How one ‘incredibly inappropriate’ dress perfectly sums up ‘The Gilded Age’ finale

The next comprises spoilers from the Season 1 finale of “The Gilded Age.”

“I’m anxious that it might be too small,” says Bertha Russell, the socially bold spouse of a railroad tycoon on the heart of HBO’s “The Gilded Age.” “New cash” incarnate, Mrs. Russell (Carrie Coon) is speaking to her workers concerning the opulent ball she’s internet hosting to christen her Fifth Avenue property and, she hopes, attain New York society’s interior circle. Will town’s notables attend the extravagant occasion? And — extra essential — what is going to she put on?

These questions are answered in Monday’s season finale: With a little bit of strategic intimidation, Bertha secures the attendance of Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) and, by extension, the remainder of the hard-to-please elite — together with her elusive neighbors, Agnes Van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon).

Bertha hosts the affair in a show-stopping black-and-white ball robe, adorned with leaf-shaped appliqués and lined with a whimsical periwinkle chiffon. (All paired with jewels that echo the railroad empire constructed by her dashing husband, performed by Morgan Spector.)

The match is edgy for each its extremely graphic nature and for what’s below her corresponding cape: asymmetrical sleeves, the left of which is voluminous in form, whereas the suitable is a single sliver of cloth.

“There was an extended, heated debate in my becoming about whether or not or not she might get away with that tiny sleeve with no scandal,” recollects Coon. “On the time, it was extremely inappropriate for a girl to have a sleeveless robe, as a result of that might [mean] you had been a courtesan, a prostitute. I used to be advocating for some lady to return into the ball and gasp after they noticed my naked arm! It was breathtaking. I liked it.”

The truth that most of Bertha’s apparel this season has been far more vibrant in shade makes her final look all of the extra significant.

“Bertha is discovering this language of glamour and what it seems to be like on this new world that her husband is creating, and since she has an infinite sum of money, there’s an journey and a boldness inside her model, and a extra rapid embrace of recent concepts,” says costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone. “However she additionally desperately needs to develop into a part of this society of girls, and he or she might be attempting to impress them greater than vice versa.”

For the ball, “I went for these tremendous gentle colours in order that Bertha matches throughout the aesthetics of the ball, as a result of the thought was that she is lastly a part of the world that she’s been attempting to interrupt into,” Walicka-Maimone provides. “Nonetheless, the black appliqué nonetheless attracts consideration and makes her stand aside from all people else.”

“There’s an journey and a boldness inside her model, and a extra rapid embrace of recent concepts,” says costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone of Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon).

(Alison Cohen Rosa / HBO)

A mere sampling of the season’s 5,000-plus costumes, Bertha’s robes had been normally adorned with glistening beaded fringe, billowing feather preparations and hats so tall that the highest of the carriage needed to be eliminated to ensure that Coon to not have to tilt her head sideways. Such elaborations not solely illustrated the interval’s opulence — “The sum of money they spent on their clothes was limitless, so we needed to discover tips to point out that with out really spending that type of cash on every outfit,” says Walicka-Maimone — but additionally drew the viewers’s eye away from Coon’s being pregnant.

“I used to be already displaying, so my waist is about six inches too excessive, and so they added extra quantity to ensure they may conceal my being pregnant as a lot as they probably might,” says Coon with amusing. “Everytime you see Bertha in a flowery cape, you possibly can relaxation assured that it was shot within the final two weeks of filming. It was type of a wild factor for costumes to have to determine the place to place my boobs, as they saved getting greater!”

There was an added good thing about Coon’s being pregnant too: “As a result of I used to be carrying tennis footwear and no corset, I used to be probably the most snug lady on set,” she says. “So there’s nearly one thing concerning the seems to be that relaxes in a method, that makes me consider a lady who’s discovered her voice, who’s in her energy and power. And her seems to be nearly cool down into one thing that’s very emblematic of her.”

Since capturing the bash required a prolonged shoot with an ensemble of dancers, the forged killed time by displaying off their outfits for one another with an impromptu vogue present.

“It was magnificent when everybody got here out of their dressing room to see what everybody was carrying, like going to an precise ball,” Coon recollects. “We had had type of a wacky evening, so by the point the actors really went onto the ballroom flooring, folks simply saved laughing hysterically and bumping into everybody. We didn’t shoot that very lengthy, and I actually can’t imagine they obtained a usable take as a result of it simply felt like chaos.”

The Russells — performed by Morgan Spector and Carrie Coon — in “The Gilded Age.”

(Alison Cohen Rosa / HBO)

Walicka-Maimone is presently making ready costumes for Season 2 and guarantees that the sequence is simply getting began: “Since Season 1 was such a large studying course of on the best way to make this huge present, now we all know it and might actually play.” For her half, Coon hopes Bertha’s unapologetic luxurious has been an entertaining escape for viewers right now.

“There’s nothing fallacious with one thing that’s aesthetically lovely, to have a look at simply on this second,” she says. “All of us want these hours away from the chaos that’s the world we’re residing in proper now.”