Friday: Movie Costume Highlight: Duchess of Duke Street - Period Drama Fashion Week

Today's Movie Costume Highlight is The Duchess of Duke Street. Now, I know there aren't many of my followers who haven't seen this series, but I recommend it. There might be some themes that are a little much for younger children, but it still stays about TV-PG. It also stars Gemma Jones, who many readers of Elegance of Fashion would know as Mrs. Dashwood from the 1995 movie of Sense and Sensibility and/or Mrs. Fairfax from the 1997 version of Jane Eyre.

But I digress!

The Duchess of Duke Street begins in the Edwardian Era and ends during the 20s. We get to see fashions in the range of 25 years. In a similar way to Downton Abbey, in The Duchess of Duke Street, we get to see the fashions of the rich and of the staff of the Bentinck hotel where the story takes place.

First in The Duchess of Duke Street, main character Louisa Leyton (later Trotter) becomes a cook at a great house. For the few episodes that she is a cook, we don't see her dressed in much of anything other than her uniform.

But within a few episodes, she becomes the owner of the Bentinck Hotel and works to make it a great hotel visited by lords and ladies. As she works her way up and acquires more wealth, she dresses very nicely! Here is a collection of pictures of her clothes during the Edwardian Era (mainly Series 1)

Louisa's hat when she rides in the car

I just love the color on this dress!

And here's a wider view of it!

Another one of Louisa's car outfits.

Louisa always dresses in fine clothing, but she still keep her cockney personality and accent.

For the most part, the staff's uniforms don't really change though out the series, or if they do, they are very small changes. Most of the time, they wear their usual uniforms since most of the time we see them they are at work.

Series 2 has some new fashions.

The fashions during most of Series 2 are from the World War I era. They are a lot simpler than the Edwardian Fashions due to the war.

See what I mean about the staff's uniforms? Louisa does have a nice dress here, though. It has a little bit of lace, but not the frills that she had during the Edwardian Era.

But than after WWI and the appearance of Louisa's daughter, Lottie, as a regular cast member, Louisa started dressing very "old".

Okay, this outfit isn't as bad

But her outfit here makes her look very old! Well, I guess the character got older, too.

Lottie does have some okay outfits, though. I think I liked the way we looked when she first appeared as an adult than towards the end of the series. She looked more innocent.

The last outfit Lottie wears makes her look too much like a flapper!

Okay, so this was only supposed to be about the Edwardian Fashions in The Duchess of Duke Street, but you also got a taste of some of its later fashions.

So that is my movie highlight for the day. Have you seen either series of The Duchess of Duke Street? What were some of your favorite costumes?

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 God Bless,