Winterthur and Downton Abbey II

Winterthur Museum,Garden, and Library

Downton Abbey Costume Exhibit

To The Exhibit

When Nana Kestrel and her friends arrived we took the tram over to the house. The container gardens at the entrance were very pretty.

Then it was upstairs to the exhibit! The docents told us that we could take pictures. Yay! All of them were very nice to me. Many of the other visitors were as well.

The cast portraits greet you.

Lady Edith’s wedding episode was so sad, but everyone looked so lovely. The boards discussed how the costumes came to be. The costume designers here started with bits of vintage clothing and branched out from there to make a full costume.

Sometimes you don’t see all the details on TV. Like the train of the wedding gown. The train is vintage and the hem of the dress was created to match.

It was warm enough that we could have been in summer dresses.

Aren’t they pretty? I liked these a lot.

We don’t hunt, but the hunting tweeds were really nice. Lady Rosamund’s is awesome. (Did you know that the actress playing Lady Rosamund was Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond’s Moneypenny?)

One of the really neat things about the exhibit is that it compared life at Downton to what was actually happening during that time period at Winterthur. During those years it was the manor house and working farm of the DuPont family. This was their tea set and favorite tea blend (in the red box). You can’t tell from here, but the sugar cubes are really Styrofoam with glitter to make them sparkle like sugar would.

This board showed us the information about the DuPont’s preferred tea.

In the box we could see what the tea blend looked like and smell it. It was really smoky smelling. I bet it made a really strong cup of tea.

Matthew’s proposal was another favorite episode. Mary’s dress reminds me of garnets. So lovely and rich in color.

At the Exhibit store, I met two very pretty friends. They were helping to sell Downton Abbey and period inspired wares. Violet’s dress is really pretty. We chatted about tea for a few minutes.

So was Rose’s. Rose liked her spot by the fashions. She had fun watching the ladies try on all the different hats.

I took a moment to rest on this pretty chair. But Xyra saw some other woman pick me up to get a better look at the pillows. So she made sure I stayed close after that.

The staircase was beautiful!

More tomorrow!

Have a great day!

Best wishes,

 

Additional helpful links:
Visiting Downton

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