Beth March 1994 vs 2019 costume analysis

 

Beth March, sweet, unassuming, gentle Beth... This dear girl is the last of the March sisters in my Little Women comparison/analysis series. Naturally we have low expectations of fashion with Beth being a shy girl, rather wishing to stay at home a lot of the time. L.M Alcott did however describe Beth wearing a scarlet wrapper in the later half of Little Women, also in a separate book called Good Wives. Now that is interesting, because I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Victorians thought red was a warming, healthy colour that could improve the health of the wearer. Now with Beth's ill health, the choice of a red wrapper has an especial meaning which you can take or leave. 

In this scene it is portrayed as summertime so Beth's cotton print dress makes perfect sense you cannot see much in this picture, but notice the sleeve seam drops off the edge of the shoulder in the 1860s it was fashionable to have low shoulder seams to give a rounded look and also to help make the illusion of a smaller waist.

Ahh, I love this; hand-me-downs would be a definite thing to do in a poorer 1860s family and often old gowns were remade to fit the new fashions in fact this is what Meg wanted to do with Marmee's old violet silk when she went to stay with the Gardiners but there wasn't time to make it over so she left it. 

Again the low shoulders of  the 1860s are accurate I've not done much research on aprons/pinafores but her lace collar is very nice.

Another printed cotton dress. I think perhaps the costumer wanted to emphasise Beth's homey shy nature by having a homey cotton print.

Here she wears a cloak with scarlet trimming. I have another interesting note about red/scarlet. Jo also wears red/scarlet and is also Beth's closest sister and confidante, while both Meg and Amy wear blue and are close. It seems that maybe Alcott was using colour to symbolise the girls' relationships with each other.

Now for a little note about hemlines and petticoats: the length of this dress is quite long, actually considering Beth is supposed to be 13 at the start of the film. However even if they bumped her age up to 15-16 so they didn't have to change actresses like they did with Amy. Below is a chart of the correct hemlines for the different ages of girls. 

Also in the above picture of Beth you can see her dress looks quite flat now, as Beth is at home she doesn't really need to live up to the fashion of really full skirts with many petticoats or even crinolines. Now actually this might also give an explanation for the long length of the skirt if it was being held out by many petticoats or crinolines or corded petticoats, it would probably look shorter than it does at home with fewer petticoats.

Another view of the dress above 

From the little we can see in this photo it is defiantly accurate to the era. Though she probably should begin putting her hair up if the directors did indeed bump her age up to 15-16.

                            Sweet Peter Pan collar

 Here you can see the sleeves of her dress are indeed the billowing look favoured in the 1860s. Well done costume directors!

Beth in the 2019 version is the biggest surprise of the movie because despite being the shy young sister who doesn't go out much and is more interested in music than fashion, she is the ONLY one in the early half of the 1860s to have relatively accurate clothing, having the drooping shoulders and large sleeves, AND the Peter Pan collars of the 1860s. Plus as a bonus she also has quite full-rounded skirts too! Now, WHY did BETH get the accurate clothing of all the characters She is the one who we wouldn't really mind having off clothing seeing as she is an introvert for the first half of the story and an invalid for the second!

Then she wears the most normal colour and shape of outdoor wear in the movie too. No neon scarves of frilly ruffles strangling HER. No, she gets a nice simple look with a sontag, tick, cloak, tick, plain matching scarf, tick, and full skirt, tick. 

Now this one I'm not too sure about. It appears she has both two loose sleeves to be accurate and two tight sleeves to be accurate. I mean if they were going for tight sleeves, as this is after the end of the civil war, go for it but they were usually quite fitted at the wrist. The looseness of the fit makes it look a little too like a dressing robe rather than a bridesmaid's dress. This picture to the low

 right is of an 1860s crossover gown.

I love the fact that she has red running through the plaid connecting her character to Jo's.

This reminds me of a wrapper that 1860s women would wear in the morning between waking till just after breakfast but I'm not sure I've ever seen that style of collar before. I'm hesitant to say that it's not accurate unless I'm really sure it's not. So if you know the exception to the rule please let me know.

* Update: I found an 1860s wrapper with the exact same style of collar but in white with a ruffle edge! 

Ahhh, why, oh dearest Beth, do you have the best wardrobe?

Once again there is Beth being the most period-correct of the sisters!

I do think the gathering on this dress would have been tighter and more figure-fitting on a real 1860s dress but considering the piles and piles of so-called "ARTISTIC LICENCE" used on the other characters I think it's okay.

Here is a better picture of the plaid dress with the red hints. Once again a tonne better than the other costumes, though I could be a little more fitted and it looks like the collar is coming from a blouse underneath rather than the actual dress which I don't get because you could just attach the collar to the dress and save your time and fabric to use on making the other costumes more historically accurate.

This is a lovely look and it gets a pass from me! I would be happy to own this dress as a Civil War cosplay.

Theory: Beth is actually the most mature sister emotionally in this version. Is THAT why she get the most accurate 1860s costumes? Because she's secretly the eldest in spirit, right?

Now if you made it all the way to the bottom of the page do as the Beth above and go get yourself a nice cup of Tea (or coffee, but trust me tea is better😉).