Carrie Coon’s Costume Corner: 'The Gilded Age's “Head to Head”

Welcome back to Carrie Coon’s Costume Corner, our Gilded Age column covering exclusively Carrie Coon’s costumes in her role as the beautiful and socially ambitious nouveau riche matron Bertha Russell. Series costume designer Kasia Walicka Maimone’s costumes for other characters are fascinating and worthy of conversation, but Bertha’s gowns are more adventurous, more exuberant, more statement-making, more everything.

In “Head to Head,” Bertha wears four ensembles — three dresses and one set of sleepwear — and I’ve chosen to mix things up a bit by choosing her most casual look for Gown of the Week.

I chose Bertha x Renoir (or "Renoir, But Make It Fashion") for this episode’s Gown of the Week because we so rarely see Bertha out of battle dress that it’s worth noting. Because she’s seated on a settee in her bedroom, we don’t get to see this look from head to toe, but what we do see is lovely. settee in her bedroom, we don’t get a head-to-toe glimpse of the ensemble. This ensemble is a matching dressing gown and nightgown set in ecru silk charmeuse, with a wide broderie collar and cuffs. The dressing gown also features tiny, sewn-down pleats from the center to the side seam, a lovely detail, and a reminder of how much work actual human hands put into creating it.