Carrie Coon’s Costume Corner: “His Grace the Duke”

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.

Bertha wears five dresses in “His Grace The Duke,” and two of them are so impressive that it was quite a challenge to choose between them so that one Gown of the Week could rule them all; however, in the end, the award went to Elevated Pewter and Bronze.

At first, I thought this dress was a celebration of silver and gold, and that was awesome because who cares about not mixing precious metals? After rewinding and pausing many times to catalog details of Bertha’s gown when she and George (now happily reconciled) attend a reception welcoming the Duke of Buckingham, I would describe it as a celebration of elevated pewter and bronze. If that sounds like an insult, as if Bertha broke out her second-best silver for guests she doesn’t think much of, please think again.