𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵 𝓔𝔁𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 (2017) 𝘋𝘪𝘳. 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤 𝘋𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯

I'm tempted to say that this movie hasn't had quite the exposition outside of Europe, even among history nerds. Which is unfortunate because The Royal Exchange (or l'echange des princesses) is really good, especially if you enjoy early 18th-century royal marriage matchmaking and dueling etiquettes. The movie is based on Mariana Victoria of Spain, who was engaged to French King Louis XV; and Louise Elisabeth d’Orléans, daughter of the French regent who was married to Spanish King Louis I. I'll keep this section brief because I find the story interesting and don't want to spoil it for anybody who might want to watch it! So onto the costumes...

Fabio Perrone was the costume designer for this film and I couldn't find out much about him, however it seems he's worked on quite a few historical-era films. Which makes me a bit confused, as most of the costuming was not era-appropriate. The story is set in the 1720s but the clothes... aren't. So let's just watch the movie pretending it's the late 1700s or early 1800s or some sort of mishmash between the both and move on!
That aside, there were some very very lovely costume choices that I really enjoyed! For one, menswear was done well! There's a scene where Louis XV is wearing a blue velvet coat trimmed with leopard fur for hunting
Which is such a lovely detail as leopard fur was very popular during this era! Here's a few portraits for reference:

And just look at those buttons Duc de Conde is wearing!

Overall, the men were dressed super well and it was really nice to look at every detail! The women weren't as lucky, besides the gorgeous outerwear most of the other clothes were 50/50 on whether they'd be accurate or just a weird mess.

Like WHAT is going on here?

And what the heck are 16th century long sleeves doing here? This only works if she's secretly a time traveller.
However there was also really nice pieces of costuming and some lovely embroidered details throughout the movie. I loved how cute and accurate Marianna's court dresses were and she wore really gorgeous antiques like this embroidered cap!

As for the hairstyles, it was a mixed bag again. With Marianne being seemingly the only one who'd ever seen a comb. Also saw some 17th century wigs. Maybe my time traveller theory is not so crazy...

A detail I enjoyed was the frequent use of veils which was popular for Spanish and French courts of the time.

My final verdict: 17-18th century mismash and a bit of a mess at times but good film overall with some pretty costuming!

𝓙𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓮 𝓓𝓾 𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓻𝔂 (2023) 𝘋𝘪𝘳. 𝘔𝘢ï𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘯 We really owe Madame du Barry an apology... Where does one even start with this movie? I will try to keep the subject of this review focused on the clothing but everything from the casting to the director's questionable choices on womanhood and feminism is just cause for concern.
To start off, Jeanne was known for her beauty, pale hair and doll-like features across all of Versailles. She started as the bastard daughter of a seamstress and worked her way up to being a countess as well as the king's mistress, before being brutally guillotined during the Reign of Terror. To say she had an interesting life, is to be modest.
I really wish the casting for Jeanne du Barry had been done smarter, I just can't see Maiwenn in this role. Or Johnny Depp and his questionable stubble, for that matter. The movie also really ...remodelled her character into something unrecognizable. In reality she was known to be kind, quiet and shy. I think this film was frankly more of a self-insert of the director rather than a film that tries to recreate Jeanne's life.


But let's move onto the costuming. The main costumer seems to have been Jürgen Doering who has mostly worked on contemporary-set films and most of Jeanne's dresses were Chanel. I... do not know where to begin. I think most clothing was made by people who have never owned or researched 18th century fashion. Even from the trailer I had my doubts.

No you haven't accidentally stumbled on a Madonna video. This modern bustier, bustle-era neckline and 1990s fascinator is what they tried to sell as 18th century.
Even ignoring obvious homages to previous film (like the one scene that referenced Coppola's Marie Antoinette) the rest of the film just stumbles and falls awkwardly. There is one scene where she wore what I could only think of as a pillbox hat...and I'm sure they weren't referencing Elizabeth II. Seriously what is this?

In truth, Jeanne in the film has very few scenes where she is presentable. In most scenes she's shown without any hair pins, with wild hair, beachy waves and TAPERED HAIR!!
To me, these mistakes go beyond "oh this is just a unique take on the historical period" straight to "they either did not know or did not care about what they were doing". There were also other, smaller inconsistencies, like Louis XV having scenes with his long hair down even though men of the era kept their hair short to be able to wear wigs. But that should be the least of this film's worries. The backgrouond characters were actually decent if you overlook that some of the garments and hairstyles were from wildly different periods of history.

Overall way too many eras were mixed together and I only have energy to critique Jeanne's questionable fashion choices in the film. My final verdict: save yourself the trouble and stay home and watch something else.

𝓜𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓶𝓸𝓲𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓮 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓼 (2017) 𝘋𝘪𝘳. 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘢 𝘈𝘭𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘵

I'm gonna be doing a lot of nitpicking with future entries so why not talk about a film I actually thought was decent with their costuming! Mademoiselle Paradis is a very pretty Austrian film that explores themes of identity, art, and freedom. It's set in 18th century Vienna, and tells the story of one Maria Theresia von Paradis, a young pianist who lost her sight at an early age and her treatment by (the kooky and controversial) doctor Franz Mesmer.
The costumes are designed by Veronika Albert, who mostly works on contemporary-set costumes rather than historical ones. That said I think she gets the era(1776-1777) of the film pretty right and uses appropriate fabric and silhouettes. I did notice a lot of robes à la française and very blatant machine-embroidered garments but that's something that is par for the course these days when it comes to historical films.

Some of the trimming and details were very exaggerated and felt clumsy and I had to side eye Franz Mesmer's colorful attire and very odd flower details.

However I thought the extras looked pretty good! With these movies it's typically the background characters that shine with the historical accuracy. Sigh...

and honestly bravo to the hairstyle choices! They were overall very well and beautifully done. Even the clunky wigs that Paradis sometimes wears worked in her favor, to demonstrate the oppressive influence her mother has in her life.

My final verdict: if the story interests you and you want to see some very well made and beautiful, (overall) historically accurate costuming... go see this!