Friday: Favorite Edwardian Outfit (What's Your's?) - Period Drama Fashion Week

Not really sure I have a favorite Edwardian outfit... I know I would like to sew an Edwardian dress one of these days, but I don't really have one from a period drama. If I had to pick one, I guess I would pick...

This Dress from The Duchess of Duke Street. I really like the color and the white lace cuffs at the end of the sleeve.

What is your favorite Edwardian Outfit? Post about it on your blogs or leave a comment!

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 God Bless,

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,

Review: The Duchess of Duke Street - Series 2

Not long ago, you may have seen that I reviewed Series 1 of this series. My mom and I finally finished the series and we were both a little sad that it ended. We just got the know all of the characters: they've almost become family. But alas! it is finished! Here is my review of it.

Note: This review contains spoilers from Series 1. If you do not want to encounter Series 1 Spoilers, I suggest waiting to read this review until after you've seen Series 1. In the meantime, here is my review for Series 1!

 

Synopsis
The story of Louisa Trotter continues where Series 1 left off. The Bentinck hotel has gain considerable prominence, hosting many distinguished guests. When WWI begins, Louisa does what she can to help with the war effort by turning the Bentinck into a convalescing home for soldiers.


Characters/Episode Plotlines
Couple of more actors/actresses that you might recognize, even more from Series 1. Of course, apart of the main cast is Gemma Jones (Louisa Trotter), who was also in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Jane Eyre (1997). This series also sees the return of Joanna David as Lady Haselmere, Charlie's wife; Joanna David is well known in the period drama world for being in Pride and Prejudice (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1971), The Way We Live Now, and He Knew He Was Right. For some minor characters: Julian Fellowes (the creator of Downton Abbey) was in an episode as a student playing a joke on his professor) and Liz Smith (Lark Rise to Candleford) was in two episodes as "Nanny".

Much of the series has to do with World War I and how it affects the Bentinck. The Bentinck goes through some changes, Spoiler even enduring a bombing. End of Spoiler After a while, one can get a little tired of the war stories, as there are six episodes out of the sixteen that are about the war, but once those episodes are done, you don't hear a great deal about the war. The 20s are briefly gotten into, but the series ends in 1926. There is a wider range of eras than in Series 1, which only dealt with the Edwardian era.

Louisa is still a very likable character, though she can be strict at times. Spoiler When her daughter, Lottie, arrives at the Bentinck, she tries to make sure that Lottie is brought up as a lady, though Lottie has other plans. End of Spoiler

Charlie talking to the Major after WWI.

Charlie in in the series until about half-way through it. We see a little glimpse into his married life with Margaret, which ends in tragedy. He works through the grief and he eventually joins the army to fight in World War I, Spoiler but he returns, Charlie has suffered wounds from the battlefield and eventually succumbs to them. End of Spoiler With the exit of Charlie comes the entrance of Lottie. Between the two, Charlie was much more likable! Lottie was too rebellious and she was very rude to Louisa. I couldn't really identify with her very much.


Scenery
The scenery hasn't changed much from Series 1. Most of the scenes still take place inside the Bentinck, though there is an episode where you see a little garden area for the guests to sit in. There are some more outdoor scenes than in the first series. The show, as in Series 1, still looks like it was filmed in the 70s, which is to be expected since it was filmed in the 70s. But overall, the scenery isn't bad.


Costumes

Mr. Leyton, Louisa's father, visits her at the Bentinck.

This series, since it takes place over 16 years compared to the first season's 9, sees a wider range of costumes. The series starts off with Edwardian fashions, but ends with 20s fashions. Once WWI started, Louisa's usually fancy outfits became plainer and after the war ended, her clothes didn't look as nice as they once did. Her clothes made her look older (though she probably was older, but her face really didn't how it). Lottie did have some nice 20s clothes, but I don't particularly like that she bobbed her hair (but then again it was popular at that time). Personally, I preferred the costumes from the first series.



Overall: 4/5
Still a very good show, but between the two series, I preferred Series 1 (though both series got the same rating here). This series features some topics that were not spoken of as openly in series 1, but the show still maintains a PG rating (at least PG to me). There is a scene in the fifth episode that you may wish to skip, so be careful about that. I was sad that the show ended, but it was probably best that it ended when it did. 

The Duchess of Duke Street: Series 2 is available on DVD on it's own or in the complete collection. Is has sixteen, 1 hour long episodes.

Review: The Duchess of Duke Street - Series 1 (1976)

A while ago, my mom and I began to watch The Duchess of Duke Street. The show was made up of two seasons and was from the 70s. Normally, I don't particularly watch period dramas from the 70s since they aren't up to the standards of period dramas of today are (costuming and scenery wise), but I gave this show a try. I was not familiar with the Edwardian era and had never seen a period drama from the early Edwardian era (Downton Abbey was a little bit past the Edwardian era, and though it is referred to as an Edwardian period drama, it technically isn't.). This weekend, my mom and I just finished Series 1 of The Duchess of Duke Street.

Series 1 Box Art

Synopsis
Louisa Leyton (later Louisa Trotter) wants to become the best chef in England. She first gets a job in a fine house and eventually goes on to buy the Bentinck Hotel. The story is loosely based on the life of Rosa Lewis, a real life cook that was the best cook in London during her time.


Characters/Episode Plotlines
Most recognizably, Louisa is played by the well known Gemma Jones, who is also known for her roles in Sense and Sensibility and Jane Eyre. Robert Hardy (Sense and Sensibility, Middlemarch) makes an appearance in one episode, and so does Joanna David (Pride and Prejudice, He Knew He Was Right). Other than those members of the cast, I didn't recognize anyone else.

Louisa is a very interesting character. She is feisty, sassy, and determined to become the best chef in England. She sometimes gets involved in bad situations, but she keeps going. Small Spoiler Early in the series, she catches the attention of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII): in order to keep the prince looking respectable, Louisa is pressured to marry the butler of the house she is working at, Augustus "Gus" Trotter; she relents and marries Gus (on a side note, Gus became a slimy character after they got married; luckily, he was only in the first couple of episodes). I felt that Louisa giving into the pressure was out of character for her: she didn't seem like a person that would give into peer pressure like that and then she does. But after that incident, Louisa doesn't give into peer pressure like she did during that incident. A slip of her character, perhaps? End of Small Spoiler There were ups and downs to Louisa's character. There were some times where I really liked her as a character: she was determined to protect her hotel and her staff and friends. But other times, it was hard to like her: she would become really bossy in some episodes, or really jealous in others. Well, I suppose all characters have their good points and their bad points.

The staff of the Bentinck Hotel

The staff of the hotel is also involved in the main plot too. As the viewer, you get a good glimpse into the lives of Mary, the hotel's maid and Louisa's friend that she met at her first cooking job, Merriman, the hotel's butler, Mr. Starr, the head porter, and his dog Fred, and the other recurring staff members. In a way, the story has some similarities to Upstairs, Downstairs since both the staff and the higher class people are involved in the plot. What is interesting is that in some episodes, you get to hear what the staff thinks of the situation the hotel is in in a particular episode.

Most of the episodes revolve around Louisa, Charles "Charlie" Haselmere (her friend), and the hotel staff, but there are a couple of episodes that focus more on the guests of the hotel. The episodes that were mostly about the hotel guests seemed as if they could have taken place at any point in the series, while with the episodes about Louisa, Charlie, and the hotel staff, they seem to play in chronological order for the most part. Since this story is based off of the life of a real life cook, there are some references during some of the episodes to events in history. Series 1 takes place between 1900 and 1910. There are references made to the death of Queen Victoria and the rise of the Prince of Wales to power and his death.


Scenery

Louisa at her first job

Unlike most shows from the 70s and 80s, this one didn't seem like it was on a sound stage all the time. Now, the video cameras that they used look like they came out of the 70s (I've noticed that with any 70s show, if a candle is lit there's this red streak that follows the flame around -- that streak is present in here), but the set doesn't appear to be a sound stage. There are some outdoor scenes, but most of the time, scenes take place within the Bentinck Hotel.


Costumes
I've never really seen a period drama with fashions from the early Edwardian era (at least before 1910) and I was quite unfamiliar with Edwardian fashions, so the costuming was all new to me. The costuming is very well done. Many of Louisa's outfits are very fancy and pretty, as are some of the guests' outfits. The staff usually has their usual uniforms on (which is to be expected), but sometimes the female staff members go out in nice dresses.


Music/Sound
Love the theme song! The theme song has the style of music that music at the turn of the century would have. Other than that, there really weren't any other songs (save for the alternative credits song, which had a similar style as the theme, but was slower). The sound was mostly clear (though I found Louisa hard to understand at times, but that was probably due to her accent).


Overall: 4/5
I would recommend this show. It's very enjoyable and not dull like some of the other period dramas from the 70s and 80s. There are some implications said about some of the characters, but nothing is shown (there was one scene that could have lead to a bad scene, but nothing happened at all). Louisa does sometimes use some bad language, but it's not that frequent. If I were to give The Duchess of Duke Street a TV rating, I would probably rate it TV-PG. If you're not familiar with the Edwardian era, this would be a good place to start with period dramas.

The Duchess of Duke Street: Series 1 is available on DVD either in the complete collection with both of the shows seasons or on it's own. There are 15 episodes in Series 1 that are about 50 minutes long each.