Dew of the Sea Costume History, Theology & Thoughts

  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 i

Amy March:  When we think of Amy we tend to think of the spoilt little girl who loves beauty and art, and does not love her nose. ; )   However, the new 2019 version gave us a little more depth to her character, showing a spoilt girl who turns into a strong logical sensible woman - who knows what she wants in life and tirelessly works for it. You may think this is not what you see in the books and that she just wants to have a life of art and comfort but that is not what I see. To me her petty rants about having to wear her cousin's clothes and her determinedness to talk properly are a sign of an intelligent view that she wants to better herself in life. Unlike Jo who believes the way to getting what she wants it to not care what others think of her but strive hard towards genius at all costs, Amy actually has the more sensible view... she sees the way the world of her time works, bringing favour to those who fit in to the highest circles of society and works along with that to ga