Anne of Green Gables: The Puffed Sleeve Christmas Dress Book vs 1980s Miniseries.

 

THE PUFFED SLEEVE DRESS.

The classic scene of Anne getting Her First puffed sleeve dress is etched memorably in many fans' hearts as a heartwarming display of Matthew Cuthbert and Anne Shirley's close Friendship.

But there is one stark difference between the Book Dress and Miniseries dress...

The COLOUR!

Book dress.

"...Matthew had sheepishly unfolded the dress from its paper swathings and held it out with a deprecatory glance at Marilla, who feigned to be contemptuously filling the teapot, but nevertheless watched the scene out of the corner of her eye with a rather interested air.

Anne took the dress and looked at it in reverent silence. Oh, how pretty it was--a lovely soft brown gloria with all the gloss of silk; a skirt with dainty frills and shirrings; a waist elaborately pintucked in the most fashionable way, with a little ruffle of filmy lace at the neck. But the sleeves--they were the crowning glory! Long elbow cuffs, and above them two beautiful puffs divided by rows of shirring and bows of brown-silk ribbon.

"That's a Christmas present for you, Anne," said Matthew shyly. "Why--why--Anne, don't you like it? Well now--well now."

For Anne's eyes had suddenly filled with tears.

"Like it! Oh, Matthew!" Anne laid the dress over a chair and clasped her hands. "Matthew, it's perfectly exquisite. Oh, I can never thank you enough. Look at those sleeves! Oh, it seems to me this must be a happy dream."

"Well, well, let us have breakfast," interrupted Marilla. "I must say, Anne, I don't think you needed the dress; but since Matthew has got it for you, see that you take good care of it. There's a hair ribbon Mrs. Lynde left for you. It's brown, to match the dress. Come now, sit in…"

So you may be wondring what "gloria" fabric is

well gloria fabric is usually a silk and cotton blend which gave a strong fabric with a sheen to it. it was commonly used for umbrellas in the early 19th century.

so when we think of Annes dress what the Author had in mind was a shiny brown puffed sleeve dress.

But what did the Miniseries give us?

Blue.

Pale Blue.

And you can see why, in the miniseries, they were in the 90s aesthetic trend of warm and fluffy pastel and romantic period dramas where only the old or villainous characters usually wear dark and jewel tones for evening wear, daytime wear they don't mind a brown when it's in a setting where the character is supposed to be doing work, but it made more visual sense to go with lighter colours to match the innocence and happiness of youth.

As it happens, though, this is one of my least favourite Anne looks as I think the length of the puffs down the arm make them look saggy rather than wide. If they had done what the book dress did and have it separated into two puffs, I think it would have looked more defined.

But overall I think the colour changes make sense for the miniseries.

Later in the books though L.M. Montgomery's colour of choice for Anne tends to be Green not blue, she goes into especial detail of a filmy green dress which highlighted her big green grey eyes and curves apparently.

In my mind, when I picture that green dress, I always think of this antique dress from the era:

So romantic and floaty!

Anyway, that was just a quick post about Anne for you!