Los Angeles Times - 31.10.2019

S31

THE ENVELOPE LOS ANGELES TIMES THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

length gown with a bit of train.

Then we totally reimagined the

neckline and added black satin

neck-drops, which become the

velvet tabs that hang down the

back of the dress. It’s a good

example of how I reappropriate

vintage and create something

new.

Younger sister Edith’s clothes

were wonderful as well, but

who knew Edith had such

pretty underwear?

(Laughs) Right. Just as soon as

you have a dressing scene, you

know you need to have period

underwear. Edith’s was specif-

ically made for Laura

[Carmichael] with vintage 1920s

over-lace. It was a perfect oppor-

tunity to look at the beautiful

undergarments these women

wore under all their beautiful

clothes.

Of course, all the jewelry

bling; it was almost a tiara

show. What should we know

about the tiara headpieces?

The social rule was only

married women wore tiaras, so

for the film it’s great news be-

cause [our main characters] are

all married now. Bentley & Skin-

ner lent us three original tiaras:

Violet’s was an 1890 Victorian

original as was Edith’s, and

Cora’s was Edwardian. Lady

Mary wore one original tiara I

found and the other was a replica.

Queen Mary’s was a replica of

real royal jewelry that Queen

Elizabeth still wears today. The

tiaras are all real diamonds

twinkling away.

And then those diamond neck-

laces upon necklaces in layers

and layers ...

Yes, on top of (the tiaras) we

had multistrand diamond neck-

laces we commissioned, as I had

to be very specific about the

length of each strand. With those,

you had to be very exacting so

everything would be perfectly

proportional.

And the long flapper neck-

laces — were those vintage or

commissioned?

Again, they were commis-

sioned because I had to be very

specific on length and color; I

could specify what color stone or

glass crystal I wanted.

For instance, with the blue

Fortuny dress, the beads on the

necklace mirrored the beads on

the dress perfectly and the

gloves were then made and dyed

so the whole thing worked ex-

actly.

How did these women actually

look this good?

That’s why you had ladies’

maids who dressed you all day

long; you were dressing four to

seven times a day. Every day. It

was a full-time job, and I think it

was probably exhausting.

BLUE

BEAUTY:

Michelle

Dockery in

a Fortuny

Delphos

gown and

diamonds

in “Down-

ton” movie.

Jaap BuitendijkFocus Features

ANNA ROBBINS’ sketch

for Lady Mary’s dress, seen

at left, in the “Downton

Abbey” feature film.

Anna Robbins