Welcome!

Welcome to the new home of Costume Quibbles!  I've decided to separate this blog from my personal one, which you can view here.

The purpose of this blog is to analyze costumes from TV and film with an eye to how the costuming informs the plot and vice versa. Sometimes that's very obvious--black means death in Western culture, for example, but sometimes it's more subtle because it's contained within the framework of a particular work. Tom and Lorenzo have a great blog about the costumes on "Mad Men" where they tease out the significance of colors to characters (Peggy's "power" color is golden yellow, etc.) that the show's amazing costumer, Janie Bryant, has set for the show. Most costumers aren't working at that level of meaning, but on a long-running series, the characters do usually get their own "look", and of course, culture and tradition go a long way in informing why we wear what we do, so the field is ripe with possibilities!

I started Quibbling with "Downton Abbey", and I've still got a long ways to go with that (3 seasons!), but I have updated those posts with dozens of new photos and a few small edits, so please be sure to go back and check them out even if you've already read them! Then, when I'm finished at Downton, I hope you'll join me for "Game of Thrones", "Upstairs, Downstairs" (the new version), "The Paradise", "Mr. Selfridge", and more! If there's a series or movie you'd like me to Quibble over, please let me know in the comments.

I appreciate every one of you who clicks over to check out the site, and I hope you'll enjoy the new look and the new posts!