Regency Tailor Explains Bridgerton Men's Costumes

hello everyone now unless you've been hiding under a rock i'm pretty sure you've heard of bridgeton so i've decided to talk about how accurate the clothing is not whether it's good or bad but whether it is historically accurate or not and how close some pieces get to being historically accurate and how some pieces are a little bit need improvement so first off i thought i'd start off with the men now julie andrews says grosvenor square 1813. so now we know when it is set it is set in 1813 during the london season now the london season was built around members of parliament and it was a way for high society to shift to london so that it could basically entertain the young members of parliament um to go to balls and everything and the season for the year 1813 ran from november to july with a bit of a break in the middle so bridgeton is clearly set in that latter part where it's much sunnier you see them walking about and going to parties and there being a lot of outside entertainment so let's look at the men's dress first off let's look at the shirts now shirts like this did not exist in the period that scooped neck look is something in the sort of theater world and costume world are called charred shirts because the the shirt was sort of brought about by the film the charge of the light brigade where they did that scooped thing in order to create what they thought was the right silhouette with minimal sort of effort as it were rather than shirts of the period like mine are constructed with a straight front and because of the natural fitting it then fits properly around the neck and gives you the accurate silhouette that you need and then we come to the duke i don't know what he's doing you would always wear your cravat neckwear stock etc over your shirt to expose that much skin and everything as a man and and to do that would have been a social disaster but i feel in order to be historically accurate he would have worn it over the top the color of his cravat however generally being black would have been worn if you're in the military and with a military uniform um but generally that's in sort of service dress so he wouldn't have been wearing a black cravat in the daytime you'd either be wearing white or a lighter color or patterned or something like that um but certainly not a black cravat we've looked at the shirts and they don't appear to be very close very close to what they would have won during the period especially as in this scene he's wearing a black shirt which just didn't exist it's throughout the 18th century and into the 19th century it's all about wearing white linens close to your skin because it shows cleanliness next to godliness and how well presented you were and how wealthy you were and all of that it's all about white shine white bright shininess then we move on to waistcoats there are so many in bridgeton and some are absolutely lovely some really really good styles worn by this guy um however generally speaking they can be a little bit iffy um but let's discuss so these are the sort of waistcoats you'd expect to be seeing um and these are the sort of waistcoats we're given so you can see the differences now in this scene in particular you note that they're wearing um the pointed waistcoat which is more which you commonly associate more with the 18th century um in this style but this is actually a form or a take on the demi-hubby so they are wearing the frax style coat and the waist coats but then they're wearing trousers and boots that would never happen you wouldn't wear that sort of waistcoat with that sort of coat um with boots and trousers in this period it just was not a thing in 1813 also we then look at the legware worn by the men they are all wearing trousers there is like a few examples of britches but generally you're seeing 1813 more breeches than really anything else um this guy background actor looks great and that's something that annoys me when the background characters are dressed more accurately sort of than the main cast except this is an exception so what i would have expected to see is far more britches and boots and some of the boots have crinkles in them which was a fashion thing um but you wouldn't expect to see quite this much they also said they wanted to show more color and sex things up a little bit so here are some examples of some really bland boring regency outfits from around the time and here are some really very conservative not at all sexed up outfits from the time as well so history is full of sexiness and color we just need to bring it out there's so much available there to show people which i think is really really useful okay and now we get onto the subject of coats once again i will not be discussing whether anything is good or bad these silhouettes they are wearing shoulder pads and the silhouette is very sort of is very 1820s 1830s you know well out of time period this is the sort of style going for the more sloped shoulder it's about creating an elegant look this is very boxy what our modern eyes are used to seeing in high fashion and things like this and this is something we've been shown a lot as opposed to actually being something which is really accurate further regarding coats in this image you can see these colors colors of coats and that's perfectly acceptable that's fine those are really nice colors and colors you would have seen during the period they're nice they're bright they're lovely what i disagree with is the fact they're paired with trousers and i think it ruins the silhouette and it crunches things up now his tailcoat the guy on the right the problem there one thing that really bothers me anyway is how far down his buttons and buttonholes go on his coat because this crops up a lot and this bothers me a lot from the middle of the 18th century right the way through you have the fact that the buttons end at the waist or where the pockets are and they just want to keep going going going going they always stop at that waist point it's a way of shaping the body framing the body it's just how the silhouette went how the fashion went you don't see any any coats from that period where the buttons and buttonholes go below the pockets it's just not something you see and i keep seeing it over and over again and it just drives me a little bit insane um because it's an easy fix and it's less work less buttonholes less buttons however a redeeming feature i do love his hair big hair crazy hair was certainly a thing the women however the hair is all over the place now that was a design choice but during the period in the day women would have been wearing bonnets married women would have been wearing caps even in the evening you can wear things like veils which are things we don't really see apart from the wedding which is just lovely a relationship between the trousers and the boots you find that they're not sort of tight enough and therefore they look sort of crushed into the boots and that just ruins the silhouette that they would have had at the time what i really like which a lot of period dramas don't actually get right at all is they did a lot of work um with things like this these things are fobs they are where you keep your pocket watch in the waistband of your britches pantaloons or trousers and i love that they've included this detail it's really good and that's an incredibly accurate thing in terms of the layering they've got that accurate in terms of the color palette they've generally got that quite accurate we have an idea of the past being very dull in color when in fact it was far brighter than we really give credit to a lot of bold colors and things like that are used and that's really wonderful but yes as you can see it really bothers me when the background characters look a lot more sort of put together than the main cast and also can we talk about the fact that the duke apparently only has one style of coat you see him wear the same coat in just different colors and materials the whole time it is not a period accurate silhouette it is not a period accurate look the flipped back lapel is something you could see in the 1780s on a very different style and as well as the button-down collar isn't really something you see either um and and this whole thing wouldn't have been something you would have seen now let's talk about the very first scene here you have the ladies dressed like this they look wonderful this looks really good it looks very exciting it looks wonderful except it's french this is the style of french court dress here we are french court dress now let's remember that queen charlotte was on the throne at the time in 1813 the regency had happened but she was still sort of running court with the prince regent there as well and her court rules stayed in effect for the ladies to wear the pannier of the previous century but they wanted to update it so they mixed it with regency fashion to create things like this it's mental but i would love to see this done on film with the budget these gowns were so sumptuous and expensive and the descriptions we have of such gowns are phenomenal a description of one of the court dresses um the birthday of king george iii dresses her majesty the queen queen charlotte a lilac and silver tissue petticoat trimmed with draperies of point brussels lace with point lace the same description flowered round the pocket holes the front of the drapery is superbly ornamented with large diamond rosettes from which were suspended diamond bows and tassels the underdrapery fancifully automated with diamonds in diagonal stripes the mantle to correspond with the drapery her royal highness the princess charlotte of wales pink and silver slip with a beautiful brussels lace frock to wear over it and a pink and silver girdle her royal highness and princess augusta a yellow crepe petticoat richly embroidered with silver a sash across the border of honeysuckles and a rich pointed embroidered draperies body and trained to correspond her all highness princess elizabeth a superb dress of apricot and silver tissue the right side of the dress a magnificent drapery composed of an etruscan net of large silver beads tastefully divided at distances by a thick billion of beads chains of beads in dead silver relieved bright bullion elegantly ornamented with messy reeds of laurel in silver foil and bouquets of chestnut blossoms with the kernel bursting from the shell form the truth ensemble of this strikingly novel and elegant dress which would taste an effect surpassed any dress of the kind we have observed the bottom finishing with a wreath of laurel in raised fallen beads hello i'm doing the filming the whole looped up with large silver cords and tassels robe of apricot and silver tissue trimmed with broad van dyke silver trim point lace and diamonds her royal highness princess mary wore a magnificent dress of brown crepe embroidered with silver and pink roses over a petticoat of royal purple oval drapery is richie spangled all over and terminated with marking borders of dead and bright foil in van dyke's with roses beautifully interspersed lightly in the embroidery the hole completed with elegant cords and tassels robe of brown purple and silver tissue trimmed with broad van dyke fringe point lace and diamonds her rule highness the prince of sofia pea green petticoat etc etc etc etc etc they are all wearing the most sumptuous over-the-top looks and here's what they mean by van dyke trims these weren't plain things these weren't retiring garments these weren't the simple silhouettes and things that you expected the regency these were big exciting pieces yes it's the king's birthday so they step up step it up a bit but also this is the court this is the royal court of england you have to remember at this time everything is about the court which is why napoleon when he re-establishes the french court decides to make it as opulent as possible in a new style so the two courts are sort of competing with the season being from november to july we would have seen a much more varied range of coats such as this this this and this for men and women once again trousers in 1813 but look how they're constructed and tapered towards the bottom instead of being straight down the leg it's all about the tapering of the silhouette i would have liked to have seen things like this this is a nice summery outfit from 1813. once again you are seeing trousers but look at how they're tapered and shaped the the seams along the side aren't straight they curve around the body to give a look of musculature this is the demi happy the sort of thing you'd expect to see in the evening um or for sort of you know semi-formal court stuff and things like this the bicorn is still being worn a lot by men um especially in the evening or for formal events it's basically the top hat of its day where now the top hat is the most formal thing back then the bicorn was the most formal thing and the top hat was just for day you don't see top hats being worn in the evening until uh 1816 is the earliest one i can find um to a formal evening event of someone wearing a top hat going to court you would have seen the men wear this the 18th century styles of still kept around a little bit but here they've moved on to this sort of slimmed down version why were there none of these coats they're the best looking coats they're great they could have done those 1813. look britches boots the whole thing's put together well and you can still be damn good looking and sexy doing it this is actually a french plate um from the piece of 1814 so they switch back to the french royal court look which actually resembles the english court look because of course all the english men going to court would have had their hair powdered so they would have had regency hairstyles but they would have been gray and white because they would have quite literally hair powder in them so that's fun and that's something you don't see and it's something i'd really like to see on film the silhouettes they're going for in the evening are very 1830s in terms of the triangular style of the silhouette and they kind of look like this fashion plate from 1818 which has that whole monochrome look of black on black so this is next from description from 1808 it's a little bit earlier but it gives you a very good impression of the sorts of things that people would have been wearing general observations on gentleman's dress the most fashionable coats for evening still remain dark blues with full size guilt buttons and black velvet collars or forest greens with buttons covered with cloth and collars of the same white waistcoats of clear light drab kersmi britches with silk strings at the knee light-coloured mixtures of drab coats are again resuming their station for morning dress and these are made single-breasted and after buttoning on the breasts slope regularly away to the skirts they are also something shorter in the skirt than the evening coat have flat plated buttons and collars of the same quilted massey waistcoats single-breasted a variety of small stripes on a white ground white corduroy bridges made rather long with power buttons at the knees and boots with brown tops white india dimity trousers also non-keen trousers and gators some few striped trousers we have seen worn but they are considered as only adopted for dirty weather or for wearing at the watering places so we get onto headwear and very few of the main cast are really ever seen wearing hats which is problematic because during the time period it was a modesty thing and it was a gentlemanly thing you know a genteel thing to do to wear a hat you wouldn't leave the house without wearing your hat it was a sign of just decency i don't get it with modern interpretations where they go in order to show that this young female character is a free spirit we're going to have her running around without a hat on and being free with her hair down i get that but if you did that during the period you'd be seen as a pariah that's one of the ways that a lady of questionable virtue would signal to people that she was a lady of questionable virtue and that she might be available or a bit of a loose woman get that turn a loose woman because the hair isn't up and pinned and it seems to be a trope of historical drama to have no one wearing hats i think that's an important nuance that you're missing everybody in the world of bridgeton is conforming to social convention and social construction and then to take away one of the grounding points in that doesn't really seem to make much sense to me one of those signifiers of the nuances of societal hierarchy okay so now that we've looked at a lot of the main caste men who are mainly civilian let's look at the one person that is a civilian but where's military so here we have uh the prince because of course what fairy tale is without a prince so we've got one and he is i think from prussia now they're trying to emulate sort of this uniform approximately um and the cut they've gotten stunning look looks super victorian as opposed to um 1813 regency everything like that just doesn't fit but the thing that annoys me more than anything else about this guy is his aglets those scrambly looking things in fact in the military they're affectionately called scrambled eggs um which is cute and i've got some here which are victorian and they've got these pokey bits these ones are gold and they've decided to put this pokey bit through the buttonhole which is just really not right it's almost like they have these little hooky things which go around the buttons so they hang they don't just poke through and they can't even be consistent with it so sometimes he's wearing them sometimes it's pointed through a little bit it's just not how it works they could have just googled aglets or just not worn them and this is what they should look like this is how they should be worn okay lots of examples of how they should be worn nothing annoyed me more go back and watch the series and just look at his aglets and it's a disaster did no one in the costuming department or during the editing or did anyone actually think it through yes it's an opinion but also it's correct it just looks awful but to then have him wearing aglets not even properly with these bits of poking through the buttonholes big rant big rant on my bit you know i i can't look at the guy he's got nice blonde hair so that's nice another thing that screams historical inaccuracy um is worn by my least favorite character daphne don't fight me in the comments um so after the duel scene there's this whole situation where she goes back and she does this undressing thing [Music] which is actually rather nice because you get to see the layering involved great hook size and stuff not a problem shift stays all that's good until it comes to the boots now i could forgive it if they didn't show her taking off the boots and it was sort of like thrown to the side but they decide to show her taking off the boots and then they do a close-up on it those are modern zip up the side pleather tread heel they zoom in on it you can see the clip you can see the zip i mean i maybe let it go if they didn't literally zoom in on it so that bothers me a bit overall the footwear is here and there in terms of accuracy um but that's one bit that i just cannot forget also as we're talking about 1813 i think it would have been really nice to have seen something like this maybe season two so in summary i really rather enjoyed watching bridgeton i loved how imaginative and how they'd twisted things with a modern look there are over 7000 pieces in there and i am astonished at the work that was put into it it is a complete feast for the eyes it's absolutely wonderful what they've done is is they've created an alternative world which i think is really nice it's not historically accurate because it's not meant to be and that's what i think is fun i would like to see things when they are said in history talking about real people to actually be a bit more historically accurate so that we get a better impression of the people their experiences and things like that but once again i'm not here to say whether something is good or bad i'm just saying how accurate the clothing is and i think that's really useful because i don't want people to watch something and get the wrong impression and use that as their basis for the understanding of a period and the people because after all we have to remember that clothes have never been just clothes clothes are social history they have a story and they tell people about things but i hope you have enjoyed spilling the tea with me [Music] you

Channel: Pinsent Tailoring

Views: 164,187

Keywords: Bridgerton, Netflix

Id: VDNJwG8oKRg

Length: 26min 0sec (1560 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 14 2021