"Yummy" Vintage Fashion on Downton Abbey

"Oh DO get on with it, I have work to do, if you please!" - Lady Mary, who doesn't.

Well, how about a lovely fashion show to get you pumped up for the weekend!  I still need to watch last week's episode of Downton Abbey to catch this awesome fashion show.  Most episodes have distractingly beautiful costumes, even though they may be understated.  They are beautiful because of the details.  Details are something that are long forgotten about in our modern fashion industry, except at the couture level.  Of course, the likes of Lady Mary were in fact buying couture.

Okay, I do love the plot, writing, acting, etc., of Downton Abbey, and even though I am not a soap opera person, I am so into this show!  But bar none, my favorite part of the show is the gorgeous clothes.  The costume designer is a costume history buff, and makes sure everything is historically accurate and of the year.  So, you won't see something in 1922 that wasn't invented until 1927.  That stuff really makes me happy.  And as I have said before, they just made clothes better then.

Here is a wonderful slide show of the fashion show they had on Downton Abbey recently.  There are some great quotes from the costume designer about how they search for items, do research, and even restore vintage items so they look new on the show.  Let's face it, no one was walking around with a flapper dress that looked to be 90 years old, in 1924.  In 1924, it was brand-new.

I am always stoked to find a vintage piece--a true, high quality, well-made, vintage piece.  As Downton's costume designer says, "things are disappearing."  I'm noticing this, too.  I first started vintage shopping 20 years ago.  Now, a lot of the stuff that was brand-new 20 years ago is filling up vintage and especially thrift stores.  I wore a lot of 70's and some 60's and 50's items, growing up.  Now, to find an actual vintage item from the 40's or before is like finding the Holy Grail!

Let's not even talk about the current book I'm poring over, Cheap Chic, which talks about vintage shopping, but in 1974.  People in the 60's were buying vintage flapper gowns and gangster moll fur coats...  Like we buy 1970's bell bottoms.  Scary thought, huh?

In another post, I'll talk about my jackets, including my newly re-lined vintage Persian lamb coat (please don't google how politically incorrect Persian lamb is; I had no idea when I bought it, and besides, it was vintage!).  But for now, I'll leave you with this thought.  If we get back to a less consumer-driven society, and stop buying 100 clothing items a year at Forever 21, and begin to repair nice items instead of throwing them out...  Maybe we can one day return to pride in craftsmanship and attention to detail not seen in at least forty years.