink/orange/blue too)
Well, about the launderess hating Lizzy, I'm actually reading "Longbourn" by Jo Baker, and the protagonist is indeed the launderess/housemaid, who remarks in the first pages "if Elizabeth had the washing of her own petticoats, she'd most likely be a sight more careful with them" XD
Great point about the diversity of how people fashion their clothing. So often you find people clinging to a fashion plate and insisting that it must look exactly like that one image. My biggest joy when seeing people recreate historical fashion is seeing their personal interpretation of it! I love to see the choices people make to make it their own.
Same here! We always seem to forget that they were real people back then, with quirks, preferences, and personalities. To remove that is to remove their humanity, and our own personality when wearing our own historical costumes and recreations.
You just have to get people to remember that fashion plates were more like the runway fashion of today. Though unlike today fashion it wasn’t designed for a body type but a wallet type. People admired the fashion plates then made something within their means. Everything from someone saying I want to someone counting pennies to get the fabric of their dreams (or just the trim of their dreams as they remade a dress)
The first time I accidentally caught 2005 skipping through the channels, I missed the opening part, so I didn't know it was supposed to be PnP. Prior to catching the names of the characters and having a jaw-dropping moment, I had no doubt I was watching something about farmers, barn passions and cattle.
Wearing my normal corset and having lunch while watching the opening after just wearing said corset all morning and even riding my bike in it. Yup, no clue how we made it this far ladies. Not a clue.
@@beckstheimpatient4135 I haven’t ridden a horse in many years, but I would assume it’s actually far easier to do so in a corset- what with the help with posture and the bust support. I remember bras really not holding up to the bouncing of bigger boobies, sports bras were the best, but still not as supportive as a corset would be.
@@AbbyCox Just a small detail re your smirk of "actresses breathing through their intestines"... As someone who trained in acting and public speaking and such, I probably know what they meant by that. I'm sure you've heard of the diaphragm... it IS a very important part of the body when it comes to both breathing and speaking or singing well. People of the profession use it very conscientiously to control the air and thus the voice that comes out. So I can understand they felt uncomfortable if the corsets supressed their abdomen area between the breast and tummy. Nonetheless though, you're perfectly right about most of them whining about corsets and I just wonder, do they never make them to actually fit the actresses? In that case it would be no wonder they felt uncomfortable. - I'm sure you've seen Karolina's corset-focused mock actress interview... ;-) I can wear my Regency long stays all day and the only situation where I'd rather not have them is putting my shoes on and driving. (I still manage to do both anway...) - Have fun with all your future endeavours, I love your dramatic presentation. :-)
@@ducklingcz Lina Piprek did a video on corsets in movies. She explains why actresses complain yes breathing difference is a problem but for me, i have to wear one on a runway, it was the heat from the lights i got light headed and felt out of breath then i couldn't fully take a deep belly breath.
My main issue with Lizzy's costumes was that they kinda look like a working class woman's or smth. I mean, Bennets were not that poor. Besides, as an elder daughter of marriageable age, she would get better fabric - compared to younger sisters who are still not participating in balls and such. It would have been more logical if she had less dresses, not a lot of bulshit quality ones'.
As a woman over 40, there's no way on earth I'd dress like I did when I was a teenager. Jordache jeans, layering 3 or 4 shirts, 100 clacking bangle bracelets, footless tights with miniskirts? No, thank you.
Oh yes! You took the words out of my mouth! Ugg! I forgot the footless tights! I look at photos of myself from when I was a teenager and wonder what I was thinking! No better way to look “old” than to wear age inappropriate clothes or look like you are stuck in the past. Unless of course we are history bounding, in which case all bets are off 😂
Great analysis! The two things that bother me most about the costuming are 1) Pick a date and stick with it! The clothing styles cover almost 40 years, right? It's jarring. It creates a cognitive dissonance that is unfortunate. And 2) Mrs. Bennett: while she is indeed focused on the daughters, it is clear in the book that the family are living right up to their income, which means she is a spender. The character is also described as once very pretty, and still very silly. That would be a woman who would have been fashionable to the point of vulgarity.
I also preferred Jane's clothes in the film. I always felt that Jane, as the eldest, got the better dresses to make her more marriage market worthy, and thanks for the defense of the over 40 and their love of fashion. That -- dressing them 20 years out of date -- bothered me. BTW thanks for helping Rachel in her Katrina van Tassel striped dress. Are you going to review Tom Pye's Gentleman Jack and Deirdre Clancy's Wives and Daughters? Also Lillie miniseries?
It’s always lovely to see crossovers or even mentions of other TH-camrs on a different channel. I’ve also greatly enjoyed watching Rachel shift more into CosTube from her original vintage channel- it matches almost perfectly with my change from 1940s vintage style to a more history bounding Edwardian style myself. I’d always loved the styles, but felt too self conscious to wear anything older than the 1940s. And Rachel did such a stunning job on that dress, particularly given her extremely short deadline. I don’t get how she does it. I’ve been making my weird complicated banyan for two months now. I reckon I’ve got about a week to go. (Finish hand sewing on the almost 20m of trimming, then make a belt and belt loops and it’s good to go. And then I need to figure out how to put together a printed out pattern and start in some undergarments...)
I do prefer Lizzie’s, but I also don’t care much for being fashion foward and adore the colors black, brown, and dark greens. Felt like something I would lounge in today lmao
I do like the 2005 version but the hard really takes me out of it, especially Kieira's bad wig... In the 1995 version the 'women of a certain age' costuming was so good, well, the whole costuming was fab! Really want to re-watch both now :)
@@Steph_here the ends of her short haircut for the movie Domino are often visible when her hair is up… they’re most jarring for me at the Netherfield ball, sticking out from under the pearled up-do. I’m baffled as to how the stylists couldn’t figure out a way to slick them up underneath the wigs instead of having them straggling out the bottom.
Abby, as someone who is learning, I want to thank you SO MUCH for adding pictures of the fashion plates and extant pieces that pertain to what you're discussing, THANK YOU
Just fun little note about older women and fashion: anecdotal: Ellen Nussey, in her description of the Bronte family, tells us a little about Elizabeth Branwell, born 1776, being described as she was in the early to mid 1830s: ‘Miss Branwell was a very small, antiquated little lady. She wore caps large enough for half a dozen of the present fashion, and in front of light auburn curls over her forehead. She always dressed in silk. She had a horror of the climate so far north, and of the stone floors in the parsonage… She talked a great deal of her younger days… she gave one the idea that she had been a belle among her home acquaintances. She took snuff out of a very pretty gold snuff-box, which she sometimes presented to you with a little laugh, as if she enjoyed the slight shock and astonishment visible in your countenance...' By the same token, in Belgium, Emily Bronte was singled out for wearing out of fashion mutton sleeves in 1842. Mr. Bronte, FYI, preferred silk or wool, thinking it was less of a fire hazard than other fabrics.
Re: breathing into the stomach area--singers, wind players, actors...projection uses the muscles around the lower abdomen, deep supported breaths need the diaphragm to lower which will push the lower abdomen out a bit. Try lying down, put your hand on your stomach, and take a very deep relaxed breathe. You will feel your stomach rise as well as your ribs expand.
I was coming here to say the same thing (and thought, hmm, check the 216 comments that are already there, first). I immediately thought of decades of chorus rehearsals with "sit/stand up straight, relax your shoulders back, and breath down into your stomach."
I don't think people think through very thoroughly that when your lungs expand other things have to make room for that as well.... I'm not anti-corset (I own one and wear it for back support) but country to the way all the "historical dress" folks talk about it, it DOES have an effect on your lungs capacity, and not breathing into your lower lungs for long periods of time can over time weaken your immune system. I think it is a disservice not to mention that, because it leads those who know better to dismiss anything else they say on the subject as dishonest.
@@sorelyanlie2784 I don’t disagree with you, not exactly. But I find I have absolutely no issue breathing deeply (using my stomach) while in a corset. Maybe it’s the years of classical singing training, but I also find it easier to sing well in a corset, and definitely have no problems with breathing properly. And I do wear corsets very frequently- every time I leave the house, and any time I want to get sewing done at the machine. Also any time I want to practise singing- I’ve gotten so used to it now that I find it easier to sing in a corset than without one.
Thank you for this great review of P&P05 costumes. You made me feel better about the movie (I did love the music and cinematography). I couldn't see the beauty of the costumes before because I was so put off by how slovenly the whole Bennet family looked-- unkempt hair (all the time, even at public gatherings), wrinkled clothes, messy house, pigs running through the house, mud everywhere. Ugh! As if! (to quote another Austen inspired heroine) The Bennets were upper middle class gentry, living so well and spending so much that they weren't saving any money for their daughters' dowries. A major plot point. Mrs. B is known for setting a lavish table for guests, and for being vain (about herself and her daughters). They were not living in genteel squalor and they weren't poor.
I thought most of the costuming for the Bennet girls were drab. It’s like they had given up on life and the hair only helped to give the impression that they needed mood enhancers added to their tea.
I firmly believe that the director went overboard trying to show [wrongly in fact] that the Bennetts were poor. Or rather poorer than their neighbours. Since his target audience [the one that yields the big profit] is in the US, he would need to make that point very clear in order to illustrate the theme - i.e. catching a rich husband. But British audiences understand the class system and that the Bennetts were gentry and fairly well-off. The girls had to marry well, not because of poverty, but because of the terms of a will which would prevent them from inheriting the family property on their father’s death.
@Belinda May They would have been extremely poor when Mr. Bennett died. They would have had half as much to live on, or less, than Mrs. Bennett gave them in pocket money growing up. Even if they all lived together, they would have had the equivalent of £20,000 to pay for housing, food, clothes, etc. for 5 daughters and Mrs. Bennett. They couldn't have even remotely hoped to live in anything but desperate indigence unless Mrs. Bennett's brother helped them.
I think people like it so much because you could wear it today with no changes whatsoever, and it would look perfectly normal. A tad vi rage perhaps, but still normal. Which is exactly why I don’t like it.
Agreed. They tried in so many ways to make the 2005 adaptation "relatable"... but it SHOULDN'T be relatable to modern women with feminist sensibilities! It makes it feel like one of those high school plays of an old story with a "modern twist", instead of feeling like a fly on the wall in a different era than ours.
Given how many of many of us are stuck at home for quarantining and stuck indoors with winter coming I was really hoping we'd see a surge in videos of people making the historical equivalents of todays homewear/sweater or hoodie with sweatpants or legging. When we saw Jane's house coat all I could think was "please show us how to make it!" I don't think id ever make historic clothing to wear out beyond history bounding levels but I would totally make stuff to wear around the house. Its always what Im most jealous of when watching films. Anyway. No more complaining. Thank you for the video. As I actually bought the dvd a month ago I think this is a great excise for a rewatch. Be safe, and be well all.
Thank you! It is literally one of the first exchanges in the book between Mr and mrs bennett, where he pays her this sweet little compliment that she shouldn't go with the girls to be introduced to the prominent Mr bingley because the man might end up in love with her instead. She is repeatedly highlighted as the type of person who cares what people say and would probably be mortified to be thought out of fashion!
Yeah, you need to be a little careful when taking ANY statement of Mr. Bennett's at face value, particularly toward Mrs. Bennett. It's made VERY clear in the book that his main solace from marrying Mrs. Bennett is laughing at her whenever he can.
Your points about Mrs Bennet were interesting, and I hadn’t thought about it that way! I had always interpreted her out-of-date clothing as a reflection of her priorities- marrying her daughters off was obviously far more important to her than literally anything else, it made sense to me that she wouldn’t have prioritized herself over her daughters. But your analysis of her character and how that would have translated to her costumes was really thoughtful, and it makes a lot of sense to me! Awesome video 👏🏽👏🏽
In the book it was made pretty clear Mrs. Bennet was highly interested in current fashions. She would certainly been more likely to be mutton dressed as lamb than to cling to old fashions. She was very impressed over the London fashions of Bingleys sisters and commented on others fashion and dresses in general. She definitely saw clothes as important in creating status.
That is giving Mrs. Bennet far too much credit. She is one of my most despised characters in all of literature. She is vain and self centered. She only cares about Kitty and Lydia because they are as ridiculous as she is. She literally makes herself look like a clown the entire time and openly admits she doesn’t even care about most of her children. The only reason she wanted them married well was for HER benefit. She knew that eventually Mr. Bennet would die and she would have no where to go. If her daughters didn’t marry well that was going to affect her, it certainly wasn’t out of any great love for her children.
Never watched the 05 verdion. Never could get past the changes they showed in the comments for it. Did like your review of the clothes. Looking forward to next weeks after seeing your Instagram sneak peek
I’ve personally never had any major problems with the costumes in this version(other than the hair obviously), my problem with this movie is in the way they adapted the novel. As someone who read the book before seeing any adaptations of it, I don’t really like how they choose to make what’s essentially a satire of the world Austen herself was living in, to a movie that mostly focuses in the romance... I mean, the romance is great, but there is so much more in the book to explore and I think the 1995 version did that better. Also, WHY did they choose to make the Bennets look so poor? They are not meant to be poor, they were still high middle class. And based on our current knowledge about the period, they might even have had higher status then Bingley since they came from old money and owned land, whereas Bingley only had new money. The Bennets should not be living with literal pigs in their house, like they do in this version. But loved the video and the insights it gave into the design of the film! I appreciate the filmmakers effort to bring Austens book to a more mainstream audience and will occasionally watch it, but the 1995 will always be my favourite💁♀️
The bit about making them look poor is what really bugs me, too! Mr. Bennett was a landed gentry. There's a really good video done by someone who analyzes the social classes in pride and prejudice and also estimates how much money they would have roughly in today's economy. th-cam.com/video/HzXL5bcokmI/w-d-xo.html
It seems like the director can't believe that the audience could understand a concept like 'when your father dies you will be poor but you're not poor now' so we get a poor falling down wreck of a house to show why its important these girls get married instead of the slightly more subtle but still pretty obvious differences like the Bennets wearing cotton prints and the Bingleys wearing silk or just a comparison of the size of the house.
@@ElizabethJones-pv3sj sigh😊 someone else who knows the background of the costuming choices for the 1995 version. I was beginning to think it wouldn't get a mention.
My thoughts in no particular order: This entire movie gives me Regency cottage core vibes. I love your idea of having Mrs. Bennet trying to dress like her daughters. The costume designers could have had a lot of fun with making her clothes just a little too over the top or a little too frilly to show how silly she is. It kind of makes sense that Jane would have the nicest and most fashionable clothes. As the eldest daughter, and the one that Mrs. Bennet sees as the most eligible for marriage, she would be the most likely to get new clothes, while all of the younger daughters would get hand me downs.
This is fantastic. On a fun and completely irrelevant to the subject matter note, I giggle every time you use that dumpster floating image. The original source image is actually from awful flooding on a main road in Pittsburgh, PA and the dumpster itself belonged to the sign company I worked for at the time. 🤣
I would LOVE to see a review of the costumes from the 1985 Anne of Green Gables with Megan Follows. I've always admired how even the stripes matched on their dresses
Thank you so much for this!!! I was a bit nervous to watch because I find that a lot of "historical movie costume review" content can get super nit-picky, but I really appreciate how much research you put into this. Your analysis was fair and nuanced and I gained a new appreciation for this film that I already love so much. I always love seeing what research rabbit-holes you come across
I also loved that they used spiral lacing, unfortunately the stays were made with parallel eyelet holes, you can tell by the way the left side of the back has pushed upwards to balance with how it has been laced up. At least the wardrobe assistant knew how it was supposed to be done!
I didn't care for how Wickham felt like almost a non-entity in this version. He was such a great "villain" in the 1995 version. But Jane's costumes in this are lovely. If I could pull off those colors I'd love that blue pelisse! Maybe I'll have to try it in a darker blue...
The first and only time I was laced into a corset, was when I tried on a corseted wedding dress. I was surprised at how comfortable it was! I have back problems and breathing problems (combo of asthma, allergies, and anxiety) and I actually found it EASIER to breathe in a corset and it eased a lot of my back pain too. Made me seriously want to invest in a corset for regular wear lol
I have chronic pain and when I wear my pair of stays ( 18th century corset) it helps my back pain a lot. I basically can't do chores without wearing it.
I've recently made my first pair of Regency stays, and I was delighted first by the support it gave up top :) and second by the back support! It forces me to sit straight but doesn't make my back ache! Now every time my back aches from my posture I wish I was wearing them haha.
@@ElixirSpice I'd like to wear mine as a bra alternative too! The main problem is that it takes me a while to lace them up-mine are long stays and back-lacing. But I love how they feel to wear!
Even thought, now I know this movie wasn't historically accurate, it was the one that got me in period pieces, dramas, etc., and subsequently, historical costumes. So, just for that alone, I'm grateful. Love your videos (and you, of course). ❤️ Portugal. 😉
Actually I notice that many women do get stuck in a decade they liked and felt comfortable in. I recently noticed my favorite bootcut slacks were discontinued, and I really dislike current fashions. I’ve been looking back at the 90s with a lot of nostalgia 😁
bootcut is my favourite because it oftens allows for larger thighs that the straight leg pants really don't! The only thing I like about recent bootcuts is they all have the higher waist which is so much nicer to wear!
Honestly, I have adapted more than half of the hairstyles from this movie to my everyday style with almost no changes. Which just proves how little they have in common with the 1790s or 1800s.
I love the 1995 version. I think the cinematography and scoring of the 2005 is lovely. I will probably always pick the 1995 to watch before any other version. Thanks for the thoughtful costume analysis.
The funny thing about putting Mrs Bennet in older clothes is that she must have changed enough physically that the original clothes she wore probably wouldn’t fit without some adjustments, and she must have had a new gown or two made since her youth.... So the movie wants us to think she had all her gowns made specifically out of fashion 🤦🏻♀️
This is so intriguing!! Thank you so much for doing this! Lizzys dresses annoyed me so much but I respect everything so much more now! Also... MacFayden is too beautiful. Thank you for commenting the HAND FLEX! (And the awful hair)
Thanks for the insight on Kiera's shirt - I actually didn't know they wore such shirts and thought it was oddly out of period. Love your dramatic delivery and research Abby and do more costume reviews! As a die-hard for the A&E PP (Colin Firth OMG) I am going to watch the newer one again with more indulgence!!
Not only the hand flex, but her looking over the cliffs and the open shirt in the morning fog... I could go on. :) I loved the scenery, costumes, acting and beautiful people in this movie! Great review on the clothing!
Ok, I'll admit, you've convinced me the costumes of the 2005 film are fine. Setting the film in the time the story was written in explains much. However, the 1995 mini series will always be my favourite. (Que personal(!) opinion) For one it was the first version I saw, and it made me read the book while before I wasn't at all into Austen. Secondly, they had of course, a lot more time for character development and faithfulness to the novel, which to me as a literature graduate is a big plus. Thirdly. the characters are more likable (to me) in the series. Especially Bingly is more relatable while in the movie he comes across as a wimp without initiative or even sympathetic looks, so I could hardly believe Jane would fall for him. Also Colin Firth is way more handsome than the other guy. :P And Jane in the series, while not particularly beautiful to modern standards, does fit the more classical/Grecian beauty standard of the time. Lastly, the hair, I hated the hair in the film, but that started only after I learned how much work went into the 1995 series to get the hair right. Close rant. Thank you Abby, lovely video!
I remember a comment from the hair person from the 1995 film, apparently she nearly had a conniption when Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet) turned up having cut her hair short because she thought it would be more comfortable for long term wig wearing. She spent most of the filming checking the back of her neck for stray escapees.
Love the video! Quick note: intestines do need to move in respiration. In order to produce negative pressure in the lungs to bring in air, the diaphragm contracts and pushes the intestines out of the thoracic cavity and into the abdominal cavity. If the stomach is being restrained in some way, the intestines cannot move as much, the diaphragm cannot contract as much, and less air will be brought into the lungs. This is why women who are farther along in the pregnancy have to take more, smaller breaths. The baby takes up so much space that the lungs cannot expand to their full capacity!
My two major issues with the 2005 version is the deleting of Bingley's second sister, and also just the pace of the movie felt so rushed.... It felt like I was watching the whole thing in sped up pace because they just talk fast and do everything quickly which kind of bothers me, yet I do concede that it was a beautiful film with great costumes and lovely setting/soundtrack! Great video Abby!
I have to agree. Especially with Mr. Wickham. He just seemed kinda broody and not like the charming con artist we know him to be. It reduced the weight of his actions for me. Also, it didn't feel like we really got to know the other sisters (accept maybe Jane).
@@paigejohnson8519 True. I honestly don't hate this movie. In fact, there are quite a few things I really like (ex: that quick double take Mr. Darcy makes the first time he sees Elizabeth). I just feel like in this version, there are quite a few characters that we don't get a proper sense of and that come across as one note. Part of it is time restrictions, and the other part is the acting (don't hate the actors, just not a fan of the interpretation). Still a good movie.
For me the 2005 version is mostly visual and the soundtrack too is beautiful. The storyline is totally rushed and I don't think it would have made much sense to me if I hadn't previously read the book.
That fact that you used the French Revolution Supersizers episode with Sue and Giles for that clip reference at 5:51 is just so awesome, that’s one of my favorite shows.
I'd love to see your thoughts on Aang Lee' Sense and Sensibility. I think the older women in that one were maybe more fashionably relevant for the time period they were going for. If I'm remembering correctly, lol.
Ok, I was prejudiced against the costumes in this film and this changed my mind somewhat. But I’m still not crazy about them because of they fit very well in the film’s very very wrong understanding of social class at the time. They made all the Bennett’s costumes to signal “Hey, we’re kinda poor!!” (don’t get me started on the pig in the house) when they really weren’t, nobody has any manners (because they’re so, ya know, spontaneous), etc. While I kinda get the why, I dislike production choices that underestimate audiences on principle, but hey, lots of people absolutely love the film, so...
A few weeks back, I rewatch this in "Netflix party" style with a historical costuming friend, and a good portion of the chat was taken up with yelling about the hair.
I disliked this version from the first time I saw and it my dislike just grows whenever I think "hey, let me give it another try" yeah, still awful. Costumes, hair, the whole thing. The '95 version is the best!
Yes. This movie is truly awful. It’s not just the drab costumes, everything about it is awful. The actors don’t fit the characters. Darcy is a lump dishrag and Elizabeth is a shrew. The Bennetts were not poor at all, and would never have had farm animals in their house. Nothing like the book at all, and nothing to be enjoyed on its own merits. It’s like someone read the book, then decided to throw out everything that was good about it.
@@circedelune It is so funny how you get this exact same comment about both the 1995 and 2005 version, depending on which one people saw first. I actually tried watching the 1995 recently and stopped halfway through because I thought the acting and casting was so bad. Iconic lines cut short or delivered in a completely ill-fitting tone, Jane miscast, Mrs Bennett wayyy over the top annoying, Mary made ugly in the usual Hollywood way, the camera constantly staring at Mr. Darcy staring at Lizzy, no effort made to put any emotion in the dancing scenes. It's not often you get such varying opinions about different adaptions so I love it!
2005 P&P is one of my favorite movies. I know it's got some issues from a historical accuracy perspective (and a bit from a book accuracy perspective). I just always thought the cinematography was beautifully done, and the costumes told a story about the characters (problematic or not). Mostly, though, I totally bought these actors as a family - they're messy and awkward and unfashionable but also clearly affectionate. Their comfort and casual manners as they move around each other felt like a real family to me (though, this may partly just be that the mom looks a lot like my mom and overall they remind me of my own family... so, I'm biased, basically). I also found the actresses portraying the sisters believable as *young* women, whereas in the 1995 version I felt like most of the characters seemed older than they were supposed to be.
I find it odd when viewers approach an unfamiliar work of art through the prism of self - one’s own personality, background and actual experiences. This quest for a high degree of familiarity is very limiting. I have to agree though that the actors playing Jane and Lizzie in the 1995 version looked far too old.
I found the hair and dresses of 1995 Lizzie looking too perfect and "appropriate". While reading the book I have always envisioned Lizzie as a free spirited creature above such things as "perfectly clean and wrinkle free" dresses and many artificially looking curles.
I am so happy I found your channel! I am really into men’s wear from the 15th to 19th century to the point of unashamedly wearing my historic clothes in any remotely appropriate setting. Watching your videos on women’s clothing is really filling some glaring gaps in my expertise and imagination as an obsessive seamster! I genuinely want to make some examples when I can find a model. I definitely have a few points about the clothes on the gents in this film but I’ll save that for my own video.
I have been re watching Supersizers Go and it is so great to see it get some love. Your videos are so wonderful and just what I need in the current Hellscape.
I haven't watched this film in a long time because my memory of the costumes had been pretty 'mheh'. I don't think I could get past the limp skirt shapes and the hair. You've given me a new appreciation for the other bits though, and I may have to revisit it.
Interesting how much information research into underpinnings has come on in the last 15 years (like how to make me feel old... getting awfully close to 50!)
I know literally nothing about fashion/historical fashion but your enthusiasm and passion made me watch this whole video and I absolutely love it! I’ll be thinking a lot more about the costumes the next time I rewatch this movie!
I have long disliked this movie because it felt not like a wander through the Regency period, but more like a dead sprint so that the story would fit into the 90 minute attention span of modern movie-goers. The pace of the 1995 was more leisurely and gave time for more character development and general ambiance. I will give the movie another look because ... hand flex...
Could you also do the same to the 1995 version. I was always curious how Jane’s décolleté shape is completely different to Elizabeth’s. Were both types in fashion?
Another thing regarding the "40 year old women in 20 year old fashions" is that it also implies that these women were in their 30s wearing out of style dresses, and just... no? If they showed them in fashions from 5 years before, then fine, that might work. But I doubt that any women one day just completely stopped following fashion and decided to stick to just one style, especially if they were on the young side of matronly. (And it was perfectly possible for a 40 year old to have 20 year old daughters, even though Brenda Blethyn was quite a bit older than that in the film)
Not only was it possible for a 40 year-old to have a 20-year-old daughter, it would have been normal. Mrs. Bennett probably would've been about 40 to 45. No birth control, and most upper class girls wanted to be married as soon after 18 as possible, eager to have their own household, so they had children while still very young. The high age at first marriage usually quoted during this time period refers mostly to lower class girls who entered domestic service before they got married. (The Bennetts lived in a small village with a very small pool of eligible men - men of the right social status, good looking, intelligent, etc. and their lack of dowry put them at the bottom of that marriage market. That's why Jane and Elizabeth, despite being the beauties of the area, didn't have serious suitors before Bingley and Darcy showed up, in spite of the military officers that came in and out of town with the troops.) Mrs. Bennet was extremely status-conscious and she was vain in the book; I absolutely cannot imagine that she would go about in old dresses. Not a chance.
Thank you for explaining to me all the reasons previously unbeknownst to me why I prefer 1995 version. I used to just think it was Colin Firth but turns out it was Colin and the Clothes.
I’m sorry Abby I still hate this movie and prefer 95’ forever. The costume, the hair, the manners all rubbed me wrong and I hate it. One thing that you didn’t touch on is the wealth of these characters. Even though there was a great deal of effort made into the Bennett’s are “poor” that’s not actually true. The Bennett’s were still in the upper classes of society, they were landed gentry after all. Jane Austen always wrote the upper classes exclusively because that was all she her self knew. The only reason the “poor” label is attached to the Bennett girls is that they have no dowry because their father’s estate is entailed to the male line and since he didn’t bother to set up a savings account for his five daughters when they were born the girls and their mother will be penniless when daddy dearest kicks the bucket. But right now while he is alive they do have money to spend on things like clothes. My point is the girls would be dressed in fashion for the time and their class (aka the 1%). I just felt like this movie made the Bennett’s seem poorer then they really were and I can’t forgive it for that. Also the film felt rushed to me plot wise like somebody was pressing the fast forward button. But I suppose everything would feel rushed when you go from almost 6 hour version to a conventional movie length.
Exactly! They made the Bennets look "natural" but trashy. Messy hair, dresses full of wrinkles. And Abby's fav dress? Interesting that she pointed out that it was a remade dress, however... Why in hell the ANY Bennet would wear a remade dress in first place? Ms Bennet would never let any of her daughters wear something dated, they would something new and fashionable to marry a wealthier man. So these costumes still make no sense since they're changing something very important from the original book.
Honestly, this is the main reason I can't stand the movie. Just the constant shots reinforcing how poor the Bennets are, even though they actually aren't?? Like, why on earth does Mr. Bennet walk a pig through the house? It makes no sense!!!
Yes, when Mrs. Bennet learns that Lydia will be getting married, she launches into no-expense-spared plans for new clothes, so the cost of fabric wasn't something she, at any rate, was concerned about.
Thank you for this. Because I'm sure I will never, ever watch it of my own volition, but you've given me a new appreciation for the work that actually did go into the costumes. I'm very staunchly in the 1995ist camp & had no interest in a truncated 2-ish hours version of something that was done beautifully in 5 and I've watched eleventy-seven thousand times. Have you ever done a costume review of the 1995 version on its own? Also, THANK YOU for mentioning the spiral lacing stays! And for defending the comfortability of corsets in general. I have a few shorter corsets I've made (under bust to high hip) & I put one on whenever I'm getting slouchy or having back pain. I literally get home from working 10-12 hours with a sore back & put a corset on for more comfort & support while I lounge around the house.
This is my favorite P&P in visual medium! (It’s also the first way I consumed the story and it got me to read the novel.) it’s definitely a feel-good movie for me. Also looking at it now with more historical knowledge... I like that Mrs. Bennett is still wearing her stays while sobbing over Lydia running away. If they were such torture devices she wouldn’t be LOUNGING with them on!
Totally agree about the hair! Really wouldn't have taken much effort to give them better hair. My main problem with the 05' movie is the state of the Bennet house. They make it look so dingy and dilapidated and I guess they wanted to make them look poor? The point they miss is they weren't great marriage candidates because they wouldn't have a large dowry and all their father's property had to be left to a male family member. They didn't live in poverty day to day. They had servants for goodness sakes! And you know Mrs. Bennet, who dreams about being rich, would never let her house be so gross. Bugged me so much!
This is one of my favourite movies just for the cinematography and soundtrack alone. The soundtrack was the first CD I ever bought. I loved what you said about the stays. I have just done some research on stays from around this period, and it is really interesting seeing the girls wear the 1790s stays. The costumes are lovely and I have git older I appreciate them more. Also interestingly Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Gardiner while only cameos are dressed similarly to Mrs Bennet. Mrs Gardiner would have been more fashion-forward I thought since she lives in London. Hand flex every time. Got to love Matthew MacFadyen. I think Joe Wright mentions the hand flex in his commentary.
I loved your point about older women's fashion! It's definitely true that what is fashionable for older women develops over time just like mainstream women's fashion does! And it's not just "what everyone wore 20 years ago." I agree that an exploration of what older (still fashionable) women wore during various time periods would be really interesting. Reducing it to just "they're decades out of date" is about as interesting as "oh women who are poor don't wear their hair up because...poverty!" I think my mom's personal style is definitely influenced by what was fashionable when she was a teenager and developing her own style the way everyone is, but that doesn't mean she wears things exactly like that now! Your style continues to evolve as you get older even if you're not interested in being 100% "trendy." I remember in high school theatre we had a limited number of historical costumes so we ended up using some of the same dresses for A Christmas Carol (1860s), Dracula (1890s) and even for an "older woman" character in a play set in the 1910s. Admittedly, like, it's high school, so it's impressive that we had any decent historical costumes, but it did strike me as pretty silly.
But if you think of how we live today - do you style your hair every day? Especially in the countryside. And they did make an effort for special occasions.
I felt like the hair was deliberate. Like they couldn't afford ladies maids for the girls so they did their own hair. Also, living in the country like they did, they probably wouldn't have bothered with doing their hair unless they were going to a ball or something. (the Assembly doesn't really count)
I think the reason why Mrs Benett and Lady Catherine wore those gowns was not to make them older but to make a point about them being very traditional! The pictures you see in the movie always emphasize what is going on inside of the characters!
Same! Even my dad, who always complains about us girls watching period pieces, will quote it back to us. His favorites are Mr. Collins' or Mrs. Bennet's lines🤣.
My dad's favourite is "I shall be in my office and not to be disturbed!" (Adapted for the modern day lol) or "and yet I am unmoved" (the MOST infuriating) 😅
Excellent points all fascinatingly backed up and related - MOAR of this, please! I also used to hate this film but, in the last couple of years, came to like and (now) love it. My heart will forever belong to the series, but I do think it’s a perfectly charming and lovely version. I especially loved your point about Mrs Bennett, and how it would have been amazing to have seen her gussied up in something that could have been considered a little vulgar (by trying to compete with her daughters, who are Coming Out). Thank you SO much for the amount of work and research and notes and links you put in to these videos!
Mrs B is like 42 in the book I think? Even back then, she would have been seen as quite young for having grown-up children. And her character is basically Lydia and Lucy grown up, meaning she definitely would be keeping up with the fashions! Love these kind of discussions and analyses btw! 😊❤
Mrs Bennet interrogates her sister-in-law from London about the newest fashions, and in the middle of her rant about Bingley not proposing to Jane, thanks her for the news of "long sleeves." Of course she's fashion conscious. I love the idea of her dressing too young. That would also fit with her husband teasing her about being competition for her daughters. Why, yes. I know this book VERY well. I'm not obsessed, though. Not at all.
Yeah, the Mrs. Bennett thing. It's also against her character since in the novel she mentions fashion, what people are wearing and new fashions several times. She cares about fashion. She knows where the "best warehouses" are in London for fabrics, and she doesn't even go to London. That's what I think I dislike the most about certain adaptations, including the 1995 one, is people acting out of character or doing things directly contrary to specific things they did in the book. And I'm going to end it there before I go into a rant that has nothing to do with the topic of your channel. :D
Could see maybe one or two of the older women being those people who peak early then never change a thing, so they're still wearing a 60s beehive hairdo and frosty pale lipstick in 1995, but not ALL of them.
In 95 my grandma was still wearing Peter Pan collars shirts and A-line skirts from the 50s. There were women wearing every decade. It was a good time...
@@stillwatersfarm8499 Classic. Used to see a woman around my city in the 80s and 90s, who was full early 60s, with huge swirly backcombed beehive hairdo, boucle skirt suits, gloves, pillbox hats, handbags with the handle over the wrist, very pale lipstick, the whole shebang. Looked exactly the same for decades, to the point that she powered right on through being out-of-date and out the other side into fabulous and iconic.
I walked down the aisle at my wedding to “Liz on Top of the World” 🥰 I’m 100% here for these videos! So much historical wisdom and ironically placed language and 2020 terminology. Girl, you make my day! Please do more costume reviews like this! May I request the 1995 Emma or Sense and Sensibility. Maybe the American Girl Historical films (pretty, pretty please???) 🤓
I actually remember reading an article when the film first came out where they literally said they used the costumes to ensure viewers understood the different difference in status and wealth between the different families.
So agree with the thing about women over 40, even women with money, somehow being stuck with the styles of their youth. That said, I get equally irritated by the opposite trope in historical drama. That is where to cement the vibe of the appropriate decade everything (houses, clothes, cars, furniture etc) is from that decade. It's as if the world was completely rebuilt anew ever 10 years. More a thing with dramas set in the 20th century perhaps.
yes and often I remember someone telling me the biggest one is servants uniforms. Often the uniforms will be out of date because the style is stiffer and less changeable it's a uniform not fashion so to have the servants wearing uniforms that are as fashionable is really weird!
(Dressed up for Halloween and the day before at my retail job in full 1890s and only had a little issue with my corset but that was because it’s my first pair so they could’ve been better fit) Some old lady: “my, your waist is so tiny, is it 19 inches?” Me: “actually it’s 24”, which is an inch smaller than without a corset. It looks small because of my hip padding and giant sleeves” :)
Thankyou, interesting video. My grandmother wore stays. I remember as a small child, being fascinated as she dressed early morning and removed them late evening. She made all her clothes, cotton summer and knitted woollen for winter. She lived for 84 years, despite her stays, to a younge child, she was just a lovely cuddly granny. To her neighbouring villagers, her hand made clothes, were a wonder. Especially the knitted skirts and jackets, with cable twists, or feather and fan fine knitted blouse. I enjoyed the pride and prejudice films. Yes often smiled at the dresses and hair styles. Best wishes in your future dress making. ☺️🌈
Quick Note! Just in case someone gets a bit bothered by my using the age of 40 in my rant-y rant: I ended up using 40 because of the historical myth around "hOw PeOpLe DiDn'T LiVe LoNg In ThE pAsT" (basically this misconception on how anyone over the age of 30 is ancient) as well as Hollywood's general aging up of characters. While I probably could (and maybe should?) have pushed it up to past 50 or 60, I was trying to make an overall point about historical misconceptions, Hollywood, as well as how society has traditionally discarded women after they reach a certain age. Basically, allow women, at any and all ages, to be free to express themselves through fashion and dress. ❤️
Also, for everyone commenting about breathing, I was a trained actress for years, and I understand diaphragm breathing. I know many, many opera singers who prefer to wear corsets because they like to have something to press up against their diaphragm while they sing. I was mostly just being tongue-in-cheek about the *very* tired "omg I couldn't breathe!" interview snippets that come out of Hollywood every time there is a historical film released. If I'm being honest, I just accept this as a normal part of the interview circuit for actors because "OMG I COULDN'T BREATHE" gets more clicks and media attention (which is important when you're on the media circuit to advertise your movie) then "yeah, they're actually fine!" (See: this interview with Helena Bonham Carter: www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/31/helena-bonham-carter-divorce-is-cruel-but-some-parts-are-to-be-recommended - she actually talks about corsets and how they're fine, but I sincerely doubt we'll see this article get picked up by other media news outlets for that reason...) (Also, I really want to be friends with Helena Bonham Carter, she seems like loads of fun!) ❤️
The vast majority of people who survived infancy lived into old age. It’s the widespread infant mortality that kills the longevity stats.
I think it's a particular problem in this film because Mrs. Bennet was a beauty as a young lady and would have remained quite vain her whole life - this is why Mr. Bennet made the mistake of marrying such an incompatible companion. I believe she would have been as fashionable as she could afford, even past when it would have looked quite right to others.
@@RestingBitchface7 exactly!
I feel that Mrs. Bennet may have just stopped focusing on her own style after her daughters reached the marrying age...? (One-track-mind sort of thing). She was quite obsessed with getting her daughters married & most likely was much more focused on proper clothing for her girls & getting her girls attention...? Though I love all fashion, I'm no expert. This is just a thought. I also felt that Lizzy was just not concerned with her clothes. Didn't care much about fashion & felt that if a man were to be interested, she wanted them focused on her mind. I felt the opposite was true for Jane. I think her mother may have paid close attention to getting her married with the prettiest/most fashionable clothes because she was thought to be the prettiest...maybe? The youngest two seem to dress, reflecting their carefree personalities. And our dear, sweet, middle daughter, who seemed to dress based on her mood, which is quite possibly an undiagnosed depression disorder. No disrespect intended! These are just thoughts I had while watching the movie. I always love your videos & insite on historical.... everything! Love this video!
@@joywhitlock3647 if anything that would have likely driven her more towards being as age appropriately fashionable as possible. The more fashionable she was the more respectable she’d look which would make finding a suitable match for her daughters easier. Sort of a “dress for the job you want” situation. This goes for everyone but especially for women, your appearance and your clothing was a signifier of your morals and social standing (ie wealth, poverty being associated with low morals). The most modern version of this mentality is something like “your Sunday best” where dressing too much out of style or informal would have maybe a church congregation/pta/employer etc broadly question your judgement/capabilities etc.
Pet peeve: Movies making mr Collins short and almost forty when in the book he's "a tall, heavy looking young man of five and twenty" who is overly serious, formal and self-important, and silly because he combines this with a lack of integrity, understanding and self-awareness, not because he is a short person with a big ego. I would like to see a mr Collins who is a contrast to mr Darcy not because one is tall and serious and the other short and silly, but because they're both tall, overly serious/formal and self-important but only one of them has integrity, good understanding and the ability to improve from criticism. After all, they both make very mistaken and overly entitled proposals to Elizabeth thinking she is expecting it and must accept, when she actually despises them. Sure, mr Collins proposes from duty and Darcy from passion, but they're both blind.
Thank you and amen !!
💯💯💯
Yes! The only Mr. Collins who comes close to physically matching the book canon is from the 1980 P&P with Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul, played by Malcolm Rennie. I can’t recall offhand if 1940 Collins matched canon. I’m not saying that David Bamber and Tom Hollander weren’t excellent in their portrayals, just that they didn’t match the canon.
The very first screen Mr. Collins was about 44 when the movie was made. Apparently, a bunch of old Hollywood executives couldn't wrap their brains around the idea that a man of 25 could be utterly repulsive from his manners alone. Or even be potentially good-looking except that his manners are thoroughly off-putting. But David Tennant did a very good job of that as Mr. Gibson in "He Knew He Was Right."
@@debbienockels7255 agreed! Thought of him immediately.
The other thing I liked about this version is that Mr Collins wasn’t pervy, he was just awkward and had no idea how to human. They did a good job making it look like Mary would have been a good companion for him as she was the only one who showed him any sympathy and if Mrs Bennet hadn’t been so focused on just marrying off her daughters in line she may have seen it.
YES I also absolutely love Mr. Collins' actor, he even slipped two jokes into the skript himself. Mary doesn't have a lot of time in this film but the way she shily smiled at Mr. Collins when Lizzie refused him brought it all so well together
Ughhh the more I watch the film the more I'm OBSESSED with the Mary subplot and her love for Collins. The biggest tragedy of the film is that those two people didn't find each other.
It is impossible - IMPOSSIBLE - to dislike a character played by Tom Hollander.
Yes! He is by far my favorite Mr. Collins. Collins wasn't written to be smelly and evil. He was young and raised to think a little too well of himself and his position, but he was not evil and he was not portrayed as a physically repellant person. He was not very smart, and he was a little puffed up, and he had no idea how to behave around women. I think this version of the film captured him beautifully.
@@amynix2632 I agree, but I do love to use “Wrong way, Mr. Collins” in normal conversation whenever possible.
The media: What do women want??
Us: Hand flex.
The media: ...
Us: HAND FLEX.
YES!
Swoon
And pockets... lots of pockets.
@@katwitanruna Incidentally, I'm sewing a skirt with pockets this very moment!
Can you explain the hand flex to me? It looks like wiping away a kiss to me.
I love (hate) how so many actresses are like "corsets are evil" when they wear them for a costume, but casually forget to mention all the times they wore a corset on the red carpet.
Tiny costume detail I loved: Mary’s apron looks like it was cut from the same fabric as the blue and white striped dress lizzy wore at pemberly. It’s like a little reminder that fabrics aren’t cheap and they’re gonna use up whatever leftover they have for other clothes!
Yes! Re-using and using every scrap of fabric is, and has been, absolutely a thing in our Western history. That's where crazy quilts come from: the quilter using every scrap of fabric in the house, because she had do.
You know what my biggest peeve with this movie was? They made the Bennets look poor and dirty, which is absurd. This is a family with an income that was roughly 8x that of the average middle class family. EIGHT TIMES. They were rich. The only people in the world they lived in that would have considered them anything other than fabulously wealthy...were people like Darcy (whose 10k/year would have made him one of the wealthiest humans in all of England in 1810). The '95 version got the money disparity right. The Bennet girls were in muslin more often than silk, and this made sense. The Bingley women wore silk and feathers--also made sense. This idea of romantic poverty for the Bennets grates my nerves. They lived a life of fantastic luxury compared to everyone outside of the Upper 10,000. I also don't care for how this movie doubled down on the elderly Bennet parents theme. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are roughly 45 and 39-40 respectively. They are not entering their dotage. They are just entering middle age. Sigh. This makes Abby's observation of Mrs. Bennet's fashions even more pertinent to the overall quality of the movie as it represents her. She was not an old woman. She was just leaving her youth, facing the reality of the second half of her life for the very first time. She would be brand new to the idea of putting her daughters ahead of herself as representatives of the family. The idea that she would have stopped trying to look like arm candy at a ball, herself, is ridiculous. I love the line in the 95 film (which also commits the sin of making Mrs. Bennet look older than she was) where Mrs. Bennet expresses interest in the latest fashions for sleeve length for that reason. Mrs. Bennet is still on the fashion train and still enjoys having her neighbors admire her as a beautiful and fashionable woman in her own right.
I definitely didn't like Elizabeth’s color palette and thought it didn’t suit her background. The lower class wore darker colors to make stains harder to spot. I don't know why this was never brought up.
I interpreted what they were trying to illustrate was more that the father didn't take running the estate seriously, and focused on his hobbies while neglecting properly running his home
@@RandomPerson-bc6td True, however given Elizabeth's tomboyish outdoorsy habits, tracking through fields and mud, it is not unreasonable that she'd wear darker colors for that very reason, whether on her own or by Mrs. Bennet's demand.
While that is definitely true, it's obviously visual shorthand for modern viewers to understand. If a 2005 audience is looking at a couple who's half rich and half very rich, it's not as easy to convey how their union might be undesirable for some/ advantageous for the other. It's a matter of translating the story to a different medium and conveying things most effectively.
My favorite versions are 1980 & 1995. I hated the way Longbourn was portrayed in the 2005 version. So dirty & unkempt! I almost expected to see chickens & livestock wandering thru the house! The Bennett family wasn't as wealthy as Mr Darcy or Mr Bingley, but they weren't poor either. The pig walking thru the walkway shot, filthy doors, walls & door moldings were everywhere, not to mention the stained wallpaper & dirty upholstery. Plus the shot of Mrs. Bennett with filthy shoes & stockings! And they have numerous servants, so I'm used to seeing their home portrayed as the (clean) home of a gentleman. You can show a family living in a house without all dirt & grime IMO.
THE SUPERSIZERS REFERENCE, OK YOU HAVE MY FOREVER LOYALTY
Supersizers was the best show in the history of television and I am prepared to fight everyone over it.
Yes I thought the same!
Have to say the Swedish Historieätarna (probably based on Supersizers but not sure) was pretty great too! The clothes were more focused on, I think and the presenters had really good chemestry, similar to Sue and Giles, but in their own way (so it wasn't like the show was trying to copy anything straight-off really).
Best show ever
I am so glad I am not the only one nerding out over supersizers 😂
On the styles of 'women of a certain age', I think it far more likely women kept hairstyles they preferred for too long, than clothing. Clothing wears out, doesn't fit anymore etc, but once a woman finds a hairstyle that works, it's easy to maintain forever. My Nana, born in 1912 had a 30s perm wave until she passed in 2000, and my Grandma, born in 1927 kept her 50s bob til she passed in 2015. Other than hair, they were always fashionable.
Think of how Laura Ingalls' mum always wore her hair in wings over her ears. Teen Laura explained how out of fashion it was, but her mother liked that style best and kept it! Hair style a good 20yrs out of date from 1860 in the 1870/80s.
There are many older women who are still living in previous decades with both hair and clothes. As an older woman 😂 myself i see them and think - why?
@Serenth ‘
I read a novel set in the 17th c, & the grandma- while wearing the style of the time, maintains the later Elizabethan hairstyle of her youth - I could well imagine that occurring in real-life, too...
I've been interested in royalty recently and let me tell you that after looking at all of queen Elizabeth 2nd picture from her youth until now, her hairstyle remains the same and your words suddenly make sense and I have never been happier to find a comment that explain this.
Thank you.
Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue, has kept the same haircut since she was 15 years old!
They DID NOTHING with the hair in this movie. It was “We tried really hard with the costumes so the hair gets NOTHING. We’re too damn tired.” And then they burned down the hair trailer and decided not to rebuild it for the rest of the filming of the movie.
omg 😂😂😂😂😂 "Burned down the hair trailer" - all i can imagine now is some confused PA with a lighter and a can of aqua net going, "ARE YOU SURE THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO?"
YES. YES IT IS JESSICA. YES. IT. IS.
Lmao I think I will be laughing about this comment for days!!!!
🤣🤣🤣
The hair is always terrible in period movies. Even if they get the costumes right, the hair is modern. Watching the 1940 PP I cant help but see the same thing.
@@thewordshifter 1940s PP is a comedy masterpiece and you’ll never convince me otherwise. Garson’s facial expressions are THE BEST!
The limpness is why I don't like Lizzy's costumes in this film. Especially in those earth tones it feels like she's wearing sacks at times...
I felt like the point was that Lizzy was tomboyish and so probably, in everyday dress, wanted to be as comfortable as possible, meaning wearing fewer layers
I'm totally with you, Stephanie. The dresses looked like they were made of sackcloth, not like fabric for human clothing. It's possible to have simple, sturdy clothes for an active lady that doesn't look like it's made from the same stuff Hollywood puts medieval peasants in.
I've always found this P&P film IDNOP (In Dire Need Of Petticoats). If you want to go the 1790s route to lower the waist, you also need to oomph a little the skirts to get the correct "round gown" silhouette (I think the 1995 Sense and Sensibility film did a pretty decent job on that).
@Jonathan Parks the characterization of Lizzy is that she likes to do things that at the time would be considered tomboyish. For instance, her love of walking and her disregard for how it affected her clothing.
@@TheEudaimonya The director was trying to make the Bennetts look much poorer than they really were. And he overdid it. The result was beyond ludicrous - like so much else in the film. I decided at once that he knew nothing about British history or the novel itself, since this was a misrepresentation of both.
The thing I loved the most about this video was that it wasn't a roast- I'm getting a bit tired of seeing creators tear down other people's work. This was so informative- and you took the time to acknowledge the different artistic approaches which go into designing costume for film, and I still learnt about the accuracy and inaccuracies. More of this please!
Will do! I really enjoyed making and researching this video, and I want to do more of them! 🥰
so much THIS! i was a bit wary about watching this, despite how much i love abby's stuff, because i am sick of watching people roasting costumers decisions.
(which isn't to say that it's not often valid criticism, i just find it really tiring! especially the ones that don't really allow for any nuance. personally, i'm as interested in costumes being done the way they were in a knight's tale or marie antoinette where they take ALL the liberties, as i am in seeing historical accuracy.)
@@BarbiesRevenge579 I totally agree! As much as the criticisms are often valid it is starting to feel a little mean spirited- particularly when they ignore any of the films merits in order to thoroughly 'rip' the costume design. In some cases it feels like trying to invalidate a person's argument because they used the wrong grammar! The moment Abby opened this video talking about how lovely the film itself was I knew it was going to be balanced :) xx
I thinks roasts have their place and can be fun (I’m always down for a good roasting of LW19, and I do watch Lindsay Ellis, and I live for her roasting of not great movies). But when it comes to costuming, I need people who recognise that it’s not always about the historical accuracy- like in Marie Antoinette. I think Micarah struck that balance with her roasting of LW19. She acknowledges that sometimes creative liberties heighten the story and the characters. But also sometimes can take you right out of it.
It can be a fine line to walk- both the costuming itself and the roasting of said costuming. If it’s just “this isn’t perfectly accurate!”, I’m not here for it. But if someone understands how movie costuming works, and that accuracy isn’t the only important thing, then I’m more than okay with it.
Basically, if it’s a MovieSins style roast- no thank you. But a Lindsay Ellis style roast? Yes, please!
This comment!! I love roasting inaccurate costumes as much as the next guy but lately it’s feeling like punching down, l like when videos explain the different artistic choices behind the inaccuracies, and compare them to the historical fashion plates, but when people criticize costume decisions for being inaccurate when they weren’t even aiming for accuracy, idk sometimes it feels like they are assuming costume designers are dumb, they are not, they just have to compromise their vision for the studio and directors
Idk point is don’t come at me talking about how the costumes from Anna Karenina, Moulin Rouge, or Great Gatsby are an innacurate travesty, I already assumed that the moment they started singing 2000s pop songs, the moment snow started falling indoors, and the moment sparkly swirly magic appeared in the shot
The first two dresses were exactly what a farmer's daughter would wear. BT Lizzie was NOT a framers daughter, she was a GEBTLEMAN'S daughter which she points out in no uncertain tearms in the text of script to Mr Darcy.
Oh to be a gebtleman’s daughter
Well technically a gentleman farmer's daughter.
@@jonathanparks207 No, Mr Bennett was not a gentleman farmer. He was a gentleman with a small estate that farmed as all estates large and small did at that time. His income would have come from tenants who actually farmed his land. This was what the 2005 move got wrong. That pigs would have been roaming around just outside the back door and hay was being lofted onto wagons in the courtyard of his manor was completely not the kind of family Jane Austen was writing about. She would have had little to do with such farming families and the daughters of such families would not have been accepted in the drawing rooms she knew at her brother's house, nor would they have been invited to a ball at Netherfield, Mr Bingham's house. Take a look at Emma and see where the class system clearly delineates between a gentlemen, no matter how poor, and a prosperous farmer, no matter how gentleman-like he may be.
@@deirdreoliver1984 💯
@@Enjemnsnens Dear me pet, judge not lest ye be judged. I hope you have never made a typographical error. But yes it was careless of me. Happily my books are all thoroughly edited or my readers would get onto me as you have.
"Older" women have control of more resources. We care a great deal about fashion. I don't imagine this is a modern reality. Clothing is directly related to resources. :)
True. I am 40. I wear what I want. I style my hair how I want. Keeping up with the fads can be exhausting. I prefer vintage/ classic styles. They tend to stick around longer & you can avoid looking at photos in 10 years, or so, and saying, "What was I thinking?!" 😂
I would like to point out that in the 1995 version we get a vain Mrs. Bennet who is wrapt you hear about new trends from Mrs. Gardener..... another point to 1995 and match..
@@nadiabishop5650 that's verbatim from the novel
@@mamadeb1963 and I have watched it so many times I can literally recite it 😂😂
“Why wasn’t Mr Bennett dressed then like a sofa?” 😂😂😂
Also, Mrs. Bennet's clothes she wore when younger would probably not fit her after having had five children. So she would have had to alter them, which makes no sense.
I mean, I get your logic but it's not impossible. My mother has had six children and can still fit her old wedding dress...
@@engelstraene3 Same! My mam had 6 kids and she's smaller now than when she got married!
Clothes were adjustable because they had to accommodate pregnancy. They were seriously variable!
A lot of late 1700's clothes were fixed with pins and ribbons - not fixed buttons etc. Therefore you would usually always fit your clothes! People would also refashion their outfits - taking in sleaves and hemlines etc according to the fashion of the decade. Not having fast fashion meant that people had to make things last, whilst still looking as fashionable as their budget and wardrobe would allow.
I am actually smaller after having a child (pant size 6 to 2/4 depending on the brand), because... lactation. Smaller than I was in high school. By about 20 pounds. My sister with five kids still wears some of her highschool dresses.
I have to respectfully disagree about Lizzy’s costumes, one of the through lines of P&P is that Jane and Lizzy are ladies who fit into society with wild younger sisters and an inappropriate mother. Lizzy doesn’t dress like the daughter of a gentleman in this film, she looks like a domestic servant or farmers wife at best. The fabrics looked cheap and and the dresses were somehow both childish and frumpy at the same time. As evidenced in the text Lizzy does care how she and her sisters are perceived in society and understands how important it is for them to make a good match. Being tomboyish or emphasising that they were not as wealthy as the Bingly’s and Darcy’s would be counter productive. They were a respectable country family and she goes to great lengths to show this. The hair and farm dresses in this film ruined it for me.
And she NEVER has a bonnet or gloves.
AGREED
me too.
Agreed!
@Jonathan Parks ‘For Some reason’. Yes ,that is entirely the point. It was indeed ridiculous. I have entered my own explanation in another comment.
I LOVE Caroline Bingley's clothing in this version. The red dress especially is just soooo good and it's great to see a red head not just automatically shoved in green all the time.
Also really liked that, but I also wondered if at that time, wasn't it considered bad taste if a redhead wore pinks and reds, just as a blonde wearing yellow? I read that somewhere in a magazine, but that could've been a saucy opinion of the author as well.
@@julecaesara482 Caroline makes her own rules 🤷♀️
Okay I see your point but also redheads look FANTASTIC in green so I don’t complain 😅
It's about complimentary colors. Green is opposite to red in the color wheel, so it would look best to mix green with red since they balance eachother out. This goes for yellow and blue as well, so that's why those colors often get mixed together. (Yellow/green with purple, pink/orange/blue too)
Honestly yes! I was kind of annoyed that she looked so GOOD in that dress when the character was so unpleasant.
Well, about the launderess hating Lizzy, I'm actually reading "Longbourn" by Jo Baker, and the protagonist is indeed the launderess/housemaid, who remarks in the first pages "if Elizabeth had the washing of her own petticoats, she'd most likely be a sight more careful with them" XD
Great point about the diversity of how people fashion their clothing. So often you find people clinging to a fashion plate and insisting that it must look exactly like that one image. My biggest joy when seeing people recreate historical fashion is seeing their personal interpretation of it! I love to see the choices people make to make it their own.
Same here! We always seem to forget that they were real people back then, with quirks, preferences, and personalities. To remove that is to remove their humanity, and our own personality when wearing our own historical costumes and recreations.
You just have to get people to remember that fashion plates were more like the runway fashion of today. Though unlike today fashion it wasn’t designed for a body type but a wallet type. People admired the fashion plates then made something within their means. Everything from someone saying I want to someone counting pennies to get the fabric of their dreams (or just the trim of their dreams as they remade a dress)
Nooooo, 25 year shorter life due to dislocated inner organs from corsets... I would not call this surviving just fine
@@itsmeGeorgina either you're being sarcastic or you have never worn a corset
@@loraleitourtillottwiehr2473 I’m pretty sure that’s sarcasm- you can’t “dislocate” an organ, after all.
The first time I accidentally caught 2005 skipping through the channels, I missed the opening part, so I didn't know it was supposed to be PnP. Prior to catching the names of the characters and having a jaw-dropping moment, I had no doubt I was watching something about farmers, barn passions and cattle.
Barn passions? That sounds so good :D
Wearing my normal corset and having lunch while watching the opening after just wearing said corset all morning and even riding my bike in it. Yup, no clue how we made it this far ladies. Not a clue.
It's a ✨MyStErY✨
I went horseback riding in my Regency short stays yesterday. And yet here I am, breathing! A miracle indeed :))
@@beckstheimpatient4135 I haven’t ridden a horse in many years, but I would assume it’s actually far easier to do so in a corset- what with the help with posture and the bust support. I remember bras really not holding up to the bouncing of bigger boobies, sports bras were the best, but still not as supportive as a corset would be.
@@AbbyCox Just a small detail re your smirk of "actresses breathing through their intestines"... As someone who trained in acting and public speaking and such, I probably know what they meant by that. I'm sure you've heard of the diaphragm... it IS a very important part of the body when it comes to both breathing and speaking or singing well. People of the profession use it very conscientiously to control the air and thus the voice that comes out. So I can understand they felt uncomfortable if the corsets supressed their abdomen area between the breast and tummy. Nonetheless though, you're perfectly right about most of them whining about corsets and I just wonder, do they never make them to actually fit the actresses? In that case it would be no wonder they felt uncomfortable. - I'm sure you've seen Karolina's corset-focused mock actress interview... ;-) I can wear my Regency long stays all day and the only situation where I'd rather not have them is putting my shoes on and driving. (I still manage to do both anway...) - Have fun with all your future endeavours, I love your dramatic presentation. :-)
@@ducklingcz Lina Piprek did a video on corsets in movies. She explains why actresses complain yes breathing difference is a problem but for me, i have to wear one on a runway, it was the heat from the lights i got light headed and felt out of breath then i couldn't fully take a deep belly breath.
My main issue with Lizzy's costumes was that they kinda look like a working class woman's or smth. I mean, Bennets were not that poor. Besides, as an elder daughter of marriageable age, she would get better fabric - compared to younger sisters who are still not participating in balls and such. It would have been more logical if she had less dresses, not a lot of bulshit quality ones'.
As a woman over 40, there's no way on earth I'd dress like I did when I was a teenager. Jordache jeans, layering 3 or 4 shirts, 100 clacking bangle bracelets, footless tights with miniskirts? No, thank you.
Haha the same thing was going through my head 😂
47 and still rocking Dr martens, boyfriend cardigans and a band shirt 30 years on 🤣.
@@rachela3066 I didn't wear Dr Martens in the 80s... I do now though!
I mean, if I could find shiny teal green spandex and a NKOTB t-shirt with one of those plastic buckles for the hem... I might be up for it.
Oh yes! You took the words out of my mouth! Ugg! I forgot the footless tights! I look at photos of myself from when I was a teenager and wonder what I was thinking! No better way to look “old” than to wear age inappropriate clothes or look like you are stuck in the past. Unless of course we are history bounding, in which case all bets are off 😂
Great analysis! The two things that bother me most about the costuming are 1) Pick a date and stick with it! The clothing styles cover almost 40 years, right? It's jarring. It creates a cognitive dissonance that is unfortunate. And 2) Mrs. Bennett: while she is indeed focused on the daughters, it is clear in the book that the family are living right up to their income, which means she is a spender. The character is also described as once very pretty, and still very silly. That would be a woman who would have been fashionable to the point of vulgarity.
I also preferred Jane's clothes in the film. I always felt that Jane, as the eldest, got the better dresses to make her more marriage market worthy, and thanks for the defense of the over 40 and their love of fashion. That -- dressing them 20 years out of date -- bothered me. BTW thanks for helping Rachel in her Katrina van Tassel striped dress. Are you going to review Tom Pye's Gentleman Jack and Deirdre Clancy's Wives and Daughters? Also Lillie miniseries?
It’s always lovely to see crossovers or even mentions of other TH-camrs on a different channel. I’ve also greatly enjoyed watching Rachel shift more into CosTube from her original vintage channel- it matches almost perfectly with my change from 1940s vintage style to a more history bounding Edwardian style myself. I’d always loved the styles, but felt too self conscious to wear anything older than the 1940s.
And Rachel did such a stunning job on that dress, particularly given her extremely short deadline. I don’t get how she does it. I’ve been making my weird complicated banyan for two months now. I reckon I’ve got about a week to go. (Finish hand sewing on the almost 20m of trimming, then make a belt and belt loops and it’s good to go. And then I need to figure out how to put together a printed out pattern and start in some undergarments...)
I do prefer Lizzie’s, but I also don’t care much for being fashion foward and adore the colors black, brown, and dark greens. Felt like something I would lounge in today lmao
I am forever loyal to the 1995 version. Those costumes made me fall in love with historical fashion. ❤️
Colin firth was a much better Darcy.... the 2005 fella was terrible....
The fashions in the 1995 were more beautiful ..but the acting was terrible. If only the dresses would have made it into 2005!
@@zenlife321 Did you just say the acting in 1995 was terrible?
My Mother died at 98 and was fashionable to her last day. She loved clothes in every era and got so much joy from sewing them.
I do like the 2005 version but the hard really takes me out of it, especially Kieira's bad wig... In the 1995 version the 'women of a certain age' costuming was so good, well, the whole costuming was fab! Really want to re-watch both now :)
Yeah, every time her hair sticks out of the wig I laugh. 😂
@@AbbyCox wait she was wearing a wig??? how do you people tell?
Oh, I loved her hair...
I have seen the movie plenty of times and never noticed she was wearing a wig! Now I'm sad.
@@Steph_here the ends of her short haircut for the movie Domino are often visible when her hair is up… they’re most jarring for me at the Netherfield ball, sticking out from under the pearled up-do. I’m baffled as to how the stylists couldn’t figure out a way to slick them up underneath the wigs instead of having them straggling out the bottom.
I'm surprised there was no mention about Lizzy's lack of gloves. That always bothered me as well, though I assume this was a deliberate choice?
Abby, as someone who is learning, I want to thank you SO MUCH for adding pictures of the fashion plates and extant pieces that pertain to what you're discussing, THANK YOU
Just fun little note about older women and fashion: anecdotal: Ellen Nussey, in her description of the Bronte family, tells us a little about Elizabeth Branwell, born 1776, being described as she was in the early to mid 1830s:
‘Miss Branwell was a very small, antiquated little lady. She wore caps large enough for half a dozen of the present fashion, and in front of light auburn curls over her forehead. She always dressed in silk. She had a horror of the climate so far north, and of the stone floors in the parsonage… She talked a great deal of her younger days… she gave one the idea that she had been a belle among her home acquaintances. She took snuff out of a very pretty gold snuff-box, which she sometimes presented to you with a little laugh, as if she enjoyed the slight shock and astonishment visible in your countenance...'
By the same token, in Belgium, Emily Bronte was singled out for wearing out of fashion mutton sleeves in 1842.
Mr. Bronte, FYI, preferred silk or wool, thinking it was less of a fire hazard than other fabrics.
Re: breathing into the stomach area--singers, wind players, actors...projection uses the muscles around the lower abdomen, deep supported breaths need the diaphragm to lower which will push the lower abdomen out a bit. Try lying down, put your hand on your stomach, and take a very deep relaxed breathe. You will feel your stomach rise as well as your ribs expand.
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I was coming here to say the same thing (and thought, hmm, check the 216 comments that are already there, first). I immediately thought of decades of chorus rehearsals with "sit/stand up straight, relax your shoulders back, and breath down into your stomach."
Precisely
I don't think people think through very thoroughly that when your lungs expand other things have to make room for that as well....
I'm not anti-corset (I own one and wear it for back support) but country to the way all the "historical dress" folks talk about it, it DOES have an effect on your lungs capacity, and not breathing into your lower lungs for long periods of time can over time weaken your immune system. I think it is a disservice not to mention that, because it leads those who know better to dismiss anything else they say on the subject as dishonest.
@@sorelyanlie2784 I don’t disagree with you, not exactly. But I find I have absolutely no issue breathing deeply (using my stomach) while in a corset. Maybe it’s the years of classical singing training, but I also find it easier to sing well in a corset, and definitely have no problems with breathing properly. And I do wear corsets very frequently- every time I leave the house, and any time I want to get sewing done at the machine. Also any time I want to practise singing- I’ve gotten so used to it now that I find it easier to sing in a corset than without one.
Thank you for this great review of P&P05 costumes. You made me feel better about the movie (I did love the music and cinematography). I couldn't see the beauty of the costumes before because I was so put off by how slovenly the whole Bennet family looked-- unkempt hair (all the time, even at public gatherings), wrinkled clothes, messy house, pigs running through the house, mud everywhere. Ugh! As if! (to quote another Austen inspired heroine) The Bennets were upper middle class gentry, living so well and spending so much that they weren't saving any money for their daughters' dowries. A major plot point. Mrs. B is known for setting a lavish table for guests, and for being vain (about herself and her daughters). They were not living in genteel squalor and they weren't poor.
I thought most of the costuming for the Bennet girls were drab. It’s like they had given up on life and the hair only helped to give the impression that they needed mood enhancers added to their tea.
I firmly believe that the director went overboard trying to show [wrongly in fact] that the Bennetts were poor. Or rather poorer than their neighbours. Since his target audience [the one that yields the big profit] is in the US, he would need to make that point very clear in order to illustrate the theme - i.e. catching a rich husband. But British audiences understand the class system and that the Bennetts were gentry and fairly well-off. The girls had to marry well, not because of poverty, but because of the terms of a will which would prevent them from inheriting the family property on their father’s death.
@Belinda May They would have been extremely poor when Mr. Bennett died. They would have had half as much to live on, or less, than Mrs. Bennett gave them in pocket money growing up. Even if they all lived together, they would have had the equivalent of £20,000 to pay for housing, food, clothes, etc. for 5 daughters and Mrs. Bennett. They couldn't have even remotely hoped to live in anything but desperate indigence unless Mrs. Bennett's brother helped them.
Everyone's favourite - the brown dress!
I hate that dress.
I think people like it so much because you could wear it today with no changes whatsoever, and it would look perfectly normal. A tad vi rage perhaps, but still normal.
Which is exactly why I don’t like it.
Agreed. They tried in so many ways to make the 2005 adaptation "relatable"... but it SHOULDN'T be relatable to modern women with feminist sensibilities! It makes it feel like one of those high school plays of an old story with a "modern twist", instead of feeling like a fly on the wall in a different era than ours.
Given how many of many of us are stuck at home for quarantining and stuck indoors with winter coming I was really hoping we'd see a surge in videos of people making the historical equivalents of todays homewear/sweater or hoodie with sweatpants or legging. When we saw Jane's house coat all I could think was "please show us how to make it!" I don't think id ever make historic clothing to wear out beyond history bounding levels but I would totally make stuff to wear around the house. Its always what Im most jealous of when watching films.
Anyway. No more complaining. Thank you for the video. As I actually bought the dvd a month ago I think this is a great excise for a rewatch.
Be safe, and be well all.
Thank you! It is literally one of the first exchanges in the book between Mr and mrs bennett, where he pays her this sweet little compliment that she shouldn't go with the girls to be introduced to the prominent Mr bingley because the man might end up in love with her instead. She is repeatedly highlighted as the type of person who cares what people say and would probably be mortified to be thought out of fashion!
He did? I need to read the book, that's adorable!
He was being sarcastic.
Yeah, you need to be a little careful when taking ANY statement of Mr. Bennett's at face value, particularly toward Mrs. Bennett. It's made VERY clear in the book that his main solace from marrying Mrs. Bennett is laughing at her whenever he can.
Your points about Mrs Bennet were interesting, and I hadn’t thought about it that way! I had always interpreted her out-of-date clothing as a reflection of her priorities- marrying her daughters off was obviously far more important to her than literally anything else, it made sense to me that she wouldn’t have prioritized herself over her daughters. But your analysis of her character and how that would have translated to her costumes was really thoughtful, and it makes a lot of sense to me!
Awesome video 👏🏽👏🏽
In the book it was made pretty clear Mrs. Bennet was highly interested in current fashions. She would certainly been more likely to be mutton dressed as lamb than to cling to old fashions. She was very impressed over the London fashions of Bingleys sisters and commented on others fashion and dresses in general. She definitely saw clothes as important in creating status.
That is giving Mrs. Bennet far too much credit. She is one of my
most despised characters in all of literature. She is vain and self centered. She only cares about Kitty and Lydia because they are as ridiculous as she is. She literally makes herself look like a clown the entire time and openly admits she doesn’t even care about most of her children. The only reason she wanted them married well was for HER benefit. She knew that eventually Mr. Bennet would die and she would have no where to go. If her daughters didn’t marry well that was going to affect her, it certainly wasn’t out of any great love for her children.
@@Ruinwyn she knew all about The best Warehouses no doubt! 're Trouseau
Never watched the 05 verdion. Never could get past the changes they showed in the comments for it. Did like your review of the clothes. Looking forward to next weeks after seeing your Instagram sneak peek
I’ve personally never had any major problems with the costumes in this version(other than the hair obviously), my problem with this movie is in the way they adapted the novel. As someone who read the book before seeing any adaptations of it, I don’t really like how they choose to make what’s essentially a satire of the world Austen herself was living in, to a movie that mostly focuses in the romance... I mean, the romance is great, but there is so much more in the book to explore and I think the 1995 version did that better.
Also, WHY did they choose to make the Bennets look so poor? They are not meant to be poor, they were still high middle class. And based on our current knowledge about the period, they might even have had higher status then Bingley since they came from old money and owned land, whereas Bingley only had new money. The Bennets should not be living with literal pigs in their house, like they do in this version.
But loved the video and the insights it gave into the design of the film! I appreciate the filmmakers effort to bring Austens book to a more mainstream audience and will occasionally watch it, but the 1995 will always be my favourite💁♀️
The bit about making them look poor is what really bugs me, too! Mr. Bennett was a landed gentry. There's a really good video done by someone who analyzes the social classes in pride and prejudice and also estimates how much money they would have roughly in today's economy. th-cam.com/video/HzXL5bcokmI/w-d-xo.html
It seems like the director can't believe that the audience could understand a concept like 'when your father dies you will be poor but you're not poor now' so we get a poor falling down wreck of a house to show why its important these girls get married instead of the slightly more subtle but still pretty obvious differences like the Bennets wearing cotton prints and the Bingleys wearing silk or just a comparison of the size of the house.
@@ElizabethJones-pv3sj sigh😊 someone else who knows the background of the costuming choices for the 1995 version. I was beginning to think it wouldn't get a mention.
I completely agree. I love this movie, but it is NOT Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. That's the only way I can deal with it.
Totally agree with you in the 1995 version Mr Darcy is exactly as Jane Austen described him in the book 😍
My thoughts in no particular order:
This entire movie gives me Regency cottage core vibes.
I love your idea of having Mrs. Bennet trying to dress like her daughters. The costume designers could have had a lot of fun with making her clothes just a little too over the top or a little too frilly to show how silly she is.
It kind of makes sense that Jane would have the nicest and most fashionable clothes. As the eldest daughter, and the one that Mrs. Bennet sees as the most eligible for marriage, she would be the most likely to get new clothes, while all of the younger daughters would get hand me downs.
This is fantastic. On a fun and completely irrelevant to the subject matter note, I giggle every time you use that dumpster floating image. The original source image is actually from awful flooding on a main road in Pittsburgh, PA and the dumpster itself belonged to the sign company I worked for at the time. 🤣
i too absolutely hooted with laughter at that dumpster clip!! hilarious!!
What! That’s from Pittsburgh!? Hahahahaha
I would LOVE to see a review of the costumes from the 1985 Anne of Green Gables with Megan Follows. I've always admired how even the stripes matched on their dresses
Thank you so much for this!!! I was a bit nervous to watch because I find that a lot of "historical movie costume review" content can get super nit-picky, but I really appreciate how much research you put into this. Your analysis was fair and nuanced and I gained a new appreciation for this film that I already love so much. I always love seeing what research rabbit-holes you come across
I also loved that they used spiral lacing, unfortunately the stays were made with parallel eyelet holes, you can tell by the way the left side of the back has pushed upwards to balance with how it has been laced up. At least the wardrobe assistant knew how it was supposed to be done!
I didn't care for how Wickham felt like almost a non-entity in this version. He was such a great "villain" in the 1995 version. But Jane's costumes in this are lovely. If I could pull off those colors I'd love that blue pelisse! Maybe I'll have to try it in a darker blue...
The first and only time I was laced into a corset, was when I tried on a corseted wedding dress. I was surprised at how comfortable it was! I have back problems and breathing problems (combo of asthma, allergies, and anxiety) and I actually found it EASIER to breathe in a corset and it eased a lot of my back pain too. Made me seriously want to invest in a corset for regular wear lol
I have chronic pain and when I wear my pair of stays ( 18th century corset) it helps my back pain a lot. I basically can't do chores without wearing it.
I've recently made my first pair of Regency stays, and I was delighted first by the support it gave up top :) and second by the back support! It forces me to sit straight but doesn't make my back ache! Now every time my back aches from my posture I wish I was wearing them haha.
@@benitathompson9173 I've been thinking about making a pair of regency stays to replace my bras.
@@ElixirSpice I'd like to wear mine as a bra alternative too! The main problem is that it takes me a while to lace them up-mine are long stays and back-lacing. But I love how they feel to wear!
Even thought, now I know this movie wasn't historically accurate, it was the one that got me in period pieces, dramas, etc., and subsequently, historical costumes. So, just for that alone, I'm grateful. Love your videos (and you, of course). ❤️ Portugal. 😉
Actually I notice that many women do get stuck in a decade they liked and felt comfortable in. I recently noticed my favorite bootcut slacks were discontinued, and I really dislike current fashions. I’ve been looking back at the 90s with a lot of nostalgia 😁
bootcut is my favourite because it oftens allows for larger thighs that the straight leg pants really don't! The only thing I like about recent bootcuts is they all have the higher waist which is so much nicer to wear!
Honestly, I have adapted more than half of the hairstyles from this movie to my everyday style with almost no changes. Which just proves how little they have in common with the 1790s or 1800s.
I love the 1995 version. I think the cinematography and scoring of the 2005 is lovely.
I will probably always pick the 1995 to watch before any other version.
Thanks for the thoughtful costume analysis.
The funny thing about putting Mrs Bennet in older clothes is that she must have changed enough physically that the original clothes she wore probably wouldn’t fit without some adjustments, and she must have had a new gown or two made since her youth.... So the movie wants us to think she had all her gowns made specifically out of fashion 🤦🏻♀️
This is so intriguing!! Thank you so much for doing this! Lizzys dresses annoyed me so much but I respect everything so much more now! Also... MacFayden is too beautiful. Thank you for commenting the HAND FLEX! (And the awful hair)
Thanks for the insight on Kiera's shirt - I actually didn't know they wore such shirts and thought it was oddly out of period. Love your dramatic delivery and research Abby and do more costume reviews! As a die-hard for the A&E PP (Colin Firth OMG) I am going to watch the newer one again with more indulgence!!
Not only the hand flex, but her looking over the cliffs and the open shirt in the morning fog... I could go on. :) I loved the scenery, costumes, acting and beautiful people in this movie! Great review on the clothing!
The rant on women over a certain age and fashions of the past - instant LIKE (love, actually). It is a constant frustration!
"I'm not like other moms, I'm a cool mom." -Mrs. Bennet
Ok, I'll admit, you've convinced me the costumes of the 2005 film are fine. Setting the film in the time the story was written in explains much.
However, the 1995 mini series will always be my favourite. (Que personal(!) opinion)
For one it was the first version I saw, and it made me read the book while before I wasn't at all into Austen.
Secondly, they had of course, a lot more time for character development and faithfulness to the novel, which to me as a literature graduate is a big plus.
Thirdly. the characters are more likable (to me) in the series. Especially Bingly is more relatable while in the movie he comes across as a wimp without initiative or even sympathetic looks, so I could hardly believe Jane would fall for him. Also Colin Firth is way more handsome than the other guy. :P And Jane in the series, while not particularly beautiful to modern standards, does fit the more classical/Grecian beauty standard of the time.
Lastly, the hair, I hated the hair in the film, but that started only after I learned how much work went into the 1995 series to get the hair right.
Close rant. Thank you Abby, lovely video!
This. I agree with all of this.
I was basically going to write this post. Except for one addition. I hate Keira Knightley. I cant stand her!
I remember a comment from the hair person from the 1995 film, apparently she nearly had a conniption when Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet) turned up having cut her hair short because she thought it would be more comfortable for long term wig wearing. She spent most of the filming checking the back of her neck for stray escapees.
All of this.
I agree completely. This latest version is basically a cheap sound bite of Pride and Prejudice with bad hair.
Love the video! Quick note: intestines do need to move in respiration. In order to produce negative pressure in the lungs to bring in air, the diaphragm contracts and pushes the intestines out of the thoracic cavity and into the abdominal cavity. If the stomach is being restrained in some way, the intestines cannot move as much, the diaphragm cannot contract as much, and less air will be brought into the lungs. This is why women who are farther along in the pregnancy have to take more, smaller breaths. The baby takes up so much space that the lungs cannot expand to their full capacity!
My two major issues with the 2005 version is the deleting of Bingley's second sister, and also just the pace of the movie felt so rushed.... It felt like I was watching the whole thing in sped up pace because they just talk fast and do everything quickly which kind of bothers me, yet I do concede that it was a beautiful film with great costumes and lovely setting/soundtrack! Great video Abby!
I have to agree. Especially with Mr. Wickham. He just seemed kinda broody and not like the charming con artist we know him to be. It reduced the weight of his actions for me. Also, it didn't feel like we really got to know the other sisters (accept maybe Jane).
It’s a lot easier to stay truer to the book and give more character development and detailed scenes when you have 6 hours of a program vs 2
@@paigejohnson8519 True. I honestly don't hate this movie. In fact, there are quite a few things I really like (ex: that quick double take Mr. Darcy makes the first time he sees Elizabeth). I just feel like in this version, there are quite a few characters that we don't get a proper sense of and that come across as one note. Part of it is time restrictions, and the other part is the acting (don't hate the actors, just not a fan of the interpretation). Still a good movie.
@@paigejohnson8519 Yes true, which is why I give the 2005 version some slack. :)
For me the 2005 version is mostly visual and the soundtrack too is beautiful. The storyline is totally rushed and I don't think it would have made much sense to me if I hadn't previously read the book.
That fact that you used the French Revolution Supersizers episode with Sue and Giles for that clip reference at 5:51 is just so awesome, that’s one of my favorite shows.
I'd love to see your thoughts on Aang Lee' Sense and Sensibility. I think the older women in that one were maybe more fashionably relevant for the time period they were going for. If I'm remembering correctly, lol.
Ok, I was prejudiced against the costumes in this film and this changed my mind somewhat. But I’m still not crazy about them because of they fit very well in the film’s very very wrong understanding of social class at the time. They made all the Bennett’s costumes to signal “Hey, we’re kinda poor!!” (don’t get me started on the pig in the house) when they really weren’t, nobody has any manners (because they’re so, ya know, spontaneous), etc. While I kinda get the why, I dislike production choices that underestimate audiences on principle, but hey, lots of people absolutely love the film, so...
A few weeks back, I rewatch this in "Netflix party" style with a historical costuming friend, and a good portion of the chat was taken up with yelling about the hair.
I disliked this version from the first time I saw and it my dislike just grows whenever I think "hey, let me give it another try" yeah, still awful. Costumes, hair, the whole thing. The '95 version is the best!
Yes. This movie is truly awful. It’s not just the drab costumes, everything about it is awful. The actors don’t fit the characters. Darcy is a lump dishrag and Elizabeth is a shrew. The Bennetts were not poor at all, and would never have had farm animals in their house. Nothing like the book at all, and nothing to be enjoyed on its own merits. It’s like someone read the book, then decided to throw out everything that was good about it.
@@circedelune It is so funny how you get this exact same comment about both the 1995 and 2005 version, depending on which one people saw first. I actually tried watching the 1995 recently and stopped halfway through because I thought the acting and casting was so bad. Iconic lines cut short or delivered in a completely ill-fitting tone, Jane miscast, Mrs Bennett wayyy over the top annoying, Mary made ugly in the usual Hollywood way, the camera constantly staring at Mr. Darcy staring at Lizzy, no effort made to put any emotion in the dancing scenes. It's not often you get such varying opinions about different adaptions so I love it!
2005 P&P is one of my favorite movies. I know it's got some issues from a historical accuracy perspective (and a bit from a book accuracy perspective). I just always thought the cinematography was beautifully done, and the costumes told a story about the characters (problematic or not). Mostly, though, I totally bought these actors as a family - they're messy and awkward and unfashionable but also clearly affectionate. Their comfort and casual manners as they move around each other felt like a real family to me (though, this may partly just be that the mom looks a lot like my mom and overall they remind me of my own family... so, I'm biased, basically). I also found the actresses portraying the sisters believable as *young* women, whereas in the 1995 version I felt like most of the characters seemed older than they were supposed to be.
I find it odd when viewers approach an unfamiliar work of art through the prism of self - one’s own personality, background and actual experiences. This quest for a high degree of familiarity is very limiting. I have to agree though that the actors playing Jane and Lizzie in the 1995 version looked far too old.
I found the hair and dresses of 1995 Lizzie looking too perfect and "appropriate". While reading the book I have always envisioned Lizzie as a free spirited creature above such things as "perfectly clean and wrinkle free" dresses and many artificially looking curles.
Exactly!
I am so happy I found your channel!
I am really into men’s wear from the 15th to 19th century to the point of unashamedly wearing my historic clothes in any remotely appropriate setting.
Watching your videos on women’s clothing is really filling some glaring gaps in my expertise and imagination as an obsessive seamster! I genuinely want to make some examples when I can find a model.
I definitely have a few points about the clothes on the gents in this film but I’ll save that for my own video.
I have been re watching Supersizers Go and it is so great to see it get some love. Your videos are so wonderful and just what I need in the current Hellscape.
I haven't watched this film in a long time because my memory of the costumes had been pretty 'mheh'. I don't think I could get past the limp skirt shapes and the hair. You've given me a new appreciation for the other bits though, and I may have to revisit it.
Interesting how much information research into underpinnings has come on in the last 15 years (like how to make me feel old... getting awfully close to 50!)
SOOOOOOOOO much has changed just in the past 20 years, it's crazy!
@@AbbyCox Could you please do a video about this? I would love to know!
I know literally nothing about fashion/historical fashion but your enthusiasm and passion made me watch this whole video and I absolutely love it! I’ll be thinking a lot more about the costumes the next time I rewatch this movie!
I have long disliked this movie because it felt not like a wander through the Regency period, but more like a dead sprint so that the story would fit into the 90 minute attention span of modern movie-goers. The pace of the 1995 was more leisurely and gave time for more character development and general ambiance. I will give the movie another look because ... hand flex...
Nope. Still don't like it.
Could you also do the same to the 1995 version. I was always curious how Jane’s décolleté shape is completely different to Elizabeth’s. Were both types in fashion?
Another thing regarding the "40 year old women in 20 year old fashions" is that it also implies that these women were in their 30s wearing out of style dresses, and just... no? If they showed them in fashions from 5 years before, then fine, that might work. But I doubt that any women one day just completely stopped following fashion and decided to stick to just one style, especially if they were on the young side of matronly. (And it was perfectly possible for a 40 year old to have 20 year old daughters, even though Brenda Blethyn was quite a bit older than that in the film)
Not only was it possible for a 40 year-old to have a 20-year-old daughter, it would have been normal. Mrs. Bennett probably would've been about 40 to 45. No birth control, and most upper class girls wanted to be married as soon after 18 as possible, eager to have their own household, so they had children while still very young. The high age at first marriage usually quoted during this time period refers mostly to lower class girls who entered domestic service before they got married. (The Bennetts lived in a small village with a very small pool of eligible men - men of the right social status, good looking, intelligent, etc. and their lack of dowry put them at the bottom of that marriage market. That's why Jane and Elizabeth, despite being the beauties of the area, didn't have serious suitors before Bingley and Darcy showed up, in spite of the military officers that came in and out of town with the troops.) Mrs. Bennet was extremely status-conscious and she was vain in the book; I absolutely cannot imagine that she would go about in old dresses. Not a chance.
The queen wears clothes that are 20 to 30 years out of date but she likes it and I think she looks good
@@suekennedy1595 the Queen is in her 90s however. Most women don't tend to follow fashion in their 70s, especially women of her generation.
@@suekennedy1595 The Queen is stylish, not fashionable. She has no need to follow fashion.
Thank you for explaining to me all the reasons previously unbeknownst to me why I prefer 1995 version. I used to just think it was Colin Firth but turns out it was Colin and the Clothes.
Dont forget the hair!
I’m sorry Abby I still hate this movie and prefer 95’ forever. The costume, the hair, the manners all rubbed me wrong and I hate it. One thing that you didn’t touch on is the wealth of these characters. Even though there was a great deal of effort made into the Bennett’s are “poor” that’s not actually true. The Bennett’s were still in the upper classes of society, they were landed gentry after all. Jane Austen always wrote the upper classes exclusively because that was all she her self knew. The only reason the “poor” label is attached to the Bennett girls is that they have no dowry because their father’s estate is entailed to the male line and since he didn’t bother to set up a savings account for his five daughters when they were born the girls and their mother will be penniless when daddy dearest kicks the bucket. But right now while he is alive they do have money to spend on things like clothes. My point is the girls would be dressed in fashion for the time and their class (aka the 1%). I just felt like this movie made the Bennett’s seem poorer then they really were and I can’t forgive it for that. Also the film felt rushed to me plot wise like somebody was pressing the fast forward button. But I suppose everything would feel rushed when you go from almost 6 hour version to a conventional movie length.
Exactly! They made the Bennets look "natural" but trashy. Messy hair, dresses full of wrinkles.
And Abby's fav dress? Interesting that she pointed out that it was a remade dress, however... Why in hell the ANY Bennet would wear a remade dress in first place? Ms Bennet would never let any of her daughters wear something dated, they would something new and fashionable to marry a wealthier man. So these costumes still make no sense since they're changing something very important from the original book.
Honestly, this is the main reason I can't stand the movie. Just the constant shots reinforcing how poor the Bennets are, even though they actually aren't?? Like, why on earth does Mr. Bennet walk a pig through the house? It makes no sense!!!
Yes, when Mrs. Bennet learns that Lydia will be getting married, she launches into no-expense-spared plans for new clothes, so the cost of fabric wasn't something she, at any rate, was concerned about.
Thank you for this. Because I'm sure I will never, ever watch it of my own volition, but you've given me a new appreciation for the work that actually did go into the costumes. I'm very staunchly in the 1995ist camp & had no interest in a truncated 2-ish hours version of something that was done beautifully in 5 and I've watched eleventy-seven thousand times.
Have you ever done a costume review of the 1995 version on its own?
Also, THANK YOU for mentioning the spiral lacing stays! And for defending the comfortability of corsets in general. I have a few shorter corsets I've made (under bust to high hip) & I put one on whenever I'm getting slouchy or having back pain. I literally get home from working 10-12 hours with a sore back & put a corset on for more comfort & support while I lounge around the house.
This is my favorite P&P in visual medium! (It’s also the first way I consumed the story and it got me to read the novel.) it’s definitely a feel-good movie for me.
Also looking at it now with more historical knowledge... I like that Mrs. Bennett is still wearing her stays while sobbing over Lydia running away. If they were such torture devices she wouldn’t be LOUNGING with them on!
Agreed, though I wish that she would have just had the quilted waistcoat on instead of the stays and the waistcoat, but that's me being pedantic af. 😂
Totally agree about the hair! Really wouldn't have taken much effort to give them better hair. My main problem with the 05' movie is the state of the Bennet house. They make it look so dingy and dilapidated and I guess they wanted to make them look poor? The point they miss is they weren't great marriage candidates because they wouldn't have a large dowry and all their father's property had to be left to a male family member. They didn't live in poverty day to day. They had servants for goodness sakes! And you know Mrs. Bennet, who dreams about being rich, would never let her house be so gross. Bugged me so much!
This is one of my favourite movies just for the cinematography and soundtrack alone. The soundtrack was the first CD I ever bought. I loved what you said about the stays. I have just done some research on stays from around this period, and it is really interesting seeing the girls wear the 1790s stays.
The costumes are lovely and I have git older I appreciate them more. Also interestingly Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Gardiner while only cameos are dressed similarly to Mrs Bennet. Mrs Gardiner would have been more fashion-forward I thought since she lives in London.
Hand flex every time. Got to love Matthew MacFadyen. I think Joe Wright mentions the hand flex in his commentary.
I loved your point about older women's fashion! It's definitely true that what is fashionable for older women develops over time just like mainstream women's fashion does! And it's not just "what everyone wore 20 years ago." I agree that an exploration of what older (still fashionable) women wore during various time periods would be really interesting. Reducing it to just "they're decades out of date" is about as interesting as "oh women who are poor don't wear their hair up because...poverty!" I think my mom's personal style is definitely influenced by what was fashionable when she was a teenager and developing her own style the way everyone is, but that doesn't mean she wears things exactly like that now! Your style continues to evolve as you get older even if you're not interested in being 100% "trendy." I remember in high school theatre we had a limited number of historical costumes so we ended up using some of the same dresses for A Christmas Carol (1860s), Dracula (1890s) and even for an "older woman" character in a play set in the 1910s. Admittedly, like, it's high school, so it's impressive that we had any decent historical costumes, but it did strike me as pretty silly.
The hair was a 'hot mess.' Hmm, understatement. I Could Not watch this film for the hair. The historical dissonance was so off-putting.
But if you think of how we live today - do you style your hair every day? Especially in the countryside. And they did make an effort for special occasions.
The hair was awful
ES, I have extremely curly hair, so yes, I do something with it every day
I felt like the hair was deliberate. Like they couldn't afford ladies maids for the girls so they did their own hair. Also, living in the country like they did, they probably wouldn't have bothered with doing their hair unless they were going to a ball or something. (the Assembly doesn't really count)
I agree. The hair was a trainwreck concerning historical accuracy! I thought they tried to modernize the whole film too much in many areas.
I think the reason why Mrs Benett and Lady Catherine wore those gowns was not to make them older but to make a point about them being very traditional!
The pictures you see in the movie always emphasize what is going on inside of the characters!
The 1995 version will ALWAYS be my favourite, my family quote it on a near daily basis
Same
Knightly fell flat in her delivery during the proposal scene. My family and I will always love the 1995 BBC version. Absolutely agree with you.
Me three
Same! Even my dad, who always complains about us girls watching period pieces, will quote it back to us. His favorites are Mr. Collins' or Mrs. Bennet's lines🤣.
My dad's favourite is "I shall be in my office and not to be disturbed!" (Adapted for the modern day lol) or "and yet I am unmoved" (the MOST infuriating) 😅
Excellent points all fascinatingly backed up and related - MOAR of this, please! I also used to hate this film but, in the last couple of years, came to like and (now) love it. My heart will forever belong to the series, but I do think it’s a perfectly charming and lovely version. I especially loved your point about Mrs Bennett, and how it would have been amazing to have seen her gussied up in something that could have been considered a little vulgar (by trying to compete with her daughters, who are Coming Out). Thank you SO much for the amount of work and research and notes and links you put in to these videos!
Mrs B is like 42 in the book I think? Even back then, she would have been seen as quite young for having grown-up children. And her character is basically Lydia and Lucy grown up, meaning she definitely would be keeping up with the fashions!
Love these kind of discussions and analyses btw! 😊❤
Yes, they spoke to Mrs Gardiner about the London fashions, particularly the sleeves, which changed each season.
She's not 42 in the book.
I had to giggle over your comment about spiral lacing. Looking for that detail has been one of my "things" as well. :) Delightful commentary.
Mrs Bennet interrogates her sister-in-law from London about the newest fashions, and in the middle of her rant about Bingley not proposing to Jane, thanks her for the news of "long sleeves."
Of course she's fashion conscious. I love the idea of her dressing too young. That would also fit with her husband teasing her about being competition for her daughters.
Why, yes. I know this book VERY well. I'm not obsessed, though. Not at all.
Yeah, the Mrs. Bennett thing. It's also against her character since in the novel she mentions fashion, what people are wearing and new fashions several times. She cares about fashion. She knows where the "best warehouses" are in London for fabrics, and she doesn't even go to London. That's what I think I dislike the most about certain adaptations, including the 1995 one, is people acting out of character or doing things directly contrary to specific things they did in the book. And I'm going to end it there before I go into a rant that has nothing to do with the topic of your channel. :D
Could see maybe one or two of the older women being those people who peak early then never change a thing, so they're still wearing a 60s beehive hairdo and frosty pale lipstick in 1995, but not ALL of them.
In 95 my grandma was still wearing Peter Pan collars shirts and A-line skirts from the 50s. There were women wearing every decade. It was a good time...
@@stillwatersfarm8499 Classic. Used to see a woman around my city in the 80s and 90s, who was full early 60s, with huge swirly backcombed beehive hairdo, boucle skirt suits, gloves, pillbox hats, handbags with the handle over the wrist, very pale lipstick, the whole shebang. Looked exactly the same for decades, to the point that she powered right on through being out-of-date and out the other side into fabulous and iconic.
I mean, my ex boyfriend’s mother still dresses like it’s the 80s... Like, hair, makeup, clothes the whole shebang
I walked down the aisle at my wedding to “Liz on Top of the World” 🥰 I’m 100% here for these videos! So much historical wisdom and ironically placed language and 2020 terminology. Girl, you make my day! Please do more costume reviews like this! May I request the 1995 Emma or Sense and Sensibility. Maybe the American Girl Historical films (pretty, pretty please???) 🤓
"Eyeballs are so last century" made me giggle way WAY too much! Thank you for that!
I actually remember reading an article when the film first came out where they literally said they used the costumes to ensure viewers understood the different difference in status and wealth between the different families.
So agree with the thing about women over 40, even women with money, somehow being stuck with the styles of their youth. That said, I get equally irritated by the opposite trope in historical drama. That is where to cement the vibe of the appropriate decade everything (houses, clothes, cars, furniture etc) is from that decade. It's as if the world was completely rebuilt anew ever 10 years. More a thing with dramas set in the 20th century perhaps.
yes and often I remember someone telling me the biggest one is servants uniforms. Often the uniforms will be out of date because the style is stiffer and less changeable it's a uniform not fashion so to have the servants wearing uniforms that are as fashionable is really weird!
My experience watching the 2005 was both screaming at Lizzie’s hair, and also screaming at the longing between the main two dorks
(Dressed up for Halloween and the day before at my retail job in full 1890s and only had a little issue with my corset but that was because it’s my first pair so they could’ve been better fit)
Some old lady: “my, your waist is so tiny, is it 19 inches?”
Me: “actually it’s 24”, which is an inch smaller than without a corset. It looks small because of my hip padding and giant sleeves” :)
"I'm not an earth tone girl..." *Rachel Maksy has entered the chat*
Hahaha
25:25 with that scene we need now a pirates of the Caribbean review. I love Keira’s costumes and the uniforms
Thankyou, interesting video. My grandmother wore stays. I remember as a small child, being fascinated as she dressed early morning and removed them late evening. She made all her clothes, cotton summer and knitted woollen for winter. She lived for 84 years, despite her stays, to a younge child, she was just a lovely cuddly granny. To her neighbouring villagers, her hand made clothes, were a wonder. Especially the knitted skirts and jackets, with cable twists, or feather and fan fine knitted blouse. I enjoyed the pride and prejudice films. Yes often smiled at the dresses and hair styles. Best wishes in your future dress making. ☺️🌈