Anna Strong Costume Appreciation Post: Part 2: Colonial Casuals
Okay, it’s a terrible pun, but I had to start somewhere! This is the second part of my costume nerdery re Anna’s Strong’s onscreen wardrobe. You can find the first part here:
Costume does a lot of the heavy lifting with characters in tv and film, before they even open their mouths onscreen. How someone looks, what they wear - it’s a big piece of how they’re presented, in addition to the actor’s performance and with period pieces it can help influence a character’s performance. A lot of actors often bring their own ideas of the character to the costume designer, and they work together to bring the character to life.
I’d normally refer to the excellent Frock Flicks blog for this sort of commentary , but they were kinda underwhelmed by the costumes:http://www.frockflicks.com/turn-washingtons-spies-2014/
So, its a daft fluffy British nerd to the rescue! A long post on the lovely Anna Strong, and her costumes through the show.All credit for these amazing pieces goes to costume designers Donna Zakowska (seasons1-2) and Lahly Poore (seasons 3-4)
In my last post,we looked at Anna’s finer gowns. Today is going to be what I like to call the ‘colonial casuals’ that Anna wears throughout the show’s four seasons, as well as a couple of gowns I missed out on the first time round:
A: The Purple Stripe Gown:
Sadly, a lovely gown we see once in Episode 2 and then it vanishes offscreen, never to be seen again. It’s a nice purple/grey stripe in a warm linen, very much an everyday dress. Stripes are very much Anna’s thing, it seems - (but they are also an 18th century thing. ) Anna wears it whilst doing hate-laundry for her unwanted redcoat house-guests, being uncomfortably stalked by Simcoe and urging Abe on to consider spying, all in the course of one episode!
Nothing in purple, but this much finer silk stripe has much the same silhouette as Anna’s.
B: The Green Jacquard Dress
(Screencaps provided by the wonderful farfarawaysite.com)
This is what I like to call Anna’s “Cursed Gown”, because boy, does a lot happen to her in it! We first see it on screen in Season 1. It’s a subtle dark-green silk, but very simply made up, and we see Anna wearing it as an everyday middle-class gown - not something you’d do chores in, but appropriate to everyday lady-like activities. I actually made a list of things that happen to Anna throughout the series whilst wearing it:
1) Has to tell Abigail she’s “still” enslaved, and being sent off to work from stangers away from her son and everyone she’s ever known.
2) Almost has adulterous table-sex with Abe during that clinch mid-season 1.
3) Is thrown out of Whitehall by Mr Pompous Woodhull down below there in Season 2.
4) Immediate next scene? Anna rejects Simcoe, in a terrifying ‘oh-God what’s going-to happen’ scene that had me seriously frightened for her.
5) Gets revenge-snogged by Simcoe in front of the entire town, ruining her reputation.
6) Watching murdered redcoat corpses swing in the breeze as Simcoe begins his rivalry with Hewlett.
7) ANOTHER terrifying ‘oh-God what’s going-to happen’ scene: When captured by those Queens Rangers: the one where Anna is almost coreced into sex with a random Queens Ranger goon - before straight up STABBING him in the crotch and then shooting him, point-blank, in the FACE.
And then we don’t see it again after Season 2 finishes. Poor Anna.
(To be fair, she probably burned it afterwards, and I don’t blame her. Nothing good ever seems to happen to her when she’s wearing it.)
This is a finer version than Anna’s with a bigger damask print, as working class dress doesn’t tend to survive as well as the gorgeous silks. But based on the style? Yes, 10/10 for accuracy. I just hope nicer things happened to the person who wore this one!
C: The Russet Jacquard Dress:
I only have one measly screencap for this one, and it doesn’t even show most of the dress! Boo. It looks identical to the Cursed Dress even down to the jacquard silk, but it’s in a warm brown-red. Anna wears it during the “Battle of Setauket” Season 1 finale episode, (discovers her friends have been lying to her about her husband being dead, and then jumps into a river in it to swim back to Abe - hum, maybe that pattern is cursed?)
Hmm… difficult to say, based on the one screen shot! I’m assuming it’s basically the same silhouette as the green dress. I think I need to rewatch to give it a proper look.
D: The Grey Dress, with 2 Bodices:
On a fashion level, these dresses are pretty nondescript - well, they’re grey. And plain. But what I like best about them is that there’s two bodices for them - one, a jacket with Anna’s trademark peplum back and long sleeves for colder weather, and then there’s another one with shorter sleeves, ruffles and some discreet trim for when it’s warm. I find it interesting that Anna wears the grey dresses a lot when having shy, cute interactions with Hewlett. Is it suggesting a softening of her hatred for the British as simply the ‘enemy’ once she gets to knew Hewlett as a person? That’s probably reading too much into it, but never mind. I like my costume subtext.
Honestly? I’m not sure. Sadly I struggled to find pictures for this. If we’re going 90 years later, making different interchangeable bodices for one dress was definitely a thing in the 1860s:
But from the existing gowns I’ve found online, it doesn’t appear to be a thing (or at least, nothing we have evidence for) in the 18th century. But mixing and matching skirts and jackets with petticoats is something everyone did, the same way we mix t-shirts with pants and skirts, and it suits Anna’s practical personality - as well as the fact Anna isn’t wealthy anymore. She’s going to have to make do with what she has. So I am giving the designers a pass on this one, with an added tick for practical wardrobe decisions.
And that’s it for now, folks! I don’t want to make this post TOO LONG! The final post on Anna’s wardrobe will be looking at her jackets, stays and quilted jumps.
