Downton Abbey Costumes Come Only to Delaware and It's Fabulous!

I expect all Downton Abbey fans who can’t make it to Delaware before January to be totally jealous of those of us who live near Winterthur Museum!

Along with several friends, I got a timed ticket (free with membership or admission) for the Costumes of Downton Abbey exhibit on Saturday. We also toured the grounds on a snowdrop hunting tour, but that’s beside the point today.

I had attended a talk in the fall telling how museum connections in Great Britain had led to show creators, who agreed to let Winterthur’s curators search the costume bins at Cosprop in London and use the costumes for a "one off" exhibit at Winterthur.  They searched for costumes that they believed were worn on the show, which was a large task. They knew they were there, they just had to find them.

The stories of some of the costumes they created for the series were very informative--such as the fact that Lady Edith’s white wedding dress (bottom left)was created using a beautiful train with beaded embroidery, around which they built the dress. Another interesting aspect is that the engagement dress of Lady Mary (top right) was not a deep enough shade, so the color was photoshopped. The beading on some of these dresses, such as Lady Mary's "spiderweb" dress is fabulous. And you can tell the fabrics are very fragile---wearing one of these dresses, the corseted actresses had to be very cautious lest they tear something!

I plan to return again and perhaps pay more attention to the pictures and objects that belonged to H.F. duPont's family, whose lives are contrasted with the contemporaneous Crawley family. The American family, for example, did not have servants, they had "help" or "staff."

Looking for your own version of Downton Abbey, or maybe a smaller version that doesn't need "staff"?  Contact Carolyn Roland, Your Older Homes Resource!