Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey (21 page)

After the end of the First World War, myriad possibilities and freedoms begin to open up for the younger members of the house, and much of this new lifestyle was to be found in London. ‘Downton very much represents the “country”, a kind of stereotypical aristocracy, but in London the Bloomsbury Set are gathering – the writers, the artists and musicians – there is a new freedom of expression on offer,’ explains Caroline McCall.

Fashions in the capital reflect the explosion of creativity taking place as the old social boundaries start to crumble. ‘With this new modernism came self-expression through clothes – there were lots of prints and bright colours,’ says McCall. ‘We’ve tried to convey, through both Edith’s and Rose’s wardrobe, this new wave that’s coming in.’

Laura Carmichael feels ‘incredibly lucky’ in her wardrobe as her character spends more time in the capital. ‘She’s shopping in London to look nice for her lover, and it’s such an exciting period of change for clothes that Caroline’s been keen to show,’ she says. ‘In London Edith would have been seeing the fashionable set – the bohemians, Virginia Woolf and the rest – who were on the cutting edge of what was socially acceptable. It’s far more risqué and a lot freer.’

As McCall explains, Edith is living ‘a life that those at Downton see as well as her London life’. So Edith is wearing more prints, as well as pieces ‘she would never wear at Downton, because they’re quite shocking’. She may not be quite the rebel Sybil was – but she is following her lead in becoming a woman of the times.

Nothing illustrates Tom Branson’s social ascent from the Crawleys’ chauffeur to their son-in-law so clearly as his changing wardrobe.

In the early 1920s, clothes were an important indicator of a person’s social status. ‘The cast found it hilarious that one of the storylines in series four was about gloves,’ Alastair Bruce relates. ‘But these details were terribly important in those days – they reflected status and where you stood in the social order.’

Tom’s new wardrobe shows the world that he is prepared to assimilate into Sybil’s family – however politically conflicted he feels – but it also highlights the fact that he is not born to the role of country gentleman. ‘We show this in the choice of fabrics for Tom – they’re not quite aristocracy,’ explains Caroline McCall. ‘He’s got this brown knickerbocker suit that he wears, while if he was an aristocrat he’d be in green tweed. The fabric is more Irish working class. That’s a conscious decision that Allen [Leech, who plays Tom] and I made together.’

‘Simplicity is key to Mary’s style,’ says McCall. ‘Classic yet fashionable.’ But this look shifts from simple to stark in the wake of Matthew’s death, as her wardrobe reflects her newly widowed status. As the fourth series opens, Mary is in full mourning dress – all black – which after a period of time lifts into the shades of half-mourning, ‘purples and mauves, and greys and black and white – quite monochrome’, says McCall.

Isobel Crawley, of course, is also devastated by the loss of Matthew, and again her wardrobe reflects her grief at her son’s death. ‘We’ve kept the same silhouette as in the last series, but have used different fabrics and now her whole wardrobe is black,’ says McCall.

The speed at which people moved through the stages of mourning would have had an impact on how they were perceived by the wider world, a point that the show’s storylines acknowledge.

As Julian Fellowes notes, ‘The relentless mourning of the Victorians was going out of fashion, but this custom of going from mourning into half-mourning, then into normal dress survived until the second war. A cousin of my grandfather’s, whom I knew very well, never came out of half-mourning. It was a mark of affection to her late husband. She felt that dressing in half-mourning was less of an aggressive statement than being in deepest black.’ Still, he notes, his great-grandmother, widowed at 39 by a carriage accident, ‘stayed in black for the rest of her life. Being in black wasn’t unusual, whereas it’s always taught that it was absolutely extraordinary.’

In contrast to the more varied palette upstairs, the below-stairs women’s uniforms range from black for the housekeeping staff to earthy tones for the kitchen workers.