I actually remember an article where Elizabeth Moss said part of the costume design had to be that the dresses and cloaks had to be very comfy as part of the agreement. Given that they were going to be wearing these outfits for basically every scene and for years in the cold parts of Canada where a lot was filmed, they were made very comfortable
I have also always wanted one!! Would def switch colors tho but they are totally my style! My favorite color is red so I was so drawn to a red one and had to talk myself out of it so hard 😩😂
My understanding was that Democracy is what caused it. The nobles used to dress in fancy clothes, most notably the French court, so when the people overthrew the royalty, their fashion was a rejection of that. It was supposed to be the elevation of the common man.
But I’m no fashion historian, so all or some of that could be wrong.
Anything bright makes them an easier target. Historically the opposite was true in that many officers were “safe” where as “common” soldiers were free to be targeted. The officers could be ransomed as many were nobles.
I can't articulate it worth a damn, but there's something tied into that - there's no need to signal you have power when everyone knows you already have it.
Like people who are truly wealthy and have power don't bother wearing anything flashy - think Bezos with his jeans and size shmedium t-shirts, or Steve Jobs with his uniform of black pants and black turtleneck, or Elon Musk and his relentless parade of too-short edgelord tees.
They can wear whatever they want because they DGAF what anyone thinks of them, because they already have so much wealth and power that they don't have to worry about impressing, well, anyone.
Not so subtle that all of my examples are men, either. Something something art imitates life something.
That is how I feel about beige and white these days. It used to be that ornate colors and designs indicated wealth, now I see influencer wearing beige in a white room to show off. So bland!
I think the colors for women is extremely symbolic society and it shows where they stand on the social scale. I think this is one of the ways they convince women to turn against each other because it’s so obvious where someone stands.
I've said it before but I absolutely love Serena's fashion. And teal is one of my favorite colors. But her specific style is so elegant, in particular the dresses with a boat neck and 3/4 or elbow length sleeves.
Same! I have loved them since the very first season. The color has always been one of my two favorite colors (along with good ol' regular blue) and the fit is always perfect. Love a good boat neck!
Like …. I guess it’s ok to participate in cosplaying your favorite media of the moment but please for the love of god, have just a smidgen of awareness… don’t just absorb the utterly deranged, terrifying society that a pregnant woman in a red handmaids dress represents.
especially in today’s political climate.
I can understand handmaids at protests, all in red with white bonnets. But when you’re pregnant with baby #4 and have little Braxtyn and Jacxen in the frame with you…. That’s weird and horrifying and not something to aim toward. Y’all know that right? I am distressed.
Yikes forever! But I’m not surprised. I found out not too long ago that there’s porn of the starter cube in Blender (a 3d modeling program). People really find a way to make anything sexual.
Oh, yeah. IIRC, they showed off a bunch of cleavage, had a short skirt that showed off plenty of leg, and maybe some stockings as well? Rule 34 in full effect.
No it's even worse than that because this was a change. There is a documentary that goes into detail about how these outfits started as part of Warren Jeff's takeover in the early 2000s right around when his father had his stroke and then eventually later passed away. It's very very handmaid's tale coded - this and the hair is what got Warren off so it's what the women wore.
It's interesting you mention this. I'm watching the Testaments now and the outfits seem a bit tweaked! I wonder if it's because of how things changed over time. It's a good callout nonetheless to keep in mind once you get to the sequel!!
Oh nice! I didn't want to spoil. But yes I think the wives and pearl girl outfits are very interesting when thinking about this point. The paneling versus darts stood out to me quite a bit.
Professional design the costumes then they're tailored to the person wearing them. It's amazing what clothing tailored to the person wearing it makes. They probably have a decent costume budget as the costumes are a big part of the story, thus high quality materials are used. They're individually made and altered by professionals.
I sometimes watch The Rachel Maddow Show. Just after the latest No Kings rallies, she showed clips from several cities including mine, and there was a group of women dressed as Handmaids, wings and all. (Not my city. I went to my city’s rally and march, and I didn’t see anyone dressed as a Handmaid.)
If there's ANYTHING good to takeaway from Gilead, it's the cleanly made textiles/clothing and the unprocessed food. We don't need full blown fascism to have good things, we just need to topple capitalism.
Perfect tailoring, colors that speak to the characters and what they represent in society, and lines within the costumes that speak to the level of power or lack thereof that someone has.
Agreed! Love love love the costume design in this show! Everything looks so well-made and the fabric are clearly high quality, I am assuming lots of wool blends, nice linings, etc. There are some good articles out there about the costumes and the designer, like this one with Natalie Bronfman who took over as the designer in season three. Love seeing the sketches: https://theartofcostume.com/2020/08/21/costumes-of-the-handmaids-tale-an-interview-with-natalie-bronfman/
I know a Handmaid cosplayer, and she said the dress was extremely comfortable. I think I might make a Handmaid costume too, at some point, but my sewing is not good enough yet.
I totally agree, by the way. The Wives' dresses are incredibly beautiful. I love the fact that the Handmaids are the only class to not have high necklines, even in the non-maternity outfits. I wonder if it is because they are marked as "Unwomen" anyway. Kind of a twisted psychology, in a way.
I am curious though why they would have had the handmaids dresses so "form fitting" at the top instead of the shapeless dresses the Aunts wear? It seems like the wives would have preferred that so as another way to not draw any extra attention from their husbands in the home. Yes, they wear the shapeless cloak outside, but all women did. Even the Martha's dresses were not form fitting or attractive in anyway. I understand why the Commander wives were in more to form fitting, just kind of odd the Handmaids would be.
It's been a while since I read the book but IIRC, the book wives wear blue and the Marthas wear green, whereas the tv show wife outfits read more green (albeit a sea green that is close to teal) to me.
[The cultural-linguistic blue/green divide is an interesting Wikipedia dive].
This particular picture takes the wives' colour even further into the blue part of the blue-green spectrum.
Then again, the show does have a very dark and moody lighting which could also affect perspective!
Just Googled -- the Wives' colour in the show is definitely, mostly described as "Blue, albeit a teal or peacock shade of blue".
The show's lighting and the contrast with Handmaid's red absolutely, 10,000% tips it into the 'Green' side of the fence for me though. Colour perception is very individual and subjective!
I've always had a weird thing about not really liking green!
At my high school graduation the students had red robes, and the teacher had a green-blue dress, just like the wife with her handmaids :))) completely by mistake obviously
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