Dressed for Downton
As the Crawleys prepare to make their film debut, Caroline Leaper meets Anna Robbins, the woman responsible for bringing the splendour of 1920s society style to the big screen.
What does one wear when the Queen is coming to tea? That’s the sartorial plotline of the new film set in the mid-1920s, at the height of flapper style. That brief gave costume designer Anna Robbins a licence to go all out.
‘‘The production value on has always been high, but for the cinematic experience I knew I needed to raise the bar,’’ Robbins says of the challenge to make the wardrobes of every character, from Mr Carson to Lady Mary, sing on a 41⁄2-metre-high screen.
Not a single ‘‘extra’’, be they a footman, maid or barrow boy, would pass on to the set without her sign-off.
‘‘It was lovely going into the film having worked on the series before, because I am now well-versed in these characters,’’ she says.
In the film, released in New Zealand cinemas tomorrow, we rejoin the Crawley family in 1927, the zenith of a style decade in which splendour loomed large and skirts grew shorter.
For the visit of Queen Mary, Robbins needed to up the etiquette: leading Ladies Violet (Dame Maggie Smith), Mary (Michelle Dockery), Edith (Laura Carmichael) and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) would need lower hemlines and to up the ‘‘dazzle’’ factor to impress.
‘‘I know people love the glamour of these
characters and the costumes,’’ Robbins says.
‘‘I needed to make it feel like they have moved on a bit, without straying too far from their established iconic looks.’’
Some of the costuming hallmarks from the series remain. The younger Crawley sisters are typically in colours that play off each other (Lady Edith is the peach to Lady Mary’s maroon, or the turquoise to her moody navy) and Cora’s softsleeved dresses have stood the faux test of time. But an evolution was plotted to show who each woman would have become.
‘‘By 1927, we could see the early influence of the looks we now associate with the 1930s,’’ Robbins says, adding that the younger generation of characters led the charge.
‘‘Lady Edith had become fashion-forward at the end of the series, as she became a working woman in the literary world of London. Now we find her in a different place. She got married and is living at Brancaster Castle. She’s left that city life behind but the identity can still be seen in her clothing choices: the cloche hats and relaxed coats.’’
Lady Mary, meanwhile, has an even more striking angular bob than she did before, affording Robbins the chance to experiment with the era’s most fabulous flapper details.
‘‘We found a signature style of dress for Lady Mary as we entered the 1920s on the show – striking and feminine without being pretty. Her dresses are linear with geometry to the embroideries to play off that shingle bob.
‘‘Michelle [Dockery] has loved making the most of her craze for the 20s trends.’’
The one whose style doesn’t falter is Violet’s. ‘‘That hem, it doesn’t rise,’’ Robbins laughs.
‘‘We don’t see her ankles. Violet will always be Edwardian, but her fabric choices do move on. You have to imagine that a woman of this stature would have her clothes made by a couturier.’’