THE DUCHESS
Oscar award winner Michael O'Connor for The Duchess has won many other awards for his fantastic work in costume design. What appealed to him most about working on the costumes for The Duchess was being able to create pieces for that time period when fashion was moving away from heavy upholstered garments to more classic styles. In researching for the movie Michael used descriptions from Amanda Foreman's book Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, as well as looking at original portraits of the duchess.
O'Connor's favorite costume as well as mine was the Political Campaign outfit where she wore a dress that resembled a soldiers uniform with the Whig party colors. The outfit was a big risk for her because dressing like a man was not proper for women back during that time. It was also a risk because Georgiana liked making a statement and people thought her lack of feminism in the way she dressed was one of the reasons she was not happy in her marriage.
Like a lot of other movies, costumes are a big part in bringing out a character as well as add symbolism to the movie. As the movie begins Georgiana is young and innocent which you can see in her clothing and accessories. She wears a ribbon in her hair and her clothes are very light and flowy as well as simple. But once she marries the Duke, her clothes are the only thing that express her feelings and emotions. Like the well known quote states ‘You [men] have so many ways of expressing yourself, whereas we must make do with our hats and dresses.’ Since fashion was the only industry women actually controlled in terms of deciding what was the next popular trend, Georgiana made it her passion, she made it the one thing she was good at. Fashion and her children were the only things that got her through her marriage.
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