I'd heard about this show premiering on Global last year and actually forgot about it until two FB friends posted about it this morning. I promptly downloaded it and watched.
I'll start with the good things:
The dress on the left was GORGEOUS. It must be rayon crepe, and looks genuine vintage.
This dress was fascinating. It looks like a travel poster print that has been draped around. The white part hit just on her hip on the one side, and the rest is navy. Very cool and unique.
I really like this green dress as well. It had a somewhat 30's vibe and was just really nice.
This is the transition shot...see the hair on the women in the red blazer? GORGEOUS. A wonderful roll. Then see the hemline on Claire Danes on the left? Oh wait, I'm not watching My So Called Life? Then why does she look like she fell out of 1994?
Then of course the characters know Dr. Who, he brought them this Pyrex which wasn't produced until 4 years after the end of the war!! Magic!
I would also like to know whether contrast seamed stockings were fashionable in the 1940s. I know a lot of us wear them now, but I think that is to emphasize the nostalgia more than to be period correct. Gladys wears a pair with lace welts and no heel...they look like someone bought them at La Senza. Also, when she balls them up they definitely look like modern nylons and NOT silk from the 1940s. Couldn't they have at least purchased authentic reproductions?
John Doyle wrote a review for the Globe and Mail which is spot on. I think this show had a lot of potential but got too wrapped up in being dramatic that it came out campy. I was ok with it, until the "accident" scene which was so unrealistic I winced. They don't have titanium hairspray now...let alone in 1940. If my Lottabody was capable of that, well...I don't think they'd still be making it!
I think we need to leave WWII productions to the Brits.
I'll watch the other 5 episodes, if only to TRY and find the good bits.
I'm not sure if it will work outside of Canada, but the series is watchable online at Global TV.
I'm not sure if it will work outside of Canada, but the series is watchable online at Global TV.
Good eyes, gal...you noticed a lot of clothing details I missed (the stockings made me go hmmmm, though). On the whole, I liked the costumes and hair in the end. I HATED the way that the men were represented as all being leering, jeering, sneering apes. Unlike in the 1950s and 60s post-war backlash period, when there was a huge cultural push to get women back to the domestic sphere to make room in the work force for returning soldiers, as the "Rosie" propaganda and other sources indicate, the wartime period was NOT a time when women in the workforce was denigrated to the extent that this show suggests. On the contrary, it was a time when women's work was generally glamourized and encouraged in the name of patriotism, so for me, this show gets a big Fail for its poor imposition of a really crude form of man-bashing masquerading as some sort of feminist women's history. As for the whole hook-hair scene....COME ON. Ridiculous. Yikes!!!
ReplyDeleteThere are some gorgeous clothes and hairstyles here. I hope you enjoyed it! XxxX http://thesecondhandrose.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad about a lot of that stuff, but I thought it was cute. I think it usually takes an episode or two to really grab your attention, so fingers crossed it gets better. And maybe they should be looking at What Katie Did for more accurate stockings ;)
ReplyDeletecheers!
~Paige
Hmm. I HAVE seen contrast stockings from the early '50s (in what looked like a high fashion ad) but have yet to come across anything like that in the '40s, no. It's a pity when something that seems like it has potential falls flat. I may still give it a watch at some point.
ReplyDelete-Andi x
I encourage everyone to take a look at it for themselves. I think if you lack any in-depth knowledge of the time period, it *could* be entertaining? But I don't know if that is a good or bad thing!
DeleteI'm never sure about that, either! There are probably an immense number of period dramas that are set in eras I know nothing about & can enjoy with ignorance. Hehe. Also, glad you said that - I'm also of the mind that everyone should take a look at something for themselves (unless I know there is something in it that would specifically upset a particular person) and make up their own mind. :)
DeleteBomb Girls? I've never heard of this show... but the film stills you shared look so intriguing! I will have to check it out, the vintage wardrobing is stunning!
ReplyDeletexoxo,
annie
http://vintagediggs.com/2012/01/heels-to-clog-about/
Thanks for the tip, I might check it out even if its not 100% genuine to our standards ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah I've mostly heard not so great things from vintage enthusiasts. Speaking of stockings, in one Miss Marple episode (Body in the Library), the detective picks up a girls stocking and stretches it extensively, and it balls up like any modern stretch pantyhose. Made me go "wait a minute..." but maybe they had super stretchy stockings in the 50s? I've just never come across them. Well at least it has some pretties to look at!
ReplyDeleteI *think* by the 50s they had stretch nylon...I just googled and found this: http://www.textilehistory.org/InventionofStretchNylon.html
DeletePatents were issued in the mid-1950s, so the market began in the late 1950s but it still would have been much higher quality than we see today on mass produced stuff. Chances are her stocking wouldn't have been one of those, but I guess it could be called an amibiguous time period :)
Oh interesting article! I recall seeing stretch stockings from the 60s (I only know from the very mod packaging), but only ever seen the standard for pre-60s. But I *think* the first season of Miss Marple is set in 53' so too early for stretch stockings right? But they always do so well with costumes so I'm doubting myself!
ReplyDeletexoxo
Solanah