Ranking 2020 Costume Dramas on Historical Accuracy

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She keeps saying she doesn’t want to be the “woman who trashes everything that other people make” but her videos tell otherwise...

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- So in an effort to be slightly more efficient in all of the costume reviews that you seem to want me to do we're going to do a little 2020 year wrap-up of all the period dramas that have been released this year. And just to make things a little bit more exciting I have decided that we are going to be ranking these period dramas on a scale of historical accuracy. I have made up a chart. I have tons of notes, and we're about to rank these films and TV shows on a scale of "they tried :/" to *chef's kiss*. So I guess I should kind of clarify my tiers here. *Chef's kiss* is obviously like near perfection. There's a combination of silhouette that obviously looks convincing to the period. The materials that they use are appropriate as well as presence of tiny details, such as seams or stitching details or embroidery things that you can just tell that the designer did their research in order to find out those little things. Pretty good is the silhouette is probably convincing enough. There may or may not be a couple of seams that look a little bit obviously modern but we can let those pass because generally the costumes themselves don't pull us out of the realm of the historical context of the story. It was a Design Choice(tm). This category is sort of reserved for the element of fantasy. So I'm not about to allow any of these historical dramas to sort of cop out on "but this was a directorial vision". Yes, that's fair, if this is fantasy and it's not actually dealing with actual historical events, actual historical figures, or is meant to have been set in an actual period of history. If they're going to a fantasy realm, it's some alternate universe thing, OK, fair. It was a Design Choice. There is a separate category for blasphemous hair and makeup because the actual bane of my existence there are several instances in which the costumes are actually pretty good but the entire convincing-ness of the world of the historical film or show is just shattered. You cannot fully immerse yourself into the realm of the historical period because you are constantly being pulled out by the fact that her lip shade is like not quite right. And also why is she wearing bronzer? And then they tried is obviously like an attempt at history was made, but like not very successfully. We're basically just going to be judging the objective criteria of "is this historically accurate". So without further ado, we are going in order of US release. First on our list is "Little Women", which if you watched my compilation video on the worst costumes of all time, this film was on that list. We've discussed the UGGs, we have discussed the beach waves. This gets a solid... they tried? but were they even trying... remains to be seen but that's gonna live there. Second on our list is "Emma", which once again also made it onto not my worst costume compilation but my best costume compilation. we have already discussed the 10 out of 10 near perfection of "Emma", everyone basically looked like they were out of a fashion plate. It was beautifully designed. This gets a chef's kiss. I put Mulan on this list because I think it technically is a period drama. It does take place in fifth or sixth century, Northern China. It's based off of the original ballad of Mulan. So there is historical text to it. There is also a lot of fantasy. So this one is a little bit tricky because my particular realm of studies centers around English and American pre-World war one historical dress. So I can't say that I am very well-educated in the realm of six century Chinese dress, Northern Chinese dress. So I put this one on my list and I was like, I'll do some research. So three hours later, I had only just got up to the general overview of the Tang dynasty. And I was like, oh wow now I understand why historians choose one very specific little pinpoint of history and study that for their entire lives. So personally I am not qualified to deem this historically accurate or not. According to the background research that I did do, I am first and foremost, a little bit disappointed that they didn't hire an actual Chinese designer. And I know, I was watching some criticism from people who actually are more familiar with the cultural details. And one of the main criticisms of this was the fact that they were hiring white designers to do research into Chinese dress and not actually hiring Chinese designers who already have that background knowledge and who can then focus on building a world within the context of those historical foundations. To my untrained eye just based off of the artwork that I was looking at within this time period there does seem to be a lot of bright colorful dress happening, which is so superficial but they certainly did that within this film. The fabrics and materials that they use do seem to be convincing enough in terms of quality. Obviously, I haven't done the depth of research to get to the point where I understand what dyes were available and therefore what colors would have been available and what colors can be worn in what circumstances and with what, but just based off of the research that I did do the silhouettes look pretty okay, the colors look at least having existed within the period. There is definitely an element of fantasy involved. I mean, we are dealing with the realm of witches and people running up vertical walls, which is not... you know... reality. This is also a Disney film. And I know one of the main criticisms of trying to make Disney films historically accurate is that they are Disney films and they are fairytales and they are not historically accurate. Anyway, that is a very long-winded way of saying that. I do think the costume design was-- to my very unspecialized eye-- the costumes did look pretty okay to me, I'm going to put this in it was a Design Choice. (sigh) I think that is the best that I can do. So next on our list, we have Belgravia, it's a TV series. The beginning is set in 1815, and it sort of goes up through the 1840s. Initially from looking at the promo images of this, I was like, "oh my God". I was actually so excited for the show because obviously the book came out several years ago and I was like, oh yay Julian Fellowes wrote the book. I was like, oh, it's Downton Abbey. So it will maybe be good, but then I saw some promo pics and I was like, wow, this looks extremely modern. I guess the costumes are going to be a Little Bit Questionable, but the costumes were pretty good (sigh). I realized the thing that was throwing me off in the promo images that unfortunately, because sometimes the promo images are done up and shot before the actual thing is shot or they're done separately offset, not within the context of the actual shooting environment. So the promo images don't always reflect the actual costumes. Unfortunately, these kinds of did. The Appallingly modern hair and makeup did carry over into the actual series to the point where like, I can tell that you are definitely from the 21st century and you're putting on a bonnet and a soap frog. So unfortunately this one has to be classified in blasphemous hair and makeup. Next we have the English Game, which is a new Netflix TV series. This one is set in 1879 I believe is when the show begins. Once again, I have not studied the realm of sporting uniforms, so I cannot speak to the accuracy of the football uniforms. So here's the thing within period dramas, there tends to be this overarching phenomenon where the men's wear tends to be pretty much ok. It doesn't change a whole lot from mmh kind of from the beginning of the regency period up to the modern times. The women are overly made up again, the hair and makeup is just... frustrating. But then again, the women in the show are used as props and on flowers anyway. So does it really matter? Probably not! One thing that I did enjoy on this show is that because a lot of the story is spent in uniform on the football field, everyone is kind of dressed the same. They did capitalize on that late Victorian trend of EPIC men's facial hair and sort of extreme and varied men's facial hair, which was extremely clever because I was a bit worried just watching the show that I would not be able to distinguish one white man from the other white man, but they do "Oh yeah, okay, this is the guy with a large beard. This is the guy with a small beard. This is the guy with the little mustache." So I thought that was clever. I have nothing like serious again to complain about these clothes. I'm gonna put this in pretty good. So next we have another Netflix series. This one is called Self-Made. I have to go a little bit hard on this one because this is actually about a real historical figure, Madame CJ Walker, who if you don't know who she is, go Google her. She's like one of my favorite historical figures. She's the first self-made female millionaire in the United States. The show itself is entertaining, it's good. Unfortunately, the clothes are not good. It's supposed to be 1908 but you kind of can't really tell. They're using all sorts of materials, all sorts of laces and weird trimmings. They did not really look period at all. And I have to be a little bit more rigid with the historical accuracy judgment on this because it is not only dealing with actual specific years within history, but also about a specific person. Like the research is out there. I think it may have been deliberate because the way that the editing is done, it is very modern. When I was watching it, I was like, you know what? The only way that I can sort of describe this editing style is TikTok. It feels like TikToK or like YouTube editing not in a bad way because obviously we all find that entertaining, right? But it was definitely different to see that in a TV show. I will say the background characters, a couple of the background characters were actually really good. I presume this is because they made all of the principal characters and those were ~Designed~ but the background folk were rented or pulled from stock or something. And therefore there were existing costumes that are a bit closer to history. I will say though, that this show is unique in that though the clothes were not the best, the hair was really good, which obviously it should be because the show is about hair and hair styling. So good job on the hair, but in terms of clothes, I gotta put this in they tried. So next we have Miss Scarlet and the Duke. The costumes were ok...? I did like that spend pretty much the entirety of long periods of time in the same clothes that is very contextually accurate in that, yeah people don't change their clothes. Well, they changed their under things everyday but you have sort of a set number of outfits that are yours. And because clothing is expensive you don't wear a new outfit every day necessarily unless you're supremely wealthy. I was a bit disappointed by the silhouettes of the clothes. They at least seem to be wearing corsets, properly under structured. But I don't know what year specifically this is supposed to be I'm getting like 1891 from it just based on the sleeve shapes, but a little undefined. They haven't got quite the right like padding situation to just... like that Victorian, late Victorian/ early Edwardian turn of the century silhouette like you can just tell when it's right and you can just tell when it's not right. That's all to do with the padding. And I don't think that they did that in this show. The unforgivable thing within this show is once again the hair and makeup, which was appalling. So this one gets classified into blasphemous here and makeup. Next we have The Great. So I had heard not the best things about the clothes going into this, that it was not historically accurate but I was actually pleasantly surprised by it. I thought the silhouettes were good. They were wearing proper undergarments, so everyone was sort of positioned correctly apart from the first episode, which had some major fit issues with the gowns, the clothes fit well, looked decent enough. I was about to classify this into stupid hair and makeup because after watching the first episode, I was like "why does everyone have their hair down? And like pulled up into that half ponytail that everyone thinks is a historical thing for some reason, but is not!" But after the first episode, they got their act together with the hair and they actually started putting it up and doing 18th century rolls and stuff and it was fine. So I think there was just a little bit of a shift in the design process between the first episode and the rest of the episodes. Some of the materials are questionable. Some of the trimmings are not quite 18th century. Some of the outfits are literally unidentifiable as something from the 18th century and are just completely modern. I'll put this in pretty good because it doesn't have the fantasy element to classify it as a design choice, but it's not as bad as they tried. Ok, it'll live in pretty good. Next we have the Alienist, which takes place in 1897, not that you would know it. The clothes are kind of meh they're like Neo Victorian. It's like someone went to a high street and just pulled a bunch of blouses that had that Victorian flare and said "let's put this in a very serious crime drama set in the Victorian--" It's not Victorian, this is in America! In the late 19th century hair and makeup. This is becoming a theme friends. And I think this is a general theme within the entire world of period dramas the hair and makeup is a hot mess. So a lot of period films do this set in, especially in the late Victorian, late 19th century period they do use modern blouses and you can get away with it to an extent, but when you combine those modern blouses with very blatantly modern hair and makeup that just tips the balance from historical to not historically believable. There was actually one point I had to laugh. You know how like modern blouses are very like poly chiffon and very see-through where you can kind of see through the back of one of her blouses and she's wearing completely modern undergarments in that scenario. So this is going into once again blasphemous hair and makeup. So next on our list, we have Radioactive, which once again I'm going to be a little bit hard on this one because it is about a very specific person, Marie Curie Ihis film actually takes place over a span of time, at the beginning starts early 1890s. And then there were some cutaways to like 20th century but I'm not going to comment on that because that is again, beyond my area of knowledge. So the one main thing that I noticed about this is that the sleeve shapes in the beginning are like, yeah early 1890s, 1891 ish but they kind of stay that way throughout the entire film despite the fact that it goes all the way up into like the twenties. The 1890s is a very particularly exciting decade because the shape of the sleeves changed so dramatically, and very specifically from year to year within the decade, I always love watching period things set in the 1890s because you can always tell when the designer knows and is getting those sleeve shapes just right. So like in the 1890, 1891, the sleeves are very sort of quaint Victorian, like what we think of. By 1893, 1895, 1896 the sleeves just get really, really big. And then they start to go down again like 1898 round to the turn of the century. In theory, there should have been a little sub story happening with the sleeve shapes in this film. There was not, I will give that a pass because yes not everyone changes their entire wardrobe from year to year or even maybe like every three years or every five years, like, ok, I can let that pass. The hair and makeup was good. It did not take me out of the film. This did also suffer from a little bit of modern blouse syndrome. However, it didn't feel like a bother to me because again the hair and makeup kept us very realistically within this 1890s realm. So I will classify this within pretty good. So next we have a Personal History of David Copperfield which admittedly came out elsewhere in the world like ages ago, but the US got it in 2020. So I'm counting this on his list. The clothes in this were really good. It's sort of 1840s Dickensian. So I don't think they actually specify a year but the clothes did say 1840s to me. And they were actually really good. It does feel very designed. It's very bright. It's very colorful, lots of unusual patterns and textures being used together which wouldn't likely have happened in history. However, I give that a pass because the whole context of the story is that it is deliberately a whimsical tale within the Victorian period, as told by the Victorian character himself in a deliberately whimsical way. I accept that because it's almost as if they've taken Victorian patterns, textures, colors and designed a costume within the realm of the Victorian period. I thought it was really clever. The silhouettes were good. Again, the materials were all believable as having existed in the Victorian period, they all looked natural fiber. The patterns and textures were all believable to the period. There were also lovely little details. There's at one point where the woman bends over and you can see that her dress is closing with dress hooks which always brings me joy. Oh, oh, the men's waistcoats were fantastic. The fabrics used for the waistcoats were just *chef's kiss*. This one goes into *chef's kiss*. The next film that I put on my list is Antebellum. And then I watched it and I realized it's technically not a period drama. It takes place in this like alternate reality "modern times" in which Southern plantations still exist. And people still dress and behave like it is the pre-war 1850s. I kept it on this list because the 1850s clothes were really good. But in theory, it's not technically period but they did definitely pay attention to their seams the shoulder seams on the men's shirts were just-- like they did the seams right. I was genuinely really impressed with the way that these clothes were done. Obviously there were some deviations taken. I don't think any of the women were wearing under structures. Even the sort of like silk gown, ladies of the house didn't look like they were wearing corsets some of the time, which is not period. But again, like I also believe that if this were a 21st century situation in reality like they wouldn't be... This one is a bit confusing. But again, I felt like it was worth keeping in just to acknowledge the effort towards historical detail that was made because it was good. So this one is going into it was a design choice because obviously this is within a sort of supernatural fantasy context but there was attention paid to the historical dress. Ok, you've been asking me incessantly to review this- film? Yeah it was a film- for the entirety of since September. It is Enola Holmes. I wasn't going to do a separate review of this because I just didn't have anything really nice to say. And I don't like being mean but Karolina Zebrowska has already done a video on this and you should watch it because it is supremely accurate. Her review is supremely spot on. Not that the clothes are accurate (sighs). What period was this movie supposed to be taking place in? Because they do reference one very specific, I think it's the reform act or something I don't specifically remember, but that does pinpoint the story within a very specific date which I think is 1881 or 1888, some 1880s situation. There are women in crinolines. There are women in bustles. There are women in very specifically Edwardian post turn of the century lace tea gowns at the very end. And even this- this frickin red dress that she spends the majority of the first half of the film in is more of an 18th century polonaise than it is anything from the 19th century. It's like this gown almost literally just came out of Harlots. We won't talk about why an 18th century harlot gown is being worn by an 1880s teenager anyway, I wanted to like this movie a lot but between the clothes that just couldn't pick one decade even, let alone like a century, combined with the hair and makeup, which again was just a disgrace. I am afraid I have to put this in they tried. So the next item on my list is the Spanish princess which to be honest, I went into this, expecting it to be like Reign/the Tudor-level like ghastliness, but maybe it's because I went into that with that attitude that I was actually pleasantly surprised by some of the clothes? The silhouettes were kind of ok at least some of the shapes of the gowns. Some were definitively more Victorian than Tudor but alas. This does, however, unfortunately suffer from, again, the inevitable modern romance drama issue of blasphemous hair and makeup. The next film is Ammonite, which takes place in I don't think they actually specify but it's 1840s, probably late 1840s. This film is just... yes, with the clothes, basically. I buy pretty much everything. The silhouettes were great, the fabrics were great, there was one greenish gown that she wears to the beach, silk gown. But the silk, the weave of the silk is like, this is straight out of the early 19th century. Like I buy this, this is great. The way that the clothes were constructed though you could tell by the way that the sleeves were set and where the seams were that they were looking at historical patterns. The fabrics that they chose were great. Even the context of the clothes, how they were worn in that the sort of posher woman changes her gown, not every scene, she does re-wear gowns but she changes her gown sort of frequently. And she's wearing nice silks, whereas the geologist, she's always in this sort of homespun tartan check cotton dress that she wears pretty much for the entire film (sighs). The context was very satisfying. And just in the difference of how they wear their clothes. I don't think Kate Winslet's character was wearing a corset. I don't think at all within the show but her silhouette was not off for some unpinpointable reason I don't understand why she wouldn't be wearing a corset because especially when the 1840s like they hadn't got restrictive yet as they did sort of by the 1850s and 1860s when fashionable waistlines were the smallest that they were in history. It worked with her character. You can buy it. She is on the beach all the time. The other woman is definitely corseted. She has definitely got that silhouette going on which is 10 out of 10. I'm gonna put this in chef's kiss. It was pretty good. The next film that we have is Come Away which again is a little bit tricky because a lot of it takes place in this sort of fantasy world. I'm only going to be judging it based on the scenes that took place in supposedly a historical context. The clothes are ok. That's kind of all I can say, like the clothes were ok. To be fair there are degrees of terrible hair and makeup like, ok she's wearing an unnatural lip shade, or she's wearing a bit of eyeliner, but she's wearing eyeliner and lip gloss and like iron curling the front little wispy bits of her hair. Like no, this one goes in blasphemous hair and makeup. Fortunately the majority of the film is focused on the children and the children are fine. And within the realm of fantasy like anything goes, but I just (sighs) the level of rage that I have towards whoever is responsible for the hair and makeup in period films, maybe it's not the costumes that we need to be raging after with pitchforks, but maybe it's just like the hair and makeup that we need to be like, Guys. Get Your Act Together. Am I just being like full of rage right now? Probably. The next thing that I have on my list is Bridgerton which has not been released yet, as of my filming this video on the 12th of December it's not supposed to be released till the 25th. So I am judging this based off of the trailer. So all of this with a grain of salt. I can say immediately, it's not historically accurate. It's very Designed. The menswear actually looks pretty decent,. the silhouettes of the men's coats look fine. The silhouettes in general pretty much look ok, it's Regency. So it's dandies and empire gowns and all that, except for the random like mid-18th century gown on one of the women at least in the trailer, I don't know what that's all about but it's accessorized completely modern the colors and the textures and the materials are all completely modern. It does look deliberate. Like this was a choice it's not historically accurate. Where am I gonna put this? Where am I gonna put this? 'Cause it's not fantasy but it kind of is I'm going to make an exception. I'm going to put this in it was a Design Choice. Not to do with actual historical events, so like there is a bit of leeway, I think we'll put that in it was a design choice. Honorable mention goes to Jingle Jangle because you can tell that this is supposed to be historical. So the period of this film is Victorian. And by Victorian, we mean literally, Victorian, as in the costumes take place in all seven decades of it. the young girl was very sort of early 1890s but there were also definitely like 1840s and 50s crinoline gowns. Like it was all over the place. It was whimsical, it was not period, but it's also again this one's a fantasy. This one gets an honorable mention, it's going in it was a design choice. So those are my thoughts on the historical accuracy and the ranking thereof, of the historical films and TV shows that were released in 2020. I'm sure that I missed some, do let me know if I missed any feel free to put those in the comments below. Feel free to let me know if I missed any within this time period, feel free to discuss any that were not within this time period. I know there were lots of great stuff that happened more 20th century set but again, my area of study is pre-World war one. So I don't know enough about 20th century post-World war one to accurately rank stuff. This was definitely fun. It gave me a lot of new period dramas to watch and I recommend all the films. I thought, I mean, I didn't not enjoy any of them but also I'm trash for anything set in history. And now I feel like I need to start like actively keeping up with all the period dramas that come out because I think I have a lot of things to collect for 2021. I wonder what 2021 will bring us in terms of the historical accuracy of period dramas. Is this an entirely pointless endeavor? Yes, because again, I say this in every single thing that I ever do in terms of reviews there is no such thing as historical accuracy. So in a way we're kind just doing this for the funsies and just to learn more about history but does it ultimately fundamentally matter if something is historically accurate or not? No. Do I find it more interesting? Yes. Do I enjoy learning from historical films? Yes. and I do think at least making an attempt for historical authenticity is a little bit important because we do get to see historical dress. We get to see it in museums. We get to see it in photographs, in fashion plates and portraiture, but it's all very two-dimensional and it's all very flat and still, we don't often have the opportunity to see historical dress in the wild on a body moving, engaging in actual contextual situations. And I think there is such an important learning opportunity in getting to see clothes interact on a human body as they were meant to be worn because we do have this understanding for whatever, well I know for exactly what reason, but we have this understanding that clothes historically were very stiff and rigid and uncomfortable. And I think that comes from the fact that we are constantly looking at them in these two dimensional stationary contexts. We're not used to seeing them authentic, properly worn within proper context on a human body clothes moving. I think we're always a little bit surprised when we get to put on an element of period dress or when we see someone wearing period dress and they're able to do all these "modern things". And they look like such modern people. We don't understand that these people were more like us than we think they were. So that's why I think there is a degree of importance to be able to give the public more of an understanding of how these clothes were worn on actual humans. That's all I have for you. My battery's gonna die. I'm gonna go not watch period dramas because I've done that for the last three days straight. And I hope you have a good day. And I guess I'll see you again in 2021 with the year review of next year or something. Who am I kidding? I am definitely watching more period dramas because there are just so many good ones waiting to be watched from our sponsor for today's video, Acorn TV and I just cannot resist. Acorn TV is a unique streaming service specializing in sophisticated and artful storytelling rooted in British television. From hard to find documentary gems to timeless classics like Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Acorn TV gives you access to commercial free international favorites for just $5.99 a month. Presently, I am enjoying the BBC drama based on the eponymous novel by Vikram Seth, "A Suitable Boy" which takes place in 1950s India, and is a gorgeously shot beautifully close story of love and friendship and tradition during the political and cultural unrest of mid 20th century India, 10 of 10 recommend enjoying preferably with a large warm beverage, and the floof of your choice. You too can check out A Suitable Boy and lots more on Acorn TV with a free 30 day trial by going to acorn.tv and using promo code. bernadette, happy watching! (happy floof noises) Now he's falling asleep and I can't get up. I'm trapped.
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Channel: Bernadette Banner
Views: 1,199,561
Rating: 4.9607964 out of 5
Keywords: costume review, costume analysis, movie costume analysis, historical costumes, period costumes, historical costumes right, the great, bridgerton, enola holmes, self made, fashion expert fact checks, fashion expert breaks down, fashion history, costume history, tier ranking movies, historically accurate costumes, historically accurate movies, bernadette banner, acorn tv, period drama
Id: 7oDGy8Lonaw
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 29min 58sec (1798 seconds)
Published: Sat Dec 19 2020
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