#side note do y'all. enjoy dress history/costume posts

[princesskuragina]

Analyzing Hélène's horrible horrible costumes in BBC War and Peace in no order whatsoever

they’re just so bad

Opening scene

Okay. I’m starting off on a good note. I actually like this dress. I think it’s pretty. From a costume design standpoint, she looks elegant, and very much like a grecian statue. Antique beauty was ALL the rage in this period, the fact that she kind of looks like she’s literally wearing a chiton kind of works for her. She is this marble woman, but she’s also very young, and I like that she’s in white (both fashionable and also adds to Pierre’s romanticizing of her). Is this dress historically accurate? No. But I think this is a decent example of historical influence over absolutely strict historical accuracy. Unfortunately it’s all downhill from here.

Vassily Kuragin uses his real life daughter to play The Sims

This is giving me serious reign energy, or at best downton abbey. She wears a square neckline for once, but other than that I have nothing to say. That wimpy little cross necklace is weird, she’s not a 13 year old at horse camp.

Scarlet letter headass

I think I know what they’re going for here. Hélène wears this when she meets Dolokhov, she’s about to cheat on her husband, so she’s in this dark red, low cut gown. Draped details. Very evil. I like the color. Could be worse! However the need to modernize her cleavage is getting on my nerves. Compare to this as a possible alternative:

Jewel tones! V neck! Showing chemise/fabric meant to look like a chemise feels very suggestive and almost like a regency era illusion neckline. I just think Hélène could’ve benefited from a little less ~~modern sensibility~~

Roasting the shit out of Pierre

This costume was clearly designed with “how evil and slutty can we make this woman look” in mind. It looks like bad fashionnova lingerie. We’re veering into personal taste, but I almost think she’d be more impactful if she looked very put together, here. Pierre comes stumbling in and she’s there, all made up and elegant, ready to scold him? That’s so much better. But if u want to keep her in her underwear, you can do better than this.

Anatole enabler

I have no idea what the fuck this is. I can’t even pretend to understand this one. She looks like a loofah.

Seducing Natasha or whatever

This screencap is at 3% health and so am I because fucking hate this outfit. The weird cuffs on the spencer, the vampire collar, the INSISTENCE on a deep v, the fact that it looks like she’s not even wearing a decent modern bra much less a pair of stays but we’re supposed to believe everyone is just madly in love with her tits, the COLOR SCHEME. The one and only thing I can say to the defense of this is that she is actually wearing a “high necked purple velvet gown” in this scene in the book, and maybe that’s what they’re going for?? Basically if I were Natasha I would not be impressed.

I bet you’ll never guess what happens to the sexy woman at the end of this novel written by a dead misogynist!

She dies! Thank god am I right can’t have that evil succubus surviving. Anyways this is not her worst dress. I get why she’s in white and I like it—she looks very young and very helpless, out of her usual dark reds and purples, it’s a purity thing, as she is actively being driven to suicide for being ~impure~. This is also the reason I can maybe excuse a grown woman with her hair down, it makes her look younger. I have no idea why this is hitched up over her tits in this bit but if she pulled it down it might look like a sort of early regency, 1790s vibe. Her body is very much on display and I think that’s a smart choice, like they can all see straight through her and her weird flimsy tissue paper dress (that she’s definitely not wearing any sort of proper petticoat or stays under, but hey, that’s too much to expect). Plus just the visual interest of bright red blood against white. I get it!

The Opera

She looks nice and apparently that’s the most we can hope for.

Whatever the hell this scene is I don’t know I haven’t watched the show in a while

I think the meets boris here? In any case she’s being a Big Society Woman and she’s in this weird chiffon prom dress. Still no stays. Weirdly reminiscent of Natasha’s horrible babydoll ball gown she wears when she dances with Anatole, which I suppose might be on purpose? That’s all I can say in defense of whatever this kmart spring formal nonsense is