Below are descriptions of the main two Downton Abbey costume talks, plus a new presentation that describes "the London Season" (including Downton characters and costumes) as well as two talks inspired by Cornelia's new book featuring Princess Diana's influence on modern weddings.
(Contact Cornelia to get all the details.)
1.
VINTAGE
INSPIRATION:
The Brides of Downton Abbey
The Brides of Downton Abbey
What were Downton Abbey’s costume
designer’s inspirations behind those 1920-styled, shimmering and romantic
wedding gowns for Mary and Edith? What would Cora and Violet have worn as
fashionable, aristocratic Victorian-era brides?
Combining stories of wedding folklore, tiara legends, being presented at Court, and royal brides along with intriguing bits of fashion history (including what Vogue said about a bride’s décolletage), Cornelia Powell’s presentation is full of beautiful images and delightful commentary with behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the Downton Abbey costumers themselves (who reveal how it all comes together!)
Combining stories of wedding folklore, tiara legends, being presented at Court, and royal brides along with intriguing bits of fashion history (including what Vogue said about a bride’s décolletage), Cornelia Powell’s presentation is full of beautiful images and delightful commentary with behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the Downton Abbey costumers themselves (who reveal how it all comes together!)
~ ~ ~
2. A TASK OF TRANSLATION:
The Costume Designs of Downton Abbey
The Costume Designs of Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey is not the first British period
costume drama—beautifully lit and impeccably staged—that shares a story
well-told teasing out the tensions and
the intimacies between an aristocratic family and the downstairs staff who
serve them. However, as we watch from a modern world dearly in need of more
etiquette and grace, the sumptuous look and relational feel of the show
(including those fabulous clothes) simply draw us in!
Full of lovely images of costumes sometimes hard-to-see on the screen plus compelling commentary with behind-the-scenes anecdotes, Cornelia Powell’s
presentation charms a variety of audiences. She shows how Downton Abbey’s costume designers—gifted women
who all share a passion for luscious texture, vintage accuracy and attention to
detail—beautifully “translate”
fashions from these historically pivotal times when the world was becoming
modern in a thousand dazzling ways.
~ ~ ~
3. DEBUTANTES & DOWNTON:
American Heiresses Do 'The London Season'
Cora Crawley, the fictional Countess of Grantham on Downton
Abbey, represents one of many real
American “Buccaneers”—the daughters of wealthy American industrialists who
married British Lords in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries in a “cash for class” exchange. These sparkling young heiresses did
“The London Season” showing off their million-dollar Worth wardrobes, dazzled the
Old World with their New World riches as well as their spirited confidence,
married in opulent wedding ceremonies, and saved the grand old country houses around
Great Britain and their aristocratic
way of life—at least for a while.
This gilded American legacy—that has come to life through the popularity of British costume drama Downton Abbey—brought the world such compelling personalities as Winston Churchill, Lady Diana Spencer and king-to-be Prince William. Using hundreds of beautiful images, Cornelia Powell tells an irresistible version of this glittering history through stories of sumptuous fashion, presentations at royal court, legendary tiaras and princely affairs. The author, wedding folklorist and costume historian entertains audiences around the country with her Downton Abbey costume talks.
This gilded American legacy—that has come to life through the popularity of British costume drama Downton Abbey—brought the world such compelling personalities as Winston Churchill, Lady Diana Spencer and king-to-be Prince William. Using hundreds of beautiful images, Cornelia Powell tells an irresistible version of this glittering history through stories of sumptuous fashion, presentations at royal court, legendary tiaras and princely affairs. The author, wedding folklorist and costume historian entertains audiences around the country with her Downton Abbey costume talks.
~~~
4. For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued the Great White Wedding
In the
middle of the nineteenth century, “the custom-made, white wedding, with all the
frills we know so well,” explained British historian Ann Monsarrat, came
together “to make the great tradition.” Launched by Queen Victoria’s all-white,
orange-blossom nuptials in 1840 with their sentimental ethos, brides and their
wedding-planning mothers followed suit for over a hundred years, using “all the
ingredients we now think of as virtually indispensable to a white wedding.”
But this
“great white wedding” and its beloved traditions of fancy costumes, cakes and
rituals—as well as its “immense and highly organized industry”—could have all
flamed out in the purple haze of the counterculture revolution of the late
1960s and ‘70s if not for Lady Diana Spencer’s charismatic appeal as a royal
bride during her wedding to a prince in the summer of 1981. Therefore, for
better or worse, helped along with a little Reaganomics as well as society’s need
for order and tradition with a dash of “all that glitters” obsession, “the great
white wedding” comes back from the brink in the 1980s even more opulent and
universally appealing than ever. And the white bridal gown, as curator and
author Eleanor Thompson shared, was its “ubiquitous standard-bearer.”
In this presentation, full of intriguing stories and beautiful images,
Cornelia Powell shares stories and descriptions from her new book, The
End of the Fairy-Tale Bride: {Volume One} For Better or Worse, How Princess
Diana Rescued the Great White Wedding. The book explores the lasting
influence of an archetypal princess on the world of weddings: the fashion and
the fairy tale, the superficial and the divine. And this presentation expands
the narrative into an entertaining pictorial history of “the great white
wedding” and its continued allure for modern couples of all stripes—including
nostalgic brides and grooms to same-sex partners.
~ ~ ~
5. The Language of Flowers & Diamonds {excerpt from The End of the Fairy-Tale Bride}
“We knew
that we wanted Diana to have a large bouquet,” explained gown designers David
and Elizabeth Emanuel. “The scale of the dress meant that a small one would
have simply disappeared.” The massive, yet delicate and lyrical, shower-style
arrangement designed by Longmans—an old established florist in London—became
the fashion after Diana and Prince Charles’ wedding, replacing the smaller and
sometimes less imaginative bridal bouquets. Of course, most things in the
high-flying, shoulder-padded 1980s were on a grander scale!
This excerpt from Chapter Five of Volume One of The End of the Fairy-Tale Bride opens this presentation which then continues with delightful stories and beautiful images of royal wedding bouquets, floral-enhanced gowns, grand diamond tiaras and whimsical wax orange blossom wreaths—and the Queens and Princesses who wore them as hopeful brides.
~ ~ ~
Contact Cornelia to get more details on her Downton Abbey costume talks as well as her latest presentations featuring stories from her new book, The End of the Fairy-Tale Bride {Volume One} For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued the Great White Wedding.
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