Carrie Coon’s Costume Corner: Bertha Russell, Mastermind

This week, in honor of The Gilded Age’s season finale, "In Terms of Winning and Losing," we salute costume designer Kasia Wailicka Maimone’s wise and strategic choice to keep her powder dry, saving the best, wildest, most exuberant gowns for last. Ten (ten!!) characters’ costumes are of note in the extended scene where the Great Opera War of 1883 concludes in triumph for Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon). 

Bertha’s triumph – at the opening performance of Mozart’s Faust, because subtlety is not in Julian Fellowes’ vocabulary – holds within it the seeds of some serious, capital-D Drama for Season 3. I predict that her well-laid plan to pull off a plotline out of The Buccaneers will go awry when Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) balks at marrying the schmancy but cash-strapped Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). In that case, George (Morgan Spector) will support Gladys rather than Bertha, and Bertha will regard it as another betrayal, which she’s already told him she will neither tolerate nor forgive. If this is part of a hoped-for third season, I hope these two crazy kids can work it out. A Gilded Age without super-couple Bertha and George is not a Gilded Age I will enjoy (though obviously I will watch).

On with the show! Naturally, Gown of the Week is Bertha’s ensemble, which includes a dress, matching cape, and another tiara and jewelry from her massive collection. 

She looks Full Disney Queen here in Eliza Hamilton blue silk duchess satin. The Gilded Age’s second season has given us so many gifts, and by gifts, I mean capes. Never let it be said that Bertha Russell passes on an opportunity for conspicuous consumption! A custom-made matching gown and cape in luxury materials are both expected, but the vast yardage and length of the cape, along with Bertha’s tiara and necklace, are visual reminders that this moment is effectively the coronation of a new queen of New York society. 

Other essential details that leaped out at me include Full Disney Queen’s architectural decorative flourishes. I believe the dark teal swoops and garlands conjuring wrought-iron gates are printed onto the satiny silk. The combination of the fabric’s smoothness and the near-indestructible beauty of wrought iron makes for a powerful metaphor for Bertha’s steely character. Bertha’s diamond tiara features little pointed gothic arches, and she’s wearing another two-necklace stack. This time, it’s a tall pearl choker (perhaps the same one we saw her wear at Ward McCallister’s Newport soirée in “Some Sort of Trick”) paired with a bib of faceted jewels. At first glance, the stones appear to be diamonds, but on closer inspection, they’re a very pale shade of purple – perhaps tanzanite – a small visual link to Gladys’s dress.

Speaking of Gladys, she’s decked out in a Disney Princess in Waiting gown in a column of rich, iridescent purple silk taffeta. The dress itself is quite simple, and saves all the action for the fabric’s color shifts, and for the back of the gown, which includes a train in enormous floofy segments of matching tulle. Many pieces of the same tulle, cut into points, form the shoulder poufs, each of which is larger than Taissa Farmiga’s head.

The skirts of both Full Disney Queen and Disney Princess In Waiting are fitted more tightly than we’re used to seeing. I wouldn’t go so far as to describe them as late 19th-century bodycon, but they’re a fraction too figure-skimming to be thought of alongside the very full skirts we’ve been used to seeing this season. In fact, these gowns make the usual bustles and full skirts look just a smidge frumpy by comparison.

Mrs. Winterton: Foiled Disney Villainess

Mrs. Winterton, Foiled Disney Villainess, is trying to anticipate what Bertha is likely to wear, and then not quite hitting the mark. She’s done this one or two other times this season, it just doesn’t work, and I think I’ve figured out why. Where Bertha’s trademark power clashing of unexpected prints or colors always looks daring without coming off as weird, Mrs. Winterton’s efforts make her look like a person chasing someone else’s personal style without developing one of her own. There’s nothing wrong with the elements of her gown; many of its features are interesting and effective. There are just too many of them, leading to a look that’s a little too fussy to work, which aptly reflects Mrs. Winterton’s disposition. 

The three-dimensional deep rose-colored flowers and applique elements atop the main fabric of silvery-ecru silk satin brocade would work if they were used more sparingly. The most successful aspect of the dress is its good use of color blocking to draw the eye to her tiny waist. The not-quite-right-ness of Mrs. Winterton’s gown mirrors the not-quite-right-ness of the box she and Mr. Winterton have been assigned, which is two off from the center box. Clever!

Aurora Fane: Exactly Right

At the opposite end of the nailed-it-or-not spectrum, Aurora Fane (Kelli O’Hara) is incapable of not looking Exactly Right. Her final gown of the season is a perfect example of this underrated skill. In ivory silk brocade, this dress is so pretty, featuring oversized and stylized Japonesque chrysanthemums in pale hydrangea blue. Some lightly beaded fabric swoops vertically down her skirt for little pops of shimmeriness. Maybe Aurora happens to love those fabrics, but her gown choice also visually underscores her decision to ally herself with Bertha and the Metropolitan Opera.

Marian Brook: A Kiss Of Yellow

Marian Brook’s (Louisa Jacobson) dress is both beautiful and does nothing for me. The neckline is perfect, and the gown fits perfectly, but there’s something ever so slightly off about the shade of yellow used here. It’s a shade or two too acidic for her to look like a lovely daffodil. I do like how the placement of the mauve belt echoes the wide, low v-neck. 

Mrs. Bruce: A Woman of a Certain Age

The person I’m most thrilled to see simply having a wonderful opera time is Mrs. Bruce (Celia Keenan-Bolger). Her dress – maroon velveteen and taffeta with tulle cap sleeves, floral tulle ruffles at the slight v-neck, and plenty of beading – signals her status as a very respectable Woman Of A Certain Age with genteel, slightly old-fashioned taste. She looks at ease in the gown, if not in the specific venue, but none of that matters at all, because Mr. Boden (Douglas Sills) kisses her hand, and it’s so sweet and genuinely romantic that if George and Bertha do have some kind of longer-term crisis in their relationship next season, I will be all the way in on these two, who I’m calling B-Squared.

The Astor Capes

We don’t see much of Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) and Carrie Astor’s (Amy Forsyth) gowns; their capes are the real stars of the show as they descend the steps of their house, accompanied by Mr. McAllister (Nathan Lane). Mrs. Astor’s cape has a Dowager Countess vibe and is a magnificent gold-and-ivory number featuring all-lace sleeves and lace appliqué. Her daughter Carrie’s dress is a bit more visible and is a lovely shade of apricot. Her Floral Riot cape is a snowy white satin with painted-on tulips in rich and deeply pigmented shades of red, orange, yellow, and green. The overall look is playful, youthful, and aspirational, with a hint of Vera Neumann’s exuberant graphic sensibility.

Mrs Van Rhijn & Mrs. Fish: Perfect Matrons

Mrs. Van Rhijn’s (Christine Baranski) gown is in a very pale silvery shade somewhere between eggshell and medium eggshell, features lots of black-and-silver beading, and a waist-length capelet. Mrs. Fish (Ashlie Atkinson), who abandons the Academy for the Metropolitan upon seeing what a social ghost town it is, also always seems to be the person having the most fun wherever she goes. I love the black lace and chiffon layered over the pure white main fabric of her gown, and the yellow accents strike just the right balance of restrained and exuberant. Brava!

That’s a wrap on Carrie Coon’s Costume Corner for The Gilded Age’s second season. Thank you for reading – if you’ve had even a fraction of the fun reading these columns as I’ve had writing them, you’ve had a great eight weeks. Let’s do this again next season!