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Gorgeous Period Dress: Difference between revisions
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A film trope starting when colour was new and directors were eager to show off what it could do, and extending to the days when TV was widespread but mostly black and white, so big, colorful spectacles were a way of luring audiences back to the theaters. (However - as noted below in the entry mentioning the 1935 "Becky Sharp" - this trope actually began to be used in films when Technicolor, a reliable - if at the time expensive - method of producing color film - came into use.) The trope consists of setting your story in [[Period Piece|Period Pieces]], at a time and place in which the costumes were ([[Hollywood History|or people think they were]]) very beautiful, and using lots of actors and extras in these beautiful costumes.
== Items of Gorgeous Period Dress include: ==
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* [[Miles Gloriosus|Dashing military types]] in full-on [[Bling of War]].
Films featuring [[Gorgeous Period Dress]] seldom show the dirt and grime of everyday life in the old days, which meant odd situations in which impoverished serfs and peasants would be decked out in crisply laundered clothing. Of course, fantasies like ''[[Highlander]]'' and comedies like ''[[Blackadder]]'' or ''[[Monty Python and
It should be noted that [[Older Than They Think|this actually had its roots in theater]], which seldom had reason to have plain or dirty clothes. Also keep in mind that this trope is not necessarily deceptive: there have always been those who delight in [[The Dandy|fancy clothing]], and modern Western society is far from the first to promote daily bathing or liberal use of soap. The Romans bathed more than we do.
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Turn
* Most ''[[Shoujo]]'' [[Jidai Geki]] anime and manga indulge in this for pretty obvious reasons.
* Frequently shows up in ''[[Code Geass]]'' despite not being a period piece.
** In this case it's gorgeous Napoleonic dress and uniforms.
*** Or in Lelouch's case, extremely ridiculous-looking outfits.
**** Especially the purple Victorian style dress he wore in one of the picture dramas.
* [[Umineko no Naku Koro ni|Beatrice's]] main outfit of a [http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff130/Tomoyo_Walker/XT2YNF39g5f1Qol76bv4DjPSjZbYCw5y.jpg black and red dress is one of these].
* The anime ''[[Black Butler]]'' definitely has this, considering it takes place in [[Victorian London]]. Pretty much ALL the wealthy characters have beautiful outfits, but Ciel in particular wears clothing that appears to not only be very fashionable during that time, but is probably made of the best fabrics available in order to show off his aristocratic status.
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* Often invoked by ''[[Sandman]]'' when stories are set in other eras. Death in particular dresses in some particularly extravagant period outfits.
** It seems that he has the habit of dressing like the high nobility of any period, except that he keeps preferring blacks and purples to more fashionable colours. [[Fridge Brilliance|In the modern times he looks like a rock star]].
== [[Film]] ==
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* Can't forget ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]''; Lucilla and Commodus's clothes (not to mention where they live) seem a bit too nice for [[The Dung Ages]].
** If anything, Commodus's clothing was too understated and rough. He should have looked like an overblown Louis XIV.
*** The Romans didn't live in [[The Dung Ages]]. Almost every character in ''Gladiator'' was underdressed and far too filthy to be realistic - even the slaves should have been spotlessly clean and neatly dressed.
*** Neither extreme is remotely realistic. Yes, the nobility had very good hygiene and fancy clothes in the period, but the common folk and the slaves were much less well off. When you work all day in the hot sun, you're going to look like it, and bathing every day was just too expensive for most outside the population centers where free public baths were open for all except slaves.
* Sofia Coppola used this trope in 2006 for ''[[Marie Antoinette]]''.
* Countless [[Bollywood]] period movies fall into this. This is particularly true if said movies feature Ms. [[Aishwaya Rai]]. [http://s.chakpak.com/se_images/102069_-1_564_none/jodhaa-akbar-wallpaper.jpg Every.] [http://www.planetbollywood.com/Pictures/Posters/UmraoJaan/UmraoJaan11P.jpg Single.] [http://www.parigones.net/IMG/jpg/cinema_devdas_p1.jpg Time.]
** ''Devdas'' and ''Jodhaa Akbar'', especially. GUH.
* Pretty much every [[Merchant Ivory]] film ever made.
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* Many a [[Jidai Geki]] film displays the Japanese equivalent (though there are usually some, especially townspeople, wearing everyday clothes as well).
* The 1939 Warner Brothers film ''The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex'' revelled in the opportunity to show the splendid court dress of [[The Virgin Queen|Elizabeth I.]] (Bette Davis) in Technicolor.
* ''[[Moulin Rouge]]!'' tries its very best to make your eyes bleed with colour...especially during the Can Can scene in the beginning of the film.
* The film version of [[Virginia Woolf]]'s ''[[Orlando]]'', starring [[Tilda Swinton]] in very pretty clothes.
* ''[[Curse of the Golden Flower]]'' is this trope in spades. The colors practically strobe they're so brilliant and every character is burdened by layer upon layer of exquisite brocade.
* ''[[Plunkett and Macleane]]'' for the most part averts this showing a more realistic and gritty costume approach especially with lower classes. However it plays it straight during one scene during a huge ballroom [[Dances and Balls|dance]] among the ''very'' rich, fitting the trope nicely. It's pretty much a costume designers wet dream.
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* ''[[Murdoch Mysteries]]'' is very clean for 1895 Toronto. While many of the characters are middle- or upper-class, they still really shouldn't be that pristine.
* Often seen in British historical dramas, such ''The Pallaisers'', [[Upstairs, Downstairs]], and ''Bleak House.'' The latter two series use the [[Gorgeous Period Dress]] of the upper-class viewpoint characters as contrast to the dress of the servants and lower-class viewpoint characters.
** The miniseries ''Elizabeth R'' is one of the most spectacular examples. According to the DVD commentary, virtually the entire budget went on the queen's dresses (which explains why the sets are just one step above canvas backdrops).
** The various BBC miniseries of Jane Austen novels, e.g., "Pride and Prejudice", "Emma", and "Mansfield Park".
*** Which presents an interesting contrast with most recent U.S. movies adapting Austen (excepting the [[Gwyneth Paltrow]] [[Emma]]), which often slightly subvert this trope in the interest of realism (see above entry on 2005's [[Pride and Prejudice]].)
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