Downton Abbey Dresses: Talk, Tours

Dresses of Downton Abbey This Weekend at Darien Historical Society

Curator Babs White Gallery Talk Both Days at 3 pm

Free Open House for All on Saturday & Sunday, March 3 & 4 from noon to 4:00 pm. “Fashion Transformed ~ La Belle Époque to Moderne ~ 1900 to 1920” will close after this weekend.

The Crawley ladies of Downton Abbey are Fashion Transformed: Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, is dressed in the exaggerated Edwardian style of a corseted s-shape, high necklines and almost always appears with gloves; her daughter-in-law Cora, Countess of Grantham, wears Edwardian fashion in transition to the moderne and Cora’s daughters, Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Lady Sybil, wear the radical new silhouette of a high empire waist and a slim column-like skirt that was pioneered by the French designer Paul Poiret.

Poiret, who was called “Le Magnifique,” advocated fashions cut along straight lines and constructed of rectangles, and he shifted the design emphasis away from tailoring to draping. He introduced clothing that hung from the shoulders, and how elegantly does this clothing fall from the shoulders of Michelle Dockery who plays Lady Mary!

Editor's note: This events listing originally was posted on March 1. The time stamp has been changed for layout purposes on the Home page of Darien Patch.