Few television series have captured the fashion imagination as effectively as “The House of Eliott.” First shown on PBS and later rerun on the Arts & Entertainment cable channel, the series, which is scheduled to return with new episodes in the fall, follows sisters Beatrice (Stella Gonet) and Evangeline (Louise Lombard) Eliott, couturiers and party animals in 1920s London.
The show’s costume designer is BBC staff designer Joan Wadge, and what she has created was a weekly feast of flapper frivolities.
Think of it as “Dallas” with spit curls. Running a fashion house, Beatrice and Evangeline have a professional duty to dress stylishly day and night. The wonder is in the sheer size of their wardrobes-each character has an average of 14 changes per hourlong episode.
Even an ordinary day at the office might involve a belted, hip-length sweater paired with a short skirt, a rope of amber beads and dangling earrings. And should they walk out the front door, add a fur-trimmed coat, gloves and cloche.
The best of the bunch are the beaded dresses Beatrice and Evangeline wear with a vengeance on their evening rounds. They have an authentically rich look-and they are authentic, sort of. Many are made from original period beaded panels that are dyed and patched together into chemise shapes.
The men are not ignored. Although Charles (Bill Thomas), the little cutter in the House of Eliott work room, wears original suits from the ’20s, Beatrice’s strapping husband, Jack Maddox (Aden Gillett), can’t. Like many modern men, he pumps iron, which makes his shoulders and arms too large to fit into period clothing. His suits and dinner jackets are custom-made.
“We chose the ’20s deliberately because the fashion was so good and, surprisingly, many couturiers were women,” said Jean Marsh, the show’s host and co-creator. “It was a period of great change for women, the biggest change being that they got out of corsets. It was also a time when conspicuous consumption was just horrendous. There was great wealth and great poverty. Some women would spend as much on a jacket as other people would have to live on for a year.”
Principals’ costumes, including hats, were custom-made at Cosprop in London. Jewelry is both period and costume. Marsh’s clothes, a much more contemporary look, are mostly from Barneys New York.
