Fashion Historian Fact Checks HBO's The Gilded Age | Glamour 

What I particularly love about this series is that the costumers weren't afraid to have characters wear clothes twice, which felt much more accurate

It really showed how angry Agnes was when she crossed the street at 6:32 Despite going outdoors she did not bother putting on her hat & gloves first, she just stomped right out!

I love it when costume designers use existing garments in museums as a template. It's so interesting to see the pieces worn on an actual person, in a context similar to the one they might have been worn in originally.

This is what the met gala should have looked like

I cried tears of joy when I saw the women wearing chemises under their corsets! That'a such a small detail, but so important for accuracy!

A breakdown of Peggy's outfits would have been interesting too especially with the emancipation and emerging black middle class. How different were African American clothing to that of white Americans

Purses weren’t just because women were ‘more autonomous’- women had always had their own ways to carry things! 17th century ladies pockets could be big enough to carry a whole chicken, and dresses still often had pockets in this period, although the fashions at the time meant they couldn’t be as big or in the same places Also the corset was not just for silhouette, it was also to support the weight of the skirts/bustle/crinoline/petticoat! Having all of that weight resting on your bare hips would be quite painful

I've been watching The Gilded Age alongside 1883. The contrasts are astounding. Not just the difference between the rich and the poor.. That existed in New York City alone. But the comparison of "civilized" New York versus the frontier towns, and especially the wilderness beyond.

In real life, the daughter event that Mrs Vanderbilt schemed to get Mrs Astor to attend the ball is factual. My point to make here is to let people know that when Mrs Astor realized she had been out maneuvered she accepted her defeat with grace and dignity. There was no lingering bitterness and rancor. In the movie when she says, "I could ruin you if I wanted to after tonight" was for dramatic intensity for the film. In real life she accepted Mrs Vanderbilt and never attempted to get even. Testimony how she was a warm wonderful person once you were in her circle. It's why everyone adored her; which everyone who knew her did.

I have a background in production design(not specifically costumes/fashion) but I love these historical analysis of costumes. Also...Raissa is so cool!

I am so pleased to hear someone finally address the “natural silhouette” of the late 70s. I feel like this short lived fad often gets ignored in favor of the first and second bustle periods. Except for, of course, in Scorsese’s Age of Innocence where almost the entire film is set during this era.

I LOVED this show!! The outfits were stunning- truly a treat for the eyes

Visually this show was like Lucy and Ethel at the candy factory for me. My eyes could NOT keep up with every treat they threw at us.

LOVE Raissa and I loved the costumes on this show - looking at the people in the background is interesting enough in every scene. I always love it when period dramas do colorful and exciting fabrics.

I would wonder if the rise of purses is less about more autonomy and more about changing dress styles. Until the mid 1800s, dresses might have tie on pockets that could hold a truly surprising amount of items. However, the more fitted and tailored styles of dresses didn't have space for them, and slits in the seams might ruin the drape of the garment.

Raissa back at it again with matching her outfits with the films look 💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

The peacock embroidered day dress that Mrs. Russell wore had me wishing, albeit VERY briefly, for an occasion to wear something similar. It was beautiful!

One of the things I noticed was that they didn't always wear corset covers and there was a line at the top of the corset showing through on the bodices.

I guess we're not addressing the issue of zippers being visible at the back of dresses that should have buttons or front fastening, especially since zippers aren't even invented and priced until the early 20th century!

I worked in a library going through old newspapers one of the years I covered was 1888 the clothing and hairstyles in this show looks pretty accurate in this show I really like this show

This show was filmed in Troy, NY, round Soldiers and the Sailor Monument. it was so awesome to walk around and see the set up. The style of store front, brick road, sand walkways, and horse carriages. It was beautiful sett up. Cant wait for season 2 and see Troy, NY set up in this time period.

"Whores rouge, ladies pinch" (hard enough to break a few blood vessels for the rosy cheek look) was still touted in the 80's when I grew up. Visible make up was a hard won privilege by the end of the 70's.

Raissa did an awesome job, but this lipstick color is EVERYTHING!

Suggestions for the next episode Hairspray (1988) To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) The Music Man (1962) The Journey For Natty Gann (1985) That 70s Show Remember the Titans (2000)

Berthas dress at the ball stood out more than everyone. Maybe that is why they chose that dress

I'm obsessed with these types of videos! Raissa is so articulate and knowledgable, I hope we get more soon.

Can you please do this for the costume shown in ''Die Kaiserin'' about empress Elizabeth of Austria? I think it would be very interesting to hear your take on it!

I'm glad someone mentioned that the lower necklines being worn during the day by some characters was not exactly in keeping with the customs of the upper class at that time. I'd always read that that was strictly an evening look. Otherwise, the costumes, (with one of two exceptions) are a real feast for the eyes. I would also note that many of the female characters stride around in long steps when smaller steps were the order of high society at that time. I can see the main woman of the new money crowd doing that, as it played into her big, bold character who is taking New York Society by storm, but some other characters also amble a long rather loosely, which was not what finishing school taught. I imagine that, as the series progresses, there will be at least one or two of the Hobble Skirts included in the dresses. (I've only binged Season One so far). The Hobble Skirt came shortly after the period shown in Season One, I believe, but it had a lower hemline so constricting that the women had to, quite literally, Hobble along with mincing little steps to wear it. It looked fantastic in the still 'fashion plates' but would have been extremely hindering on any outing that wasn't strictly a social call or a simple outing to a tea room or something. Oh well...years ago Asian women had their feet bound, but we had our Hobble Skirt, didn't we? (I sense a disturbing similarity of purpose, but maybe that's just me.)

Love so much this! Please do Gentleman Jack and BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice.

The late 1870s/early 1880s is known as the Natural Form era, FYI.

It's a pleasure finding a review that isn't clutching its antique pearls over Bertha's Temple St Clair jewelry and grasps that it isn't screaming inaccuracy but characterization when she is out of period, leaning towards the future.

it sounds so painful to change *those* type of clothings at least 4 times a day 😭

Omg I loved the series! I’m a huge fan of these Costume Breakdown videos.

I LOVE these videos! Keep them coming!

Also it's good to keep in mind the "old money" folk had attire in the more traditional English style, whereas the "new money" aesthetic was more French.

Imagine wearing all of this in New York in the summer.

I wish you had done Bertha's peacock dress & hat. I adore that costume - even if it's not entirely historically accurate.

Aniline dies were invented in this period, so a lot of colors women of this period wore were actually quite wild, acid greens and yellows, extremely vibrant purples, etc. I haven’t haven’t seen the series, but I will, I love historical costumes and settings.

13:27 keeping two fashion seasons behind. That's so interesting!

Raisa's gorgeous manicure worthy of a shoutout 💅 too❗️

Raissa is great on screen at explaining the outfits and history.

The make up standards didn’t change for quite a while. My great-grandfather gave my mother a hard time when she used blush. He thought it was for prostitutes.

Depth of knowledge here is amazing. Kudos.

The narrator of these videos is always good! She's clear she has interesting lead ins and comments and lead and they are witty as well; she's great! I really enjoy listening to her! And I love the experts, too! Really well done, Glamour! I really enjoyer this.l video! And in a little more than an hour I will watch the next episode of the Gilded Age! Love the costumes they looked pretty accurate, it's interesting to hear the experts' take! All your videos are interesting informative, and also beautiful to look at the styles and clothing! 👑✨💎✨💜✨🌹

This was such a well done video! I love The Gilded Age and fashion, so this is my jam ❤

The look of the costumes is lively. The zippers on the backs of bodices are driving me insane. The zipper wasn’t invented until about 1917, well after the gilded age period and did not come into wide use until the mid 1920’s.

In the 1880s that old and new money was still in the war of social status within the class as well as style of fashion since in the mid-1870s.

WOW!! Love this show and the beautiful dressings for the women and the men! I also appreciated seeing the outfits the staff used as well!!

This is what the met gala should have looked like. This is what the met gala should have looked like.

Yeeeees I really really want a video of The Gilded Age I so happyyy

I have a fabulous collection of fashion plates, which I have collected for a long time. If you can find ones with children in them, snap them up as they are hard to come by. I have Queen Victoria's original marriage gown found in a woman's magazine of 1840. I have them all framed, however in some foxing is creeping in.

Great video!!! I love this series

Minx, Julia, Mrs America, all 3 seasons of ACS (Johnnie Cochran, Marcia Cross, Versace, Monica Lewinsky), Pen 15

Amazing costumes! I can't even imagine (given my casual, retiree lifestyle) of wearing any of those costumes!

Well done and entertaining. Sets the YT bar pretty high.

Love this series! Maybe you could brighten up some of the pictures - can't see the outfits

The costumes are stunning the dresses and hats are so beautiful pure elegance.

Thank you for this video. Very well done.🙂

Amazing attention to detail. ❤

Can you make one about Anne with an E and Enola Holmes

This was a great video!

A lot of their dresses did look like curtains. Lol I adored the ballgowns. Those broches though...

That was nice. But, it's a pity that this video didn't include information about the clothing and style of the wealthy black family as well as the servants and men.

Very good. Thank you.

I need a bustle😆. I love everything about this show.

How on earth did they wash these dresses, I wonder? The fabrics were extremely sensitive but must have gotten very dirty too by being dragged across the floor for hours. How would ladies maids deal with staining without ruining the fabrics?

This is Julian Fellowes. After Downton Abbey he knows historical.

Please please please do an analysis of The Empress 🙏🏻 I need it 😩

Yay! I love her videos!

Kindly make an episode about the fashion in Belgravia and Doctor Thorne

I love how women are “required” to wear stockings. They didn’t have socks and wearing leather boots with no stockings would have led to blisters and been smelly. People back then weren’t idiots. The stockings had a lot of practically in an age without elastic socks. Also, the boots weren’t to hide your ankles. The stockings that “the patriarchy forced them to wear” would have already done that. They supported the ankles and were fashionable. Not everything women did was because they were forced to do so. High necklines for day kept the sun off your chest at a time when pale skin with no tan lines was a mark of wealth and since you couldn’t put on make up to hide a tan, you just plain old avoided getting a tan. Yes they had parasols but the sun will bounce off of light objects and you can still get a tan if you’re outdoors especially if you are very fair (ask anyone who skis). So it makes sense that your day dress covered everything but your face and hands. There was no sunscreen.

I wish I could watch the Gilded Age series, but I don't have a cable subscription. Maybe when it comes out on DVD and the local library has copies I can borrow. The costumes and surroundings are complete "eye-candy"!

I just started watching this show, and it's fascinating in so many ways. I was wondering about the accuracies of the fashion, so this is a great video!

So Agnes's costume is accurate. It's a dinner dress, and some did reveal a bit of the decolletage.

I love the pure audacity for some historians to say that the new money outfits worn by Bertha Russel aren't historically accurate. Thank god this lady treats the era as a real time peirod in our lives, instead of a movie film. Gilded age had some of the most comfortably accurate wardrobes ever and the fashionists should be awarded. I'm always afraid a show is never going to full show the extents and simplicities of an era with all it's beauty, but this show did it perfect. All these natural outfits with unique color combinations that modern shows usually never do, including the infamous metallic taffeta gowns. Oh okay, they took direct museum outfits I see. Well, good call. I do question if it was truly impossible to find woman at the time with an open outfit chest, I guarantee nothing would change in interaction, if! It isn't too far low

Omg I thought the same thing with the Worth dress! The only thing I can think of is that they are saving it for the next season or for Gladys?

That's "mourning" jewelry, not "morning" jewelry @ 8:30

I really wish that they'd had a much lighter hand with the makeup in this show, they put in a lot of effort with the clothes and hair but then the makeup felt really out of place, especially on the Old Money matriarchs.

i knowim super late to the party! maybe the chest covering during the day was symbolic in the seris buzz i noticed only certain people have the dropped neckline usually dynamic, strong independant individuals and the more meek, gossipy members of society covered their chest.

I'd love to see you do Gigi, the Leslie Caron film.

My dream job. Good job.

Even though it's not mentioned (yet), how much leeway was given to women who were expecting during that time?

I hope they do this for the deadwood show as well

There is also the expression "slave to fashion" where on a hot steamy day in New York (before air conditioning was invented) anyone wearing all of those garments were wishing they were....and believe me there are plenty hot steamy days in New York.

My show! 😍

Can you do a season two

That was fantastic commentary. I learned a lot. Why didn't any women at the recent Met Gala "Garden of Time" theme dress in the Gilded Age style? Historical accuracy wouldn't be important. Have a Gilded Age style dress made by John Galliano.

As much as I love looking at and admiring the beautiful clothing and imagining myself wearing them and being so glamourous in that period, I think i would have rather have been less wealthy and of moderate means than to have to wear so many layers. It must have been so uncomfortable to dress that way everyday.

Good night my friend Nice video. Thank for sharing my friend 🥰

Can you please do this with hairspray 2007

However, what did majority of farmers + workers wear ?

What about the men fashion? Can we also cover us?

I would have preferred greater accuracy as to the costume dates, and the décolletage during the day is glaringly wrong. It’s interesting that Fellowes’ British shows are much more accurate. The fabulous precursor to Downton Abbey - the glorious whodunit Gosford Park - is my favorite. The 1930s costumes are stunningly accurate but never stand out as being costumey, as they do in The Gilded Age. I dislike the overall art design in The Gilded Age, which is lit too brightly overall, which makes everything look fake. But then, we’ve moved into an era when that sort of accuracy seems to have gone out of vogue.

I still do not understand why they didnt just make them the Vanderbilts etc... if the Astors are actually portrayed, why not?

Ok but what about the heat in the summer! We’re they hot?

Fun video!!

OK, I haven't see TGA - is the lighting in it really that incredibly dark, or has the compiler just made really poor screenshots?? 🤔 And jeez, looks like the usual onscreen corset hate rears its tedious head in this show too...🙄 Always great to see Raissa, wish she had her own YT channel, she'd be a great addition to regular costube content!

I love all the women's attire, but I do wonder at so much asymmetry in the design of dresses of that period. Does anyone know about this feature?

what a pretty top the speaker is wearing

Since this is fiction not a documentary, they don't really have to adhere to actual history. But it is interesting to hear about the fashion back then, whether in 1860 or 1890. As far as necklines, I think those are maybe to keep men watching to see the cleavage. 😂😂