Ranking 2020 Costume Dramas on Historical Accuracy

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Chapters:
00:00 - the tiers
2:22 - Little Women
2:47 - Emma
3:05 - Mulan
5:49 - Belgravia
7:00 - The English Game
8:25 - Self Made
10:19 - Miss Scarlet and the Duke
11:36 - The Great
12:50 The Alienist
14:02 - Radioactive
15:46 - A Personal History of David Copperfield
17:13 - Antebellum
18:35 - Enola Holmes
20:12 - The Spanish Princess
20:29 - Ammonite
22:35 - Come Away
23:51 - Bridgerton
24:58 - Jingle Jangle
26:31 - Why Historically Authentic Costume is Actually Kind of Important

[ajromero]

One of my favorite things about Bernadette is how she speaks like a private school headmistress but occasionally has contemporary slang and memeage sprinkled in her vernacular and does it seamlessly (pun intended).

[cupids_favourite_aro]

Bernadette: "so this dress gives me a late 1800's feel."
Me, who knows nothing about clothes: "ah, yes, i see🤔"

[GenePolice]

There was a scene in Bridgerton where Daphne is changing, and she is shown wearing a corset with no under garments. All I could think was "Bernadette would not approve..."

[Seegras]

Love that (damning) statement: "Literally Victorian. As in: The costumes take place in all seven decades of it".

[mannaspritzer]

It was a cop out that they didn’t use a Chinese designer for Mulan. I was wardrobe supervisor in college and when we did a Chinese opera and about 5 teachers came from China to help with direction and costume design. I still remember a teacher explaining me to me in Manderin, which I do not speak, how to properly tie a sash. Anyway, if my University could do it, Disney could do it.

[MsEwaGie]

Just a fun fact about Marie Skłodowska Curie - she had one dress for years - as written in her biography by her daughter Eve:
'This dress, which she kept for years and years, to be transformed from time to time by a little dressmaker (...) Marie knew nothing of fashions and had no taste. But the discretion and reserve which were the very mark of her character saved her being conspicuous and created a sort of style in her dress'
(Eve Curie - 'Madame Curie, a Biography' page 230)

[elizabethhodson]

The only way I could tell the three older Bridgerton sons apart was by their side burns, lol

[Tifa]

“Why is she wearing bronzer?” Killed me

[JustinesMic]

gentleman jack: chef’s kiss costuming
ammonite: chef’s kiss costuming
me: ah, i see the sapphics have done it again

[Mimiroo]

I’m a costumer in film and television so I can add a little bit to your comment on The Great! From my experience the pilot/first episode is shot with a completely different team and sometimes a year in advance to the first season. Once a show is confirmed to be picked up then they hire the team for that coming season, sometimes it’s the same designer but usually it’s someone different. I’ve worked on shows where the pilot continuity was so bad we’ve had to go back and reshoot a lot!

Also editing to add, the amount of times I’ve worked with a designer who spends massive amount of times arguing with the head of Hair and Makeup because they haven’t done proper research on the era we’re shooting is RIDICULOUS!! Not just for historical shows but for 50’s-80’s, it takes away from all the research and work we in the Wardrobe department do trying to recreate decades properly 😭😭

[eddiegaltek]

Enola Holmes should have been in it's own category, "They Didn't Even Try."

[cgm]

I think The Great's outfits are a design choice which match its other anachronisms. Like how the title cards say 'an occasionally true story', or how the dialogue mixes Shakespearean parody with 'fuck' every five seconds.

[astute]

On the "does it matter" question: I actually think showing historically accurate hair and makeup can be really valuable because it shows how arbitrary and changeable socially constructed beauty standards are. When you watch all these period pieces with historical clothing but modern hair and makeup, it creates a sense that today's styles are just this timeless definition of what a beautiful person looks like. On the other hand, when you see a gorgeous star wearing something that seems strange to our modern eyes, it reminds us of all the myriad ways a person can be beautiful. A greater appreciation for the diversity of human appearance is sorely needed in our society, so I think accurate hair and makeup is actually important.

[isaacchan]

As a Chinese, I rank Mulan as Panda Express Level

[hannahk]

I know it's older, but it would be good to hear your take on "Anne with an E". They talk quite a lot about what it's acceptable for different people (particularly women) to be wearing based on age and class. It would be interesting to know how accurate it is.

[hwchen]

Dear Bernadette, as a Chinese art historian I really appreciate that you acknowledged that there is a great deal of specialization inherent in studying the dress of different cultures and time periods. With Chinese dress, in particular, different types of dress tend to be associated with different dynasties. What people wore can be impacted by things we don't necessarily think about today. For example during the Tang Dynasty (7th-10th c.) women wore very thin, almost ethereal-looking, clothing. A famous type is the qixiong ruqun which would have been secured underneath the armpits. Whereas during the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th) women tended to wear long, pleated skirts and a long-sleeved blouse called aoqun that look much warmer. This is because the Tang Dynasty was one of the warmer dynasties and the Ming Dynasty was relatively colder. Even between the two dynasties that I tend to specialize in: the Ming and Qing there are quite a bit of difference in the clothing. The Ming dynasty was ruled by Han Chinese leaders and the Qing Dynasty was ruled by ethnically Manchurian leaders so you see the ways this translates into the clothing. The sleeves become more narrow rather than the wide Han-style sleeves because the Manchurians were nomadic people who rode horses and practiced archery. I think my issue with Mulan was less with the design of the clothing and more that it felt very surface level in its commitment to portraying "accurate" Chinese culture because it looked like a Chinese story but didn't feel like one. Not to mention the whole issue of shooting in Xinjiang while ignoring the Uighar concentration camps was a choice, Disney.

Also bonus fact! The image of the calligraphy of the ballad of Mulan you showed was written by Mi Fu, a famous Song dynasty calligrapher, who was by all accounts a total eccentric weirdo who liked collecting and inscribing on rock faces.

[rachelspencer]

I feel like you needed a “...They didn’t even try” tier. Lol

[mayamuller]

Bernadette: *thoroughly explaining what they did and didn't get right*
Me: *nodding along pretending I already knew everything*

[juliusroman]

I watched Merlin and was internally dying at the sight of modern clothes and modern makeup. And I think Merlin would have really benefited from actual medieval clothes!

[cassnnyl]

Can you do this every year? I really liked this format. Highly entertaining and I added a couple new films and shows to my watch list.