Demelza in characteristic hat delighted to look at a poster for a troop of actors come to Truro
Dear friends and readers,
As Anibundel suggests, the way to understand and enjoy costume dramas is to look at the costumes. What more indicative than hats?
Spurred on by her fun discoveries of who wears what hat in the 2015 Poldark, I looked at the state of millinery for Graham’s first two novels 40 years ago and found the costume-designers included many more working and lower class head scarves, mob caps, and simple bonnets and flat hats with ribbons, and specific headdresses for ritual occasions.
For her wedding day (and possibly traveling) Keren (Sheila White) has decorated a simple bonnet with lace
Our female characters moved to forms of cloth hat to signal religious sects. When it came to creating beauty, glamour, suggesting upper class decor, much more attention was paid to wigs (big hair which blended fashions of the 1970s with those of the 1780s through 90s) than hats, but these covered a wider range, from pancake, to wide brimmed decorated, to tricorn, and simply (on your wig, threaded in), feathers, woven braids, and the rare jewel. There were also scarves which fit into political headgear which may be a blend of Jacobin, Cornish and mining community.
What they all show is that in comparison to 40 years on, the earlier series was interested in historical accuracy, yet made no attempt to film and showcase hats separately; each and every still shows a woman character in the midst of doing something that is part of the story or a product of their inner life. They signal class, politics, the personality of the character, and mood of the story line.
This is for those interested in how the 18th century has been depicted and love the old familiar pictures I hope seen anew.
The first hat we see is a respectable traveling wide-brim with ribbon under the chin:
This actress would play Jane Eyre (1983, with Timothy Dalton)
This opening Part 1 (1783), coresponding to the revenant’s return of Ross Poldark, runs the gamut of Verity with her characteristic mob cap:
not much different from the servant’s, Mrs Tabb:
to the high elegance of Elizabeth’s bridal veil:
and Jinny’s imitation (bridal veil on limited budget):
And this range is echoed in Part 2, where we move from another kind of head cover, the scarf tied behind the head at the nape of the neck, with cloth fanny out behind, signalling Jinny’s place in the political spectrum:
We see it women of Jinny’s class, but not character, at a fair, in the streets:
And Keren boasts a headscarf too:
Here is another house mob cap, more elaborate as worn by Verity as she asks Ross to help her see Blamey regularly:
Demelza graduates to her first hat showing she is growing up in Part 3 (1785 or to)
echoed by Prudie’s similar number as she watches Demelza scrub a table:
For outdoors, against the wind, and to protect her ears, Demelza in a sturdy kerchief bringing out lunch to Ross and Jud in the fields.
Our costume designers turned the pages of their script until they reached the death of Charles Poldark requiring a funeral required elaborate headdresses from the women, of which I choose just two from our central heroines:
The latter has grown intensely restless, dissatisfied, and soon after tells Ross so in an elegant wide-brim with ribbon under her chin, matching her suit-like outfit:
Meanwhile Demelza had fled home to her methodist step-mother:
who must’ve made it clear that similar attire for the head was expected of her stepdaughter:
Although the stepmother knows by this time that Demelza is with child (by Ross), Elizabeth is still dreaming of running off, and wears a fetching triangle for outdoor love-making (matching the same outfit, thrift, thrift):
A new book, Demelza, and our heroine has had her baby and there is a christening. We get some elegant headgear now:
A sweeter lace wide-brim for Verity reminds me of 1950s Easter hats
Unfortunately some of the women use their hats to exclude others, to crowd out and stigmatize those without these or who have not their confidence:
Following the debacle of this christening, the married lady takes heart and plots to help her kind cousin-in-law meet Blamey once again. They go off to shop: Verity in a small pancake, and Demelza in a delicious concoction of pancake, frills and kerchief:
Some time later our Cinderella goes to a ball, alas hatless, ribbonless, but not Lady Brodrugan:
who sports feathers and discreet jewels in a high class wig
Margaret with less money, makes do with a large white feather
and a clutch of pearls around the neck
Verity has gone all out (expecting Blamey):
There is too much bankruptcy and trouble to foster much millinery in the last parts of Demelza, so we have to make do with troubled women in the street:
Lady Brodrugan at Christmas in emerald green tricorn (surely meant ironically):
concluding with Demelza in one of her blends of Jacobin, working class and Cornish scarf:
plain cloth version — there is this lace one too:
After all, it’s called costume drama first and foremost, no?
Ellen
P.S. Next up wigs, and what the men wore on their heads.
On Demelza’s last headscarf:
“Musta been a fore runner of the three cornered men’s blue and white or red and white large handkerchief we teens wore over our hair when it was in curlers back in the 60’s. Anybody remember those?”
Joan: “I really enjoyed these pictures. No surprise as I do love the 70’s series. I was surprised when looking at the photo of Margaret as I had not noticed how much the actress resembles the Margaret of the new series. How great it would be if we see this with our new Caroline.”
My reply: “There is a resemblance in the facial structure of the two Demelza’s too (round, wide-eyed) and both have strawberry red wigs (Graham’s Demelza is dark-haired). The new Elizabeth is different but then she is being characterized utterly differently (for example in the BBC episode 8 she nurses Demelza). Both Veritys wear somber like colors: 2015 beige, and 1975 the above teak blue. Probably we ought to remember that Graham’s Margaret is described as gaunt even after she garners a rich husband; when first seen and until then we are told she is gypsy-like in looks, her attire shabby elegant ragged.”
[…] previous this is another comparative blog which assumes previous knowledge. I have meant to show the old familiar pictures from the 1970s for those who loved them, now once again with […]
[…] I had thought to make one more blog for this year comparing the 1975 to the 2015 Poldark mini-series, this one in response to Anibundel on the male hats and wigs and women’s hats, wigs, hair ribbons of another survey of the earlier series. […]
[…] I had thought to make one more blog for this year comparing the 1975 to the 2015 Poldark mini-series, this one in response to Anibundel on the male hats and wigs and women’s hats, wigs, hair ribbons of another survey of the earlier series. […]