I hope you are watching Downton Abbey on PBS Masterpiece; if not, get on it! I REALLY loved the series — it was an Edwardian “Gosford Park” (written by the same screenwriter, of course). The story goes in interesting directions that I didn’t always suspect, Maggie Smith is hilariously fabulous, and the costumes are faaaabulous (although I thought that characters wore their clothes for longer — ie years — than I would have expected; for example, the eldest daughter rewears a particular blouse over the span of 2-3 years. It seems like fashion would have changed faster than that in the Edwardian era?).
Anyway, if you’d like to drool over some images of the costumes, Enchanted Serenity of Period Films has a great series of posts; start with this one and then browse around! Thanks to Bess/myladyswardrobe for the link, a few months back.
Ha, Lady Mary’s storyline in particular threw me a curve ball early on that I really wasn’t expecting! The fit of her clothes irked me a bit – maybe there just wasn’t enough of her to create a more S-bendy silhouette – but there were some gorgeous things, especially on the youngest sister and on Elizabeth McGovern imo. And the bits-of-floaty-nothingness evening dresses were divine….
The S-bend went out with Poiret’s new silhouette of c. 1908-1909. The look was very straight and narrow and is shown well in the younger girls’ wardrobes. The only lady in the series that seems to retain the S-bend is Lady Violet Grantham– a very conservative traditionalist.