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The 9 best pieces and their stories in Delaware's 'Costuming The Crown' exhibit

Betsy Price
The News Journal

 

A coat that wouldn't stay properly dyed. A fat suit that had to be defatted as the show went on. A ceremonial robe so heavy a mannequin had to be reinforced to support it for nine months.

Sewn into the taffeta, silk and period details of the costumes from "The Crown" now on display at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library are colorful behind-the-scenes stories from the hit Netflix series.

"Costuming The Crown," the new exhibit at Winterthur looks at how costume designers help create the realism in a show that chronicles the early years of Queen Elizabeth's life, from her marriage into middle age.

What's in it?

The 40 outfits in the show are culled from the first and second seasons. Michele Clapton, who designed the first season, and Jane Petrie, who designed the second, were in Delaware this weekend to see the exhibit and talk to reporters.

"It was like seeing old friends," Clapton said. Both won a mantel full of awards for their work. Some of Clapton's work was lost after her season filmed, but by the second season, producers knew they had a hit on their hands and hung onto Petrie's costumes.

Here are nine stories behind the best pieces.

The reproduction of Queen Elizabeth's gold coronation robe welcomes guests to "Costuming The Crown," Winterthur Museum's new exhibit featuring clothes from the hit Netflix show.

No. 1: The gold robe

Told in four sections, the exhibit opens with "Establishing Roles," devoted to the luxurious outfits that Elizabeth and Philip wore to her coronation. Her white gown is covered with an embroidered gold robe. His robe is a bright-red velvet with a white-and-black fur mantle. Replicas of their crowns are nearby.

But under that gold robe is a scaffolding built to hold everything up because the mannequin couldn't do it alone, said Linda Eaton, Winterthur's director of collections and senior curator of textiles.

"Being queen is an endurance test," said Winterthur estate historian Jeff Grof. "And the crown is heavy, too."

The wedding dresses of Princess Margaret, left, and Princess Elizabeth, right, are among the 40 costumes from the Emmy award-winning Netflix series, "The Crown" now on exhibit at Winterthur.

No. 2: The wedding dresses

Clapton says the wedding dresses of Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth perfectly illustrate how the world was changing outside the palace – and how the designer used clothes to illustrate that.

Seen in the exhibit's second section, "Dressing the Part," Elizabeth's gown is a traditional ballroom cut covered in heavy beading. Margaret's is sleek, spare and modern (think Meghan Markle marrying Prince Harry). 

The clothes in "Dressing the Part" are faithful copies of actual gowns, although Margaret's had to be altered to accommodate actress Vanessa Kirby, who was 7 inches taller than the 5-foot princess. Actress Claire Foy was close to the height and size of Elizabeth.

Throughout the show, Margaret's clothing contrasts with Elizabeth's, hinting at changing fashions and behaviors. 

No. 3: The duke's suit, duchess' dress

Grof says his favorite piece is the 1930s windowpane suit worn by the Duke of Windsor. Eaton says hers is the peach dress paired with it, worn by the Duchess of Windsor character.

Grof likes the suit partly because it illustrates the fashion from the time period in which Winterthur became the storied country estate that Henry Francis du Pont wanted it to be.

Eaton likes the cut, shape and color of the dress, which Clapton says was inspired by the sleek style of Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli. It was worn in the show with a black jacket and broach, but Eaton said it didn't look right on the mannequin, so they left it off. 

Designer Jane Petrie's original motorcycle coat for Princess Margaret, center, and the spare for a stand-in, right. The spare had to be redyed every night after shooting. The clothes are on display in "Costuming The Crown' at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library from Saturday, March 30, through Jan. 5, 2020.

No 4: Margaret's motorcycle coat

When Petrie chose a brown-and-orange mohair fabric for a coat for Princess Margaret in season two, she didn't realize she'd need to create another coat for a stand-in.

The two coats, which are is seen in the exhibit's third section, "Creating Character," were worn while the actress and her stand-in filmed a motorcycle ride by Margaret and husband Antony Armstrong-Jones. 

The material had sold out by the time Petrie realized she needed more, so she ordered a similar pattern for the stand-in, and her staff dyed it to look like the original. It came back from the first night of shooting looking like it had before it was dyed. So the staff redyed it, only to have it happen every night of shooting as the dye soaked into the material.

A reproduction of Winston Churchill's dinner jacket is among the clothes in the  "Costuming The Crown" exhibit at Winterthur Museum.

No. 5: King George's uniform

"The Crown" employed a military attire expert to make sure the men's uniforms were precise. 

King George's uniform, worn covered in ribbons, medals and more, is an example why. 

The connection between the royal family and the military is so strong that British viewers often know what is right and what isn't. Some of the medals can be worn onlyat certain times or ceremonies, the designers and curators said.

"Costuming The Crown" at Winterthur includes John Lithgow's dinner suit and the fat suit he wore to play the well-rounded Winston Churchill.

No. 6: Churchill's tux and fat suit

Right next to the dinner tuxedo that John Lithgow wore as Winston Churchill is the fat suit he wore to appear as well-rounded as the prime minister. Adding to the fun of costuming Lithgow was the little detail that he is a slim 6-foot-4 and Churchill was 5-foot-6.

Clapton's fat suit for Lithgow included an open hole in the genital region for necessary activities. On the Winterthur mannequin, though, that hole was so distracting, the curators covered it with a fig leaf made of matching material. 

Allie Elwell of "The Crown" production company Left Bank Pictures said she texted Lithgow a photo of the suit in the exhibit, and he thought it was hilarious.

As "The Crown" season wore on, Lithgow contorted himself more and more to create the character of Churchill and the fat suit had to be defatted, or it looked funny in the filming, Elwell said.

No. 7: The Queen's floral dress

For a scene in which Philip and the queen are arguing, Clapton designed a large strong floral material and made Elizabeth a fit-and-flare dress that would be welcome in today's closets.

The large print and strong colors are designed to underscore the queen's strength and determination, the designers said.

This crown was among the bling from the Netflix series "The Crown" on display at Winterthur. The exhibit closed in January. Winterthur officials hoped the exhibition would be as popular as its Downton Abbey exhibition a few years earlier.

No. 8: Your pick of the bling

The coronation crowns. The wedding crowns. Tiaras left and right. And then up and down. For all the jewels worn by Queen Mary, and for Queen Mary, Eaton said, more was more.

Eaton says that the television show was able to borrow some of the official reproductions of the crown jewels to use in the show. 

The exhibit is careful to tell visitors that all the bling in the exhibit is a reproduction. 

No. 9: The queen and Jackie Kennedy

The show chronicles the visit of President John and Jackie Kennedy to Britain in 1961 and includes a discussion of what the queen will wear. Jackie was already known for her chic style, and the queen already was feeling irrelevant and out of fashion.

The show re-creates the queen's frothy tiered tulle gown but adds a new capelike back to Jackie's sleek blue silk Chez Ninon gown.

Eaton says the series wanted to add interest to the simple gown as the queen shows Jackie around Buckingham Palace.

 

 

Why this show is at Winterthur?

The topic doesn't seem at first blush to be a natural fit for H.F. du Pont's Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, which celebrates early American antiques and design. The estate's 2014 exhibit about the clothes of "Downtown Abbey" dovetailed the story of the fictional British country house with Winterthur's history as a real American one.

Yet, Winterthur Carol Cadou said Friday that the museum realizes that costumes, textiles and crafts often introduce people to history and art. And not only does Winterthur focus on the conservation of textiles, it also teaches a master's level program with the University of Delaware in materials conservation.

That history of conservation will also inform Winterthur's choice of future exhibitions. One is expected to focus on Erica Wilson, whose needlework is hailed as genius. Another will look at Ann Lowe, an African American clothing designer who made Jackie Kennedy's gown when she married John F. Kennedy.

The exhibit — the first big show of "The Crown" costumes — came about after Winterthur borrowed the series' coronation gown for a one-off exhibit during the 2017 holiday season. When Winterthur curators approached Michele Clapton, who was so pleased with how the estate handled the gown, about a bigger exhibit, she helped get it going. 

If you go

WHAT: Winterthur Museum's "Costuming The Crown"

WHERE: Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, 5105 Kennett Pike

WHEN: March 30-Jan 5, 2020; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday

TICKETS: $20 adults; $18 for students and seniors; $6 for ages 2-11. Prices rise slightly the week of Thanksgiving until Jan. 5.

FOR MORE INFO: Call (302) 888-4600 or go to winterthur.org.

Contact Betsy Price at 302-324-2884 or beprice@delawareonline.com.