If you didn’t spend Sunday evenings during the past six winters watching Downton Abbey on MASTERPIECE on PBS, you might wonder why a TV show about British aristocrats from a century ago was such a hit — and not just in England and the U.S. The series has been warmly received in 200 nations worldwide, broadcast and dubbed in languages including Hungarian and Chinese.
What’s the big deal? Some of Downton Abbey’s appeal has to do with the “upstairs/downstairs” nature of the stories, to borrow a distinction popularized by an earlier MASTERPIECE series of that name from the 1970s. Downton Abbey highlighted how people of different social classes lived in close proximity and intersected with one another and how their behavior evolved during a decade of rapid social change in the early 20th century.
Their interactions were not simply as servants and landed gentry. As imagined by series creator Julian Fellowes, the fictional Crawleys and the servants in their magnificent country home — named Downton Abbey — were real people, vividly portrayed by a large cast of memorable characters. The show opened in 1912, the end of the Edwardian Era, a time grounded in the proprieties of Victorian England in the 19th century. By the time it ended, the family and staff of had suffered through the stark tragedy of the First World War (when Downton was converted into a convalescent hospital) and lurched into the modern world of the 1920s.
Lives changed, new generations with progressive attitudes took charge, women assumed new and decisive roles and social distinctions evolved. Downton Abbey distilled these changes through its story lines. The Crawley family was led by conservative Robert, the Earl of Grantham, and his progressive, American-born wife Cora, who said in an early episode, “I’m an American. I don’t share your English hatred of comfort.” Robert’s starchy mother, the Dowager Countess Lady Violet (memorably and deliciously played by Maggie Smith), clung desperately to all things past and proper.
Businessman Matthew Crawley, the unanticipated distant heir to the estate, became an unexpected suitor to the Crawleys’ eldest daughter, self-centered Mary, eventually marrying her, surviving service during World War I and then dying tragically in a car accident. Middle daughter Edith suffered through a series of romantic misfortunes, but along the way became a successful magazine publisher. Sybil, the passionate and political youngest daughter, fell in love with Tom Branson, an Irish firebrand who came to Downton as the family’s chauffeur.
You get the picture — lots of characters and a heavy dose of high-end soap opera that also involved the downstairs servants, who were portrayed with equal detail and care and given lives viewers cared about. When Downton Abbey concluded its six-year run in March, it left viewers yearning for more. So an exhibition that just opened at Cincinnati’s Taft Museum of Art is sure to be welcomed by the show’s fans.
Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times opened July 2 and will be on view at the Taft through Sept. 25. The evolution of fashion across the second decade of the 20th century reflects and distills the social changes that shaped the characters’ lives. The exhibit features 36 costumes from Downton’s first four seasons, 26 on display in the Taft’s Fifth Third Gallery. On view are mannequins wearing costumes and accessories (with large photos from the TV series) showing the progression of women’s fashion, from figure-altering corsets and bustles to the straighter profiles and shorter skirts of the Jazz Age. For men, the required white tie and tails for dinner gave way to more relaxed dinner jackets with black ties.
Downton Costumes at Home in the Taft
Ten more costumes are creatively displayed in the galleries of the historic Taft home and museum. Charles and Anna Taft lived there during the same period that the fictional Crawleys inhabited Downton Abbey, and the families would have moved in similar social circles.
In fact, in Fellowes’ fictional construction of characters, Cora Crawley has a direct connection to Cincinnati. The writer imagined her as born here in 1868, the daughter of Martha and Isidore Levinson, the latter a dry goods merchant who earned a considerable fortune. Cora’s inheritance made her a desirable mate, so her socially ambitious mother took her to London in 1888 in search of a husband. Robert Crawley, a member of the nobility with diminished means, needed Cora’s dowry to maintain the palatial family estate. If the Levinsons had been real citizens of Cincinnati, they would surely have known the Tafts and the Sintons, Anna Taft’s socially prominent family.
In 1927, the Tafts donated their 1820 home and their impressive art collection to the city’s citizens. Today, the museum is gorgeously situated in downtown Cincinnati’s southeast corner, adjacent to Lytle Park at the east end of Fourth Street. Its galleries are appointed with furnishings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, making the Taft an ideal venue for the Dressing Downton costumes.
The show has already been a major hit at similar museums including the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. Its recent stay in Chicago, where it drew more than 40,000 visitors, was extended by three weeks. Even before the exhibit opened here, a series of Thursday afternoon high teas for the show’s three-and-a-half months were completely sold out. (The Taft is considering adding a few more, but they will be offered first to museum members.) It’s pretty clear that the Taft has a blockbuster on its hands. Accordingly, timed tickets will be required for admission. These will be sold in advance online at dressingdowntoncincy.com.
Getting All Dressed Up
It’s a big job to assemble and promote such an exhibition. Dressing Downton, produced by Exhibits Development Group (EDG) in collaboration with Downton Abbey, will tour a series of North American museums for the next two years.
These costumes are serious works of art. They were custom-made or drawn from the stock of more than 100,000 gowns, suits, uniforms and accessories from the British costumer, Cosprop Ltd. Founded in 1965 by John Bright, an Academy Award-winning costume designer, Cosprop specializes in creating costumes for film, television and theater. The company has a staff of 40 experts who design, tailor, cut, fit, do millinery, make and repair jewelry and dye and print fabric. Cosprop won a 2011 Emmy Award for designing Downton Abbey’s costumes.
Nancy Lawson, EDG’s co-curator who works for the exhibition, was in town for a week’s worth of preparation in advance of the opening.
“I steam and I iron. I mend and I adjust,” she says. “I can’t keep my hands off the mannequins.”
She describes the necessity of attention to detail.
“In a museum, you’re standing in front of the works longer, studying them,” she says. “It’s not just a scene passing by. Lighting is important. It brings things to life.”
She praises the Taft’s well-lit galleries.
“Costume exhibitions are extremely popular right now,” Lawson points out. “They’re fun and exciting.”
“It’s a chance to see your friends,” she adds — meaning the characters TV viewers have come to know and love.
But there’s a ton of work behind the scenes.
“EDG has to insure a show,” she says. “They sent me to London to choose the costumes and figure out the approach. There’s shipping and logistics. And a catalog.” (An 80-page book with color photos from the series and of the costumes is available in the Taft’s gift shop.) Lawson will return in September to pack up the costumes and mannequins for the next exhibition site, The History Museum in South Bend, Ind.
What’s on Display?
The costumes in Dressing Downton range from country tweeds and riding outfits to servants’ uniforms and footmen’s livery. Of course, the most spectacular are lavish evening attire crafted from sumptuous fabrics, many decorated with intricate embroidery, lace and beading.
Many costumes used original fabrics and embellishments from the early 20th century; others were recreated from old photographs, paintings and magazines. Nearly two-thirds of the Downton Abbey costumes for the upstairs ladies were made from scratch, with the rest created from painstakingly restored vintage items.
Dresses worn by Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess were the most elaborate, Lawson says, due to many layers and extravagant detailing. More than a dozen seamstresses went through thousands of safety pins, 20 pairs of scissors and miles of thread to create and repair the show’s costumes.
Dressing Downton needs to be seen in person for the full impact, but here are a few items to be anticipated:
The Taft’s Fifth Third Gallery exhibition space starts with the two-piece purple silk day dress frequently worn by the conservative Dowager Countess, Lady Violet Crawley. It has a silk bolero bodice trimmed in black, worn with a white blouse with a lace bowtie, a necklace, an amethyst brooch and a netted toque hat.
Nearby are mannequins dressed in Lord Robert Crawley’s light-cream linen suit (with a straw Panama hat near at hand) and Lady Cora Crawley’s white silk day dress worn with a coat with black frogging, topped by a large-brimmed hat festooned with flowers and ribbons.
Elsewhere in the exhibition space is a pairing of upstairs and downstairs: Lady Mary’s silk evening dress with a net overlay and silver starbursts and a black cotton maid’s dress with lace trim and a cotton apron, worn by Anna Smith, Mary’s lady’s maid.
In the museum’s stately entryway between the Robert Duncanson murals, two male mannequins stand side by side, perhaps just coming in from a stroll around the country estate. One wears Robert Crawley’s belted tweed suit with “plus fours” (pants four inches longer than traditional knee-length breeches). The other, positioned with an audacious swagger, wears Sir Richard Carlisle’s three-piece wool herringbone suit and wool coat. Carlisle, a pushy, self-made businessman, aggressively pursued Lady Mary’s hand in marriage — and failed.
A trio of costumes representing three radically different fashions featured during an “indoor picnic” at Downton are together in the museum’s spacious Music Room. There’s a peach-colored silk evening dress with a drop waist, worn by Lady Edith; an olive-green satin dress with an overdress of black chiffon and a center panel showing Japanese influence, worn by Lady Violet Crawley; and an ostentatious evening dress of burnout silk velvet with an Art Deco pattern of sharp angles and geometric patterns, worn by the brash Martha Levinson, played by Shirley MacLaine.
Why Go?
There must be a few people out there who didn’t get swept up by Downton mania. So what’s in this exhibition for them? EDG co-curator Lawson, who has loved costumes for more than three decades — she’s worked backstage as a dresser and a designer and on films set in historic eras — is drawn to clothing because of its human connection.
“These are clothes worn by real people in those times,” she says. “What they wore changed how they behaved. Corsets and bustles affected your posture. Men had tight collars.”
Anyone who cares about fashion design, Lawson believes, will enjoy this show.
“Ralph Lauren was very influenced by the past. He designs for today, but it’s coming from the past,” she says. “There’s so much to see. I can’t think of an important fashion designer who isn’t influenced by the past — Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, I could go on and on — every really high-end fashion designer clearly has influences from the past. It’s very inspirational.”
Even beyond that, the Downton Abbey costumes are beautiful works of art and insights into social history. And if you feel close to the series’ vivid characters who wore them, then surely the Taft Museum is a place to visit this summer. It’s like a visit with cherished friends.
Expand Your Downton Horizons
Here are five ways to experience additional dimensions of Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times.
Walking Tour of Lytle Park
The Taft’s manager of adult programs, Ellen Stedtefeld, will help you see Lytle Park through the eyes of Lady Grantham, Cora Crawley, who was imagined by writer Julian Fellowes to have been born in Cincinnati in 1868. 11 a.m. July 23. $10 for members and students; $15 for non-members. Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Downtown, taftmuseum.org.
From Script to Screen: Crafting Costumes
Dean Mogle, head of the costume design and technology program at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, will discuss how costumes evolve from concept to reality. (Galleries will not be open.) 6:30 p.m. Aug. 4. Free; reservations required. Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Downtown, taftmuseum.org.
The Mannered Life Before the Great War
Local historian Cheri Brinkman will discuss the rules of etiquette in early 20th-century Britain and how things changed after World War I. 2 p.m. Aug. 9. $10 for members and students; $15 for non-members. Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Downtown, taftmuseum.org.
Fashion à la Carte: Fashion Panel and Trunk Show
An opportunity for young professionals to create wearable art and explore the couture of Downton Abbey and how it’s reflected in today’s style. Light refreshments, live music and a cash bar. 5-8 p.m. Aug. 19. $15 for members; $35 for non-members. Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Downtown, taftmuseum.org.
Ragtime Dancing
The Flying Cloud Academy of Vintage Dance will demonstrate dances popular in the early 1900s and offer a workshop to learn the basic steps of the Ragtime Era. British refreshments will be provided; dressing in vintage attire is encouraged. (Galleries will not be open.) 6:30-8 p.m. Sept. 15. $10 for members; $15 for non-members. Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Downtown, taftmuseum.org.
DRESSING DOWNTON: CHANGING FASHION FOR CHANGING TIMES continues at the Taft Museum of Art through Sept. 25. More info: taftmuseum.org.
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This article appears in Jul 13-20, 2016.
