You might, like us, be captivated by HBO's recent series The Gilded Age—and if so, you've witnessed fashion's ultimate power play. The show captures a fundamental truth about America's most ostentatious era: your wardrobe was your weapon.
Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner coined the term "Gilded Age" in their 1873 novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, referring to something covered with gold—a perfect metaphor for an era where gleaming surfaces concealed harsh realities. From Reconstruction's end through the early twentieth century, rapid industrialization created dramatic class divisions. While the wealthy lived in unprecedented luxury, the working class struggled in poverty.
For those fortunate enough to possess wealth, displaying it became not just an opportunity but a necessity. An affluent person's appearance transcended beauty—it served as crucial armor for maintaining social and economic status. Every silk gown, every jeweled accessory, every carefully chosen detail communicated power in a language everyone understood.
The series masterfully portrays these unforgiving social standards and the intricate rules governing them. Reflecting on period pieces in the M.S. Rau collection, we explore how the show's meticulous costume design reconstructs the cultural atmosphere of the Gilded Age—and how reality's glamour often surpassed even television's lavish imagination.
What The Show Got Right
Fashion
Fans of The Gilded Age are mesmerized by the show's cinematically recreated opulent wardrobes—but how faithfully do these stunning costumes reflect historical reality? The series demonstrates remarkable attention to period detail, particularly in capturing the era's most significant fashion evolution.
By 1870, women's fashion underwent a dramatic transformation with the introduction of the bustle—a revolutionary shift from the symmetrically rounded crinoline silhouette to a profile emphasizing dramatic fullness at the back. The show authentically portrays this foundational structure, along with the "princess line" trend that dominated the 1880s. Influenced by European haute couture, this sophisticated style featured multi-layered dresses crafted from various luxurious fabrics.
These elaborate designs demanded innovation in undergarments. To support the increased volume and weight of multiple layers, corsetiers incorporated stronger materials, including steel boning and strategic cushioning—engineering marvels hidden beneath yards of silk and satin.
| La femme aux fleurs by Paul César Helleu. 1859-1927. Pastel on linen. M.S. Rau. |
Jewelry
Brooches, cameo sets, and elaborate earrings drew inspiration from the finest European designs, as America's elite looked to England and France for validation of their refined taste. This transatlantic influence, combined with the Arts and Crafts movement's revival of handmade artistry over mass production, intensified demand for rare and exceptional jewelry.
The craftsmanship required was extraordinary. Consider our Antique Burma Ruby and Diamond Necklace—a masterpiece of hand-forged artistry featuring luminous crimson gems encircled by brilliant white diamonds. Such pieces exemplify the lavish jewels that became essential armor for women navigating high society's treacherous waters.
The Gilded Age captures this reality with remarkable accuracy. The production's jewelry accurately represents period craftsmanship, from intricate goldwork to diamond settings. Most tellingly, Gladys Russell's wedding tiara directly references Consuelo Vanderbilt's actual bridal crown—a piece that, according to biographical accounts, caused the young bride "violent headaches" while her restrictive "dog-collar" jewelry left her neck chafed and raw.
This discomfort reveals a profound truth: social pressure around jewelry often superseded personal comfort or desire. Women endured physical pain to meet society's expectations; their bodies were sacrificed to display family wealth and status.
| Antique Burma Ruby and Diamond Necklace. Circa 1880. Burma rubies (50 carats) with diamonds (30 carats) and a gold-over-silver setting. M.S. Rau. |
| Taissa Farmiga as Gladys Russell in The Gilded Age Season 3. (left) Source. |
| Consuelo Vanderbilt, the Duchess of Marlborough. 1905. (right) Source. |
What The Show Got Wrong
The Gilded Age series takes deliberate creative liberties with period wardrobes, using costume as visual storytelling to communicate character identities and create a more accessible narrative for contemporary audiences. While these choices serve dramatic purposes, they reveal fascinating contrasts with historical reality.
The Gilded Age indeed witnessed an explosion of color thanks to synthetic dyes, creating possibilities unknown to previous generations. However, the series employs patterns and color combinations far bolder than period sensibilities would have embraced. Dutch artist Otto Eerelman, renowned for his 19th-century society portraits, captures the era's actual aesthetic preferences in his outdoor scenes depicting fashionable crowds with their canine companions. His work reveals the refined restraint of authentic Gilded Age style: subtle floral motifs, delicate recognizable elements and sophisticated pastel palettes.
Consider Ms. Russell's striking blue gown from season two—featuring dramatic puffy sleeves and bold contrasting swirls and ribbons. While visually stunning and effective for television, this design represents significant artistic license by the show's costume team. The real Mrs. Russell would likely have chosen something far more understated, relying on fine fabrics and impeccable tailoring rather than eye-catching patterns to signal her status.
| Concours de Chiens au Promenade by Otto Eerelman. 1839-1926. Watercolor on paper. M.S. Rau. |
| Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector as Mr. and Mrs. Russell in The Gilded Age Season 2. Source. |
The series' creators also dramatically compressed fashion evolution, telescoping decades of style changes into a remarkably narrow timeframe. There was actually a more gradual transformation than the show suggests.
During the 1870s, daytime propriety demanded high necklines and formal double collars. Evening wear permitted lower décolletage, but followed strict conventions—fabric typically fell gracefully off both shoulders in prescribed patterns. The 1880s witnessed a conservative resurgence, with evening gowns adopting more modest V-shaped necklines. Only in the 1890s did fashion embrace true variety, allowing multiple neckline styles within a single day's wardrobe. This decade also popularized the voluminous sleeves in varying lengths that became signature elements of late Victorian style.
The Gilded Age timeline spans only two years, from 1882 in season one to 1884 in season three. Within this precise historical window, the show compresses fashion trends spanning three full decades, from 1870 to 1900. Viewers witness an impossible array: V-shaped necklines, off-shoulder designs, high collars, puffy sleeves and even avant-garde asymmetrical evening gowns like Marian's striking dress in season three, episode three.
These liberties serve dual purposes: the audience connects through familiar silhouettes while creating distinct visual identities for each character. The costume designers prioritized narrative clarity over chronological precision, understanding that fashion serves storytelling first, historical documentation second. The result is visually compelling television that captures the spirit of Gilded Age elegance, even if it bends the timeline to achieve dramatic effect.
| Louisa Jacobson as Marian Brook in The Gilded Age Season 3, Episode 3. |
Fashion Protocols in the Gilded Age
Despite its creative liberties, The Gilded Age accurately captures the era's stringent dress codes that governed every aspect of women's lives. In many ways, these mores were better understood as social commandments documented in exhaustive etiquette manuals that dictated precisely which colors, fabrics, sleeve lengths, décolletage and styles were acceptable for specific settings.
The daily ritual began with morning dress: lightweight, modest fabrics with conservative necklines and sleeve lengths for home activities. Afternoon brought a different dress, usually one with slightly bolder colors and accessories, while showcasing expensive materials like silk or taffeta. Dinner dress elevated luxury further with rich satins and velvets befitting the meal's formality.
Evening dress represented the pinnacle of extravagance—lower necklines, defined silhouettes enhanced by trains and bustles, elaborate embroidery and sumptuous fabrics like tulle and silk. Intricate hairstyles, gloves and fans completed the ensemble, transforming the wearer into a living advertisement of family wealth.
Specialized activities demanded their own costumes: walking dresses with prominent hats for public strolling, dark-colored traveling attire for practicality and propriety, riding habits with fitted jackets and long skirts for equestrian pursuits. French artist Louis Auguste Georges Loustaunau's watercolor of passengers boarding a ship exemplifies the somber elegance expected of traveling dress—dark fabrics that concealed while still conveying refinement.
Most intimate were tea gowns—elegant robes worn without corsets in private settings, representing the only respite from the day's sartorial armor. This constant changing served as both burden and privilege, demonstrating that a family possessed sufficient resources to maintain such elaborate wardrobes and the staff to assist with multiple daily transformations.
| Boarding the Ship for New York by Auguste Loustaunau. 1846-1898. Watercolor on paper. M.S. Rau. |
The Real Social Impact
While The Gilded Age series embraces creative liberty in costume design, the actual era's fashion represented anything but freedom. Women were adorned in magnificent prisons—veiled in opulence that masked profound daily constraints.
M.S. Rau’s collection preserves this complex reality. Gilded Age fashion was about creativity, while it also symbolized the architecture of rigid social hierarchy. Every garment embodied pressure to maintain reputation and family standing. When we admire these pieces today, we witness both pinnacle craftsmanship and remnants of a society that often measured a woman's worth through constraints.
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