An abundance of Catherines
IHAVE a winsome niece named Katherine Rose, the first-born of my sister Elizabeth. “My dad had a sister named Catherine who died when she was still a baby,” my niece said. “I just liked to match Katherine with our mother’s name, Rose,” my sister added. With the #stayathome directive still strictly enforced, all I do now is binge-watch and panic-read. The past weeks have been about anything Catherine/ Katherine. Not to be confused, though, with An Abundance of Katherines, the 2006 young adult novel by John Green which I haven’t read yet. The original must be Catherine of Alexandria (circa 287), the teenaged princess, virgin, martyr and saint.
The most captivating of all, Catherine The Great, continues to be a fascinating persona. The empress, who ruled Russia from 1762-1796 after overthrowing her husband Peter III, was played by the British dame, Helen Mirren, in HBO’S Catherine The Great (2019). The historical drama focused on Catherine’s tumultuous reign and her equally combustible affair with Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin (Jason Clarke), just one of her many lovers, which shaped Russia into a global power.
“She rewrote the rules of governance by a woman, and succeeded to the extent of having the word ‘Great’ attached to her name,” Mirren said. As with period epics, the costumes are essential to the narrative. Amid the fabulous imperial frocks, one ensemble stands out. Explains costume designer Maja Meschede: “[Catherine] was a military lady. She was the leader of one of the biggest armies ever. [She] would color-coordinate her military riding suit according to the uniforms of the regiment. In greeting the prestigious Preobrazhensky Guard—also the main military backers in her coup—she wears green, replicated from The Hermitage archives, to match their uniforms.”
Elle Fanning plays Catherine as she was still a grand duchess in the 2020 Hulu series, The Great, a “fictionalized, fun and anachronistic story of an idealistic, romantic [German] young girl, who arrives in [backward] Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter.” It’s historical revisionism, for sure, including some of the period fashion designed by Emma Fryer. When she was about to become an empress, Catherine was clad in pink. “Yeah, that was my idea! I love pink. I’ve worn something similar to an event. It was like a Vivienne Westwood dress that was in this electric pink. I just loved that dress and I thought, ‘Gosh, it’s Catherine’s birthday. And she’s like going to kill her husband. She can’t just wear blue, she’s changed, she has to be in this electric pink,” Fanning told harpersbazaar.com. (Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-jones starred in the TV movie Catherine The Great in 1995.)
Catherine The Great was a Romanov, Russia’s most formidable dynasty, only by marriage. However, another namesake, Catherine de’ Medici (Italian: Caterina de’ Medici, 1519-1589), was to the manor born to the most powerful Renaissance family. Her uncle, Pope Cement VII, arranged her marriage to the Valois King Henry II of France, making her a queen consort. She later on became dowager queen when her sons Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III became kings. She exerted great influence in French politics during her time. She also raised Mary, Queen of Scots. A daughter, Margaret of Valois, became queen consort to Henry IV. Catherine’s elder daughter, Elisabeth, became queen of Spain as the second wife of Philip II, after whom the Philippines was named.
Philip II’S first wife was Mary Tudor of England, the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. (Spanish: Catalina; 1485-1536). Katherine was the daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. She was first married to Arthur, Prince of Wales and heir apparent to his father Henry VII, but Arthur died before ascending to the throne. This period in her life is the subject of the Starz TV series, The Spanish Princess (2019), where she is played by
English actress Charlotte Hope.
Dreamy Irish actor Ruairi O’connor plays Harry, Duke of York and the future Henry VIII, whose eight wives included the promiscuous Catherine Howard and the kindly Catherine Parr. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton), popularly known as Kate Middleton, will be a likely queen consort.
Eleanor of Aquitaine (c1122–c1202) was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in the High Middle Ages. Her second husband was King Henry II of England. One of their sons was Richard the Lionheart. Their battle-of-the-sexes reign and marriage was the subject of The Lion in Winter (1968) with Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’toole. Hepburn, the American Film Institute’s “greatest American female screen legend,” won her third Oscar for playing Eleanor, who was her 23rd great-grandmother according to the genealogy site Famous Kin.
The Australian Cate Blanchett won a best supporting actress Oscar for portraying Katharine in The Aviator (2004). She also received nominations for portraying Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), where she wore a stupendous piece: a gown of hand-dyed velvet applique and embroidery on woven damask (pictured) made by the theatrical outfitter Angels and commissioned by costume designer Alexandra Byrne. Cate’s full name is Catherine Elise Blanchett.
Catriona Elisa Gray, Miss Universe 2018, is Filipino-australian. She was named after her paternal grandmother, Catherine Gray (née Ross), an immigrant to Western Australia from Scotland. A fellow beauty queen is Katarina (variations in Croatian, German, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Serbian, Slovene, Swedish) Rodriguez, Binibining Pilipinas-Intercontinental 2017 and Miss World Philippines 2018. Catriona is the Scottish Gaelic of Catherine.
Catherine Deneuve, the queen of French cinema, solidified her legendary status in Luis Buñuel’s 1967 film Belle de Jour. As Séverine Serizy, Catherine plays a bored bourgeois housewife who moonlights as a high-class hooker in an exclusive brothel. Along with the controversial sexual theme, the film became unforgettable because of its fashionable outfits designed by Yves Saint Laurent.
“Wearing Saint Laurent’s clothing, Séverine is at once fragile and seductive, especially in the legendary black vinyl trench coat with knit sleeves and the austere black dress with ivory satin cuffs and collar. The character of Séverine was reminiscent of the young Saint Laurent, a well-behaved and melancholic child tormented by inner demons,” noted the Musée YSL Paris.