In the HBO drama The Gilded Age, fashion is not just costume—it is narrative armor. Costume designer Kasia Walicka‑Maimone meticulously researched late‑19th‑century sartorial art to craft each character’s identity through fabric, silhouette, and color.
Drawing inspiration from period fashion plates, archival photographs, and leading Paris couture, she created more than 5,000 costumes in season one alone. These ranged from bespoke gowns for principal characters to stock‑house outfits for the extras.
Walicka‑Maimone embraced the era’s structural undergarments—corsets, petticoats, and bustles—and “organic draping,” ensuring actresses moved within historically accurate shapes while allowing dramatic modern touches. She describes her process as building architectural silhouettes that honored history but also sparked visual excitement for today’s audience.
Character Through Costume
Fashion delineates social worlds in The Gilded Age. Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon) and Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski), the “old guard,” inhabit quiet power through muted jewel tones, velvets, and lace. Asymmetrical draperies and bold artificial dyes in metallics and vibrant hues, on the other hand, symbolize ambition and audacity for Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), who represents new money.
Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), a journalist challenging gender and racial norms, begins in humble plaids and earth tones before her wardrobe shifts to professional stripes and richer browns as she advances. This wardrobe arc reflects not only her character development but also a rare portrayal of African‑American middle‑class fashion of the era.
Historical Foundations: Haute Couture and Undergarments
The gowns reflect the extravagance of the time and the influence of haute couture pioneer Charles Frederick Worth. His legacy echoes through the show’s emphasis on opulent fabrics, fine tailoring, and dramatic silhouettes intended to impress.
Meanwhile, underpinnings were vital. Corsets and bustles were not merely aesthetic. They dictated posture, movement, and the architecture of every outfit.
Real‑Life Inspirations Behind the Fiction
Many characters in The Gilded Age have roots in real New York socialites:
- Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) draws from Caroline Schermerhorn Astor.
. Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) is modeled after Alva Vanderbilt, a woman whose lavish spending and social maneuvering forced her acceptance into the old-money elite. She built events like her daughter’s wedding to secure her family’s place in society.
- Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) reflects Consuelo Vanderbilt, who was coerced into a high‑status marriage with the Duke of Marlborough, despite personal unhappiness—an arc echoed in the show’s recent wedding storyline.
- Ward McAllister is depicted authentically as Mrs. Astor’s social arbiter and Newport promoter, his traits and role preserved rather than renamed.
Additional figures like Mamie Fish, the witty party‑thrower, and Arabella Huntington, whose scandalous second marriage excluded her from polite society, shape the fictional flavor of characters like Sylvia Chamberlin as well.
Reception: Accuracy and Artistic License
Fans and historians alike have praised the realism and grandeur of the costumes, noting especially the accuracy of Marian’s season finale dress, reminiscent of historical gowns photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Others caution that some looks feel more like modern “eye candy” than pure period recreation—even sleeveless bodices have drawn criticism for feeling overly stylized or anachronistic.
Nonetheless, most agree the effort is astonishing: from extras’ outfits to star gowns, costumes are thoroughly researched across the board.
In The Gilded Age, costume design achieves more than period flavor—it narrates wealth, rank, rebellion, and identity. Through historically grounded research and cinematic enhancement, Walicka‑Maimone creates a vivid tapestry of old‑money restraint, nouveau‑riche spectacle, and individual character arcs. Paired with real-life stories from the era, this creates a richly layered visual experience that brings The Gilded Age to life, illuminating history, culture and drama that is inspiring to us all
