If you love watching historical shows like The Gilded Age, it’s likely you also enjoy the fashion and costumes, the elaborate sets and art design, and the overall vibes of the time period. Inspired by one particularly beautifully-shot scene in this episode, we are going to take a deep-dive into some specific aspects of the art and fashion of the 1880s. We explore how The Gilded Age costumers and set designers seem to have taken heavy inspiration from paintings and portraits of the era by artists like John Singer Sargent, James Tissot, and Giovanni Boldini, as well as a very popular fashion house at the time, Worth. We’ll also try to answer a common question: are the costumes on this television show historically accurate, especially the vivid color palettes? And in doing so, we’ll go down a quick rabbit hole and talk about the famously toxic colors of the time period and how our perceptions of color today are shaped by the era.
What inspired this episode?
One of the greatest things about watching a historical drama like The Gilded Age is seeing how the show’s creators interpret the time period through set design, costume design and the other visuals that help with the world-building. In this episode, we start looking into the art that was popular in the 1880s, and in particular portrait paintings which would have been commissioned and collected by the American elite like Mrs. Astor (and the fictional Bertha Russell).
From there, we can see how portrait paintings from the time period inspired the costume designers on this series. Many of the costumes used on the show reflect changing tastes and purchasing habits for clothing in the time period.
We also look into how color was used in clothing (and elsewhere) during the Gilded Age. Despite the very colorful palettes used in the show that some fans question the realism of, many of the colors used in fashion and design at the time were even more vivid, thanks to the newly-created, vivid synthetic dyes on the market.
About “The Gilded Age” Episode 3: Face the Music
Our resident aspiring writer Peggy is excited to learn that the editor of The Christian Advocate is interested in publishing her work, but when meeting the publisher, she is told that they will only publish the story if the lead character in her work is changed to a white girl and if her identity is kept a secret from readers, saying they would lose readership if it was known that she was a black writer. She declines.
Oscar van Rhijn decides he wants to marry Gladys Russell for her money and to set himself up for a comfortable future. His lover, John Adams, is not thrilled by this, but Oscar is concerned for his legacy and doesn’t want to live in the margins of society.
Ada meets a former male friend who shows some interest in her. When Agnes discreetly informs the man that Ada has no money, he leaves.
Meanwhile, after only a few encounters, Tom Raikes gives a (sort of) marriage proposal to Marian, though she does not provide him an answer. She knows that her aunt Agnes would not approve of the match … Agnes certainly has her doubts about Mr. Raikes and his intentions in New York calling him “an adventurer”.
After coming to a Gentleman’s Agreement with the town Alderman about passing a law to allow his station to move forward, George is surprised to learn that the law will be repealed. He immediately realizes that the Aldermen are shorting the stock. To prevent his company from going under, George risks his personal fortune to buy back as much company stock as possible to keep the value artificially high, thus driving the Aldermen into financial distress.
Privately, Bertha talks to George and demonstrates unwavering support for his plan to counter the Aldermens’ ploy, understanding he is risking their fortune to save his company.
Mrs. Morris visits Bertha and pleads to her to ask her husband to “show mercy” on the men as they face financial distress. Bertha lets Mrs. Morris that she did not do anything to help her previously, so why should she help her now?
The Aldermen beg George to stop artificially inflating the value of the stock to save them from financial ruin, but he doesn’t shirk. Facing financial destruction, Mr. Morris ends his own life.
Sources Consulted
The following materials were cited or referenced in the creation of this podcast episode.
Note in the podcast I mentioned the Costume Institute in the Met (New York). It has been in the news a lot in the spring because of the (in)famous Met Gala and its billionaire attendees. For more information about that event, I highly recommend this video. In fact, there were three individuals who attended the Gala this year alone dressed as “Madame X”, which I discussed in this podcast episode that was recorded months prior. Another interesting video on this portrait can be found here – it covers a lot of itneresting information about Sargent and the Madame X portrait.
Artists
- Herdrich, Stephanie L. (2015, October 6). “No More Paughtraits”: Final Thoughts on Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends. The Met.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/sargent-portraits-of-artists-and-friends/blog/posts/no-more-paughtraits
Costumes
- Paixao, A. C. (2025, August 10.) Dressing Peggy Scott: The Hidden Narrative in The Gilded Age Costumes. Miscelana.
https://miscelana.com/2025/08/10/dressing-peggy-scott-the-hidden-narrative-in-the-gilded-age-costumes/ - Abby Cox. What Makes a Gown Haute Couture (like House of Worth) in the Victorian and Edwardian Eras?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc-epNZ1i_Q - Soo Hoo, Fawnia. (2022, February 7.) “The Gilded Age” Costumes are Like a Late-19th Century High-Fashion Street Style Editorial.
https://fashionista.com/2022/02/the-gilded-age-costumes
White, Katie. (2025 August 07.) Arnet. ‘The Gilded Age’ Costume Designer Spills Her Art Historical Inspirations. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gilded-age-costumes-art-2672040 - Cat’s Costumery. Charles Frederick Worth & The Birth of Haute Couture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjlE7XeBoEY
Color
- Fashion History Timeline. (2025, November 26.) Aniline dyes
https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/aniline-dyes/ - American Duchess. (2022 May 8). A Little History of Arsenic Green.
https://blog.americanduchess.com/2022/05/a-little-history-of-arsenic-green.html - Articles of Interest (2023. November 28). Podcast episode. Chromophobia.
https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/chromophobia - Vintage Dancer. (2023. February 22). Victorian Fashion Colors & Fabrics 1840s-1890s
https://vintagedancer.com/victorian/victorian-fashion-colors-fabrics-1840s-1890s/
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