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Things Are Seldom As They Seem
By Cornelia Powell | February 25, 2010
I recently saw the movie The Young Victoria — starring the delightful Emily Blunt. The “wonderful to look at” film focused on the petite, high-spirited, passionate young woman who became Queen of England as a teenager in the early 19th century and her arranged marriage that became a legendary love affair.
“Wasn’t she actually a chubby, unattractive prude?” my movie buddy asked after the film. From what I’ve studied through the years, the movie was an authentic personal portrait of the young Victoria, although the public mostly knows her later-in-life image as a dour-faced, plump widow dressed in black.
“Well,” I responded to my friend, “after nine children, being less than 5 feet tall, and probably having a sweet tooth, she did get increasingly round. And then losing her beloved Albert in mid-life and perhaps never completely coming out of her deep mourning for him — as well as having an expanding empire and industrial revolution to manage — her more somber, reserved side was indeed her main public persona it seems.”
But that was not the whole picture of this woman who influenced global culture, including wedding customs that remain to this day. And I liked that the new film shook up the typical public’s — and history’s — point of view.
History is full of misconceptions that we take as fact; what we “perceive” — historically or in this moment — is not necessarily the truth or reality, it’s just how something “appears” to us at the time. And in today’s “talk show” crazed world, no matter how thoroughly even a fair host may interview someone, there is always another side, another slice, another angle. “Things are seldom as they seem” is actually a profound axiom!
I find it helpful to read and hear most things “with a grain of salt” — staying open and curious, yet thoughtful even when I disagree. (As one of my teachers use to say: Be a “healthy skeptic” not a “rude cynic.”) Life then becomes lighter, more expansive and imaginative. (Is having an “open mind” the first step to having an “open heart”?)
Queen Victoria continued to be hard to pigeonhole during her long reign, which perhaps affected her historical legacy. Not perceived as a “fashion plate,” yet she influenced what women wore — for better or worse — during important rites-of-passage. The fact that she wore black for the remainder of her life after Prince Albert’s death put the widows of the entire era in de rigour black (no matter their age) to wear like a badge of honor. And on the other end of the spectrum — literally — Victoria was not the first royal bride to wear white, but the fitted bodice and full skirt of her white silk satin gown trimmed in lace set the vogue for wedding fashions and established the iconic “wedding gown” silhouette we still know today.
Now if only another royal princess would come along and influence current brides away from the usually unflattering — that’s MY perception! — STRAPLESS wedding gown styles that have become their own icon of the last few decades. (But that’s the subject of another book!) For now, I’m working on “staying open.”
Topics: Costume, Empowering Girls, For Brides, Inspiration, Women's Notes |