Just for You At the End of This Year

Well, Christmas Day was great as usual, with stocking stuffers, gifts, food, and our own little family companionship for the day.  I'll catch you up on that more later, but the other day I realized that I "owed" you something, and decided I'd make this post my Christmastime gift to those of you who particularly expressed an interest.  For those not interested - sorry!  I'll be back soon with other topics. :-)

You may recall that back in October, my niece Amanda and her husband came up from Baltimore to spend a weekend.  We took a day trip to Winterthur, and I shared those pictures here.  While there, we also got tickets to see the exhibit of costumes from "Downton Abbey."  I promised to share them with you as well, so I hope you enjoy them.

Before I show you the pictures, I wanted to share a fact that I found to be both interesting and amazing.  According to the info at the entrance to the exhibit, the costume designers get the information about the entire seasons' worth of episodes approximately six weeks before filming begins, and then they get to work!  That doesn't seem like a lot of time to me to begin with, but having seen the costumes, the detailed work, and the mix of vintage with modern fabrics, I think the costumers are nothing short of magicians!

Please note that it was pretty crowded the day we were there, so these are not the greatest photos that could be taken.  But I did my best!

Amanda and Patrick posed in front of the house for us (needless to say, in their own "costumes ...):

 The main characters

 Bells to summon servants to individual rooms

This and the dresses below were for specific events in the series.  Often there was a background to provide context and jog your (well, my) memory, but often you just had to read the description and say to yourself, "OK."

This is the case and equipment that would hold a gentleman's clothing when a trip was taken.

 Here are the extra pieces (apron, arm protectors) used when Mr. Bates (or other characters) clean/shine the shoes of the family and/or their guests.

One really interesting thing about the man's jacket on the far right, was that it had pockets put into it specifically to hold an iPhone.  The actors were out in a field, and the director used the iPhone to signal when they should start walking, stop and pretend to shoot, etc.  

Crazy, huh?

 This Lady Edith's wedding dress.  Poor Lady Edith, she has a rough time!

 Kitchen staff costumes

 My favorite of all - Lady Sybil's harem pants!

My photos don't really do them justice, but believe me when I say seeing them in person was amazing - the detail, the fabrics!, etc. - and I think even if you were not a fan of the show, but were interested in the history of clothing and fashion, you would find the exhibit interesting.  The other thing that struck me was how small the costumes seemed - maybe because they were on mannequins instead of real people, who knows?

There was, of course, a little gift shop at the end of the exhibit, with lots of beautiful and interesting (and of course schlocky) things.  Amanda bought a cloche hat, and I *may* have bought a velvet, beaded shawl ... :-)

And that, my friends, is my final post of 2014.  I have lots to still show you and discuss from the year, but you won't hear about them until sometime in the new year.

Thanks for reading along this year.  I hope that 2015 treats all of us well, and that this time next year, we're all still here to talk about it ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!