Categories: Fashion

Downton Abbey Costume Designer Anna Robbins: Interview

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Again once more on the large display screen since its first cinematic installment in 2019, earlier than the world turned the wrong way up, the Crawleys of “Downton Abbey” and their in-house employees are but once more delivering class, intrigue, and style of their second movie, “Downton Abbey: A New Period.” The brand new film picks up the place the final ends, set on the finish of the Roaring Twenties in 1928 earlier than the world slides into a worldwide financial melancholy.

Very a lot wanted in a world at the moment grappling with despair and grief, the movie feels decidedly extra joyous and humorous than the final film and way more than the collection that introduced the English property’s inhabitants into our houses and hearts. There’s fairly a little bit of journey to go round too, from a wedding to a trip within the South of France to the doorway of Hollywood movie stars making a film throughout the film.

An epic endeavor similar to this throughout a worldwide pandemic required the experience of a dressing up designer who already knew the Crawleys and company fairly nicely. So, costume designer Anna Robbins was again on the head of wardrobe after costuming the collection’s final two seasons and the primary movie.

“The forged and crew are like a household, and it was a beautiful expertise working with them once more,” Robbins tells POPSUGAR of engaged on the second film. “We had been all excited and grateful to have that chance anyway, however for it to be throughout a pandemic made it particular differently as a result of we had been capable of see each other and work. The pandemic positively made it tougher as a result of we needed to function in a really completely different means. There have been a variety of impacts on the costume division, however we had been capable of overcome all these challenges.”

None of these challenges reads on display screen from the beginning, when the viewers will get to affix within the pleasure of Lucy and Tom’s marriage ceremony to kick off the film. “It was superb and a privilege to get the possibility to design a bridal look inside Downton,” Robbins says. “It positively comes with a sure stress since you need to make it excellent and do the character justice with this very particular robe. Realizing it was the opening scene for the movie, we knew we wished to have an impactful search for Lucy’s costume, but in addition for the congregation we had been seeing within the church that had been each upstairs and downstairs. Everybody was of their finery, so we had been in a position to take a look at coloration and actually compose the scene in order that all the colours had been harmonious.” There have been so many individuals on display screen on the ceremony, so Robbins definitely had her work minimize out for her.

For Lucy’s gorgeous robe, Robbins was impressed by {a photograph} of a 1928 Chanel costume and one other style illustration from the time. “What I used to be actually drawn to was an uneven hem and frothy layers of tulle,” Robbins says of the piece. “I wished to offer the sense that it was actually contemporary, up to date, and leading edge for the time. I wished it to really feel like Lucy may actually collect up her skirt and have a superb dance on the reception, so there was a type of ease and relaxed vibe to it. From there, it was about creating drama with a low again, a lovely boat neck with chiffon, and silver embroidery laid over the satin, so you have obtained a lot of pretty performs on texture.”

Lucy additionally wears some unbelievable jewellery that’s genuine to the time interval, together with a diamond and pearl tiara and a lovely Van Cleef & Arpels diamond brooch that she wears on her bodice. “It was a terrific costume to design and a stunning means of introducing Lucy on this new world that she’s publicly a part of,” Robbins says. “We had been actually capable of specific her character by her clothes in a means that we hadn’t been capable of do as a lot in her wardrobe as a girl’s maid within the first movie.”

Although the film solely strikes ahead one yr from the primary movie, there are notable adjustments as everyone knows fashion can change drastically in a yr’s time. And there have been definitive shifts between the fashions of the ’20s and the ’30s that had been already shining by within the appears of rich girls like Woman Mary. “She has at all times been very leading edge and forward of the time relating to her fashion,” Robbins says of Michelle Dockery’s character, who works with film director Jack Barber to show his silent movie staged on the property right into a speaking movie. “We had been some Nineteen Thirties silhouettes along with her, and that was actually thrilling.”

Robbins additionally styled Woman Edith in trousers for the primary time as she turns her South of France vacation into a piece journey the place she covers the brand new palatial house that’s bequeathed to considered one of Downton’s youngest. She performed on the rise of pajama units in actual life on the time, which had been popularized by style designers like Paul Poiret and Callot Soeurs within the area.

“Inside Downton, that timeframe, and within the higher lessons, there was an enormous quantity of etiquette when it got here to what you need to put on and when,” Robbins says. “Touring isn’t any exception to that, so you’ll journey in a touring go well with and also you’d have your hat and your gloves in your bag. We began off in Yorkshire, so we had touring fits completed in an English means. The burden of the suiting on the gents was tweed, and the hats had been felt.”

Then, when the Crawleys and crew arrive on the villa, you see them transition to their South of France wardrobe — a extremely thrilling and shocking flip as we have but to see the household this relaxed and sun-kissed. This reveals by with lighter materials and a softer coloration palette, with the ladies in pinks and yellows and the lads in cream-colored linen. “We launched Robert in separates which is a extremely pretty look that I had been ready to do,” Robbins says of the Downton patriarch. “He was in a Grenadier Guards blazer with separate trousers, together with a grey trouser to depart after which pale, fawn-colored trousers when he arrived on the villa. Little issues like that present they might’ve had an outfit for each event and state of affairs. He nonetheless arrives as this quintessentially English gentleman assembly this quintessentially French gentleman.”

And in case you had been questioning, there have been actual similarities in dressing between the aristocratic lessons in numerous international locations on the time, particularly between London and Paris. “The foundations within the South of France are way more relaxed, as this can be a place the place individuals are beginning to trip within the peak of summer time on the time and the pajama set brigade are girls who’re sporting trousers,” Robbins says. “Menswear is getting extra relaxed with the double-breasted go well with jacket coming in to dispense the waistcoat, which might’ve made them rather a lot cooler. The Crawleys exhibiting up with a small portion of their employees is a way more stripped again and relaxed surroundings on the villa, which is a pleasant distinction to Downton.”

However the Crawleys and their beloved employees weren’t the one characters making waves this time round, as two Hollywood film stars had been thrown into the combo: Myrna Dalgleish and Man Dexter. “It was a terrific alternative to design for these actually fascinating new characters who got here from utterly completely different backgrounds and have an thrilling potential to push the boundaries of the storylines and with how they costume,” Robbins says of the duo who turned Downton Abbey right into a Hollywood film set. “I had a extremely nice co-designer on this movie named Maja Meschede and we labored fairly carefully on Myrna’s appears. Maja got here up with this stunning costume for her arrival which sums up who the character is and what we wished to do along with her. She’s wearing very icy colours, although she warms up a bit bit all through the movie.” Myrna is full-on Tinseltown glamour, with cuffs, exaggerated necklines, and a definitive “extra is extra” vitality. Meschede and Robbins seemed on the Hollywood stars of the time together with Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, and Marlene Dietrich to create her jaw-dropping ensembles.

The film additionally takes a somber flip, with Downton matriarch Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham passing away. The second performs out over a pair scenes, with the household congregating in her bed room for her remaining breaths and goodbyes after which her funeral which is a shifting and regal affair. “I needed to design the appears realizing they might work collectively in a variety of completely different configurations and throughout a variety of completely different scenes, ending up on this very intimate area,” Robbins says concerning the first scene with the household. “The palette needed to really feel harmonious with nothing leaping out inside it.”

And for the funeral, virtually everyone seems to be in black, however a few of the employees are in muted colours of grey and brown as they could not have had a selected black outfit for the event. “It was about realizing what these characters would’ve had, so a few of them would’ve worn their Sunday finest,” she says. “Among the characters had been sporting the identical look to the marriage initially as they had been to the funeral on the finish. We wished to symbolize their characters by costume, however we wished completely different textures, materials, detailing, and equipment, so we may add curiosity.”

General, this second “Downton Abbey” film feels extra open-hearted and joyous than any earlier chapter of the saga. “We want the enjoyable, laughter, and uplifting moments now greater than ever,” Robbins says. And this film delivers all the aforementioned in spades.

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