Carrie Coon’s Costume Corner: 'The Gilded Age's "Some Sort of Trick"
Our Gilded Age column covers exclusively Carrie Coon’s costumes in her role as the beautiful and socially ambitious nouveau riche matron Bertha Russell. Not that the other costumes aren’t fascinating and worthy of conversation, but Bertha’s gowns are more adventurous, more exuberant, more statement-making, more everything. However, this week, Bertha wears just three ensembles, and while each has its merits, none is so notable that I’ve been thinking about it for days. All of which is to say: no Gown of the Week this week, but we do have The Suggestion of a Business Suit, Almost Casual Bertha, and Casino Royale Bertha.
We’re on Newport for the appearances of all three gowns, and The Suggestion of a Business Suit appears earliest. Bertha, Wade, and Larry visit the widowed but youngish Mrs. Blaine (Laura Benanti, yet another Broadway star in a series packed to the rafters with triple threats – a massive fever dream of a dance number when???) to see about Larry redecorating her cottage. Bertha’s gown is unmistakably not a suit, but also, it kind of is.
Hear me out: she’s making a social call that’s also a business proposition and needs to look somewhere between glamorous and serious. What’s more serious in this series than a dress featuring a jacket lapel?
