It’s the most costume-important episode of the series and the fun and interesting part is that both the show’s costume designer Terry Dresbach AND our hero Claire Fraser knew that and made their style choices accordingly. In other words, Claire actually approached her Parisian wardrobe the same way a costume designer would, by deliberately attempting to make statements about herself or force unconscious connections in people’s minds. Claire is using fashion in Paris to send a message, and to no one’s surprise, she’s very, very good at it.

We were fortunate enough to see a screener of this episode about a month ago and you would not have believed the level of gay gasps that sprung forth from our lips upon viewing this ensemble for the first time. We knew we were going to be doing costume-based posts this season and we clapped our hands in glee, because we totally thought we were going to be the ones to point out that Claire is wearing the iconic Dior “Bar Suit” of 1947, “downdated” for 1744:

Alas, Vanity Fair broke the story before we got a chance to run out in front of it (although we hinted at it last month because we were so excited about it) like a couple of attention-seeking fashion bloggers, but the point remains: this one ensemble tells you everything you need to know about Claire Fraser at this point in the story.

She’s an exceedingly modern women placed at the very beginnings of the Modern Age. She’s taking 20th Century norms and styles back in time with her and deliberately (possibly even recklessly) applying them to the 18th Century in order to affect change. This one outfit is Claire’s entire “mission” and current life summed up. A woman out of time, trying to change the past.

And it works very well in this scene, where Claire’s modernity and education come to the fore as two of the most important tools she has. There is a business-like quality to the look, partially because the bar suit itself was modified and copied countless times to produce modern women’s business suits. The colors are neutral, the collar and shape of the jacket mimic menswear (both of the period and in the modern day), and the entire ensemble is almost shockingly unadorned and unembellished for the time. No lace peeking out from sleeves or necklines, no embroidery or beading, not even a flare to the sleeve or enticing décolletage. It manages the trick of looking just enough like clothing of the day so as not to be scandalous, but so different from what everyone else is wearing that her status couldn’t be more clear: She is an outlander, both in France and in the 18th Century. The people who know or encounter her almost certainly chalk up the slight oddness of her clothes to her Englishness.

Note all the fantastical motifs embroidered into Master Raymond’s vest to give him a wizardly appearance. He delivers his wares with a flair that allows him to claim an almost mystical set of skills and wears the appropriate costume for it.

Note too the presence of green in his outfit. We noted the importance of green for Claire last week and concluded it represented much about her time in the past and her life with Jaime. But seeing it here, on Master Raymond, as well as last week on Mrs. Graham and Jamie’s cousin Jared …

And here again with Louise, you could say it also represents those people Claire considers allies (although there’s one glaring exception to this rule later this episode).

Other things to note in this highly memorable scene: Mary Hawkins’ virginal blue-and-white loungewear (put a pin in that) and Claire once again wearing clothes that lightly evoke or mimic menswear. Specifically, Jamie’s menswear.

Grey/black vest over white shirt. She mimics it again here. It’s their “plotting and scheming” uniform, it would seem. Much like last week, when we saw Claire mimicking Frank’s clothes in 1947, this isn’t a commentary on Claire’s femininity so much as it is an evidence of a bond between her and her husband and another nod to the modernity of her character.

Jaime wears it again here, in another strategy session of a scene, but interestingly, Claire is not. This is after the meeting with Charles Stuart at the whorehouse, a meeting at which the wives of the men attending were mocked by the prostitutes. She was divided from them by her gender and stuck at home in essentially the 1744 version of maternity wear, the very height of feminine clothing. Her modernity couldn’t get her into that meeting, but the regal femininity of the dressing gown allows her to hold court here like the person who’s truly in charge.

The bold painted fabric almost owes more to silver screen depictions of the 18th Century than the styles of the time. It looks like something from a costume drama of Hollywood’s Golden Age, which is perfectly appropriate for Claire since she’s clearly taking the fashion and aesthetics of her day back with her.

Jaime is dressing finer (Murtagh, of course, is not, when he can get away with it), but like Claire, his clothes stand out for being so simple and unadorned. Note the difference between the high-contrast simplicity of Jamie’s outfit and what the Parisian men are wearing in the background. Note how the fashion motifs found in the respectably dressed Parisian women – the little chapeaux and lace collars, the brown, green and pink colors …

… are perfectly mimicked by the prostitutes later on.

Note all the fussy details in Charles Stuart’s dress as compared to Jamie’s. Charles is all ruffles and lace and bright colors. Jamie and Murtagh are in dark or neutral colors, largely free of embellishment (although Jamie’s vest speaks to his wealth and title). Charles is soft and out of touch, frivolous and naive in comparison to the other two men. Charles is dressed in the same color scheme featured in virtually every painting of him – red and blue. It helps play up the actor’s somewhat shocking resemblance to him, as if he’d literally stepped out of a portrait – and started fondling dildos.

Enough foreplay. It’s party time.

There’s no doubt about it, this is a show-stopper of a dress. It was designed to be, both in the story by Claire and out of the story by costume designer Terry Dresbach. Like so many heroes in tales of adventure, Claire is exceedingly good at practically anything she sets out to do, and in Paris, she set out to use the French love of Couture to both infiltrate the circles of power, draw attention to herself, and stand out as something odd and unusual, knowing that such qualities would be valued in a place like the court of Versailles.

Now, the show-stopping quality doesn’t really have as much to do with the extreme low cut of the dress. As we saw at Versailles, courtly women’s fashion in France at the time was very, shall we say…

Breast-friendly.

By the way – we’ll get back to Claire’s red dress in a second – note how Louis and his mistress are rendered almost entirely in gold. They are meant to almost literally glow and sparkle in the room, set apart as they are from the rest of them. Note the insane richness and detail of his ensemble, which stands out even in this crowd. And while we’re at it…

We may as well note that the overwhelming sense of gilded regality is even to be found in le robe du shitting royale, which appears to be designed to be thrown over the back of le shittery royale so as to give the shitting king the appearance of a straining peacock.

Anyway, back to Claire’s shocking red gown. To see why it would make such a splash, put it in context:

NO ONE in that room is dressed remotely like she is. Her gown is so devoid of embellishment it would almost come off as undergarments, were it not for the color. There is no print or embroidery, no lace or tulle, no beads or flowers or bows or ruffles on Claire’s dress – but every single other person in the room is sporting at least a couple of those details in their clothes. Not only that, but the shape of the neckline and sleeves are vastly different from every other woman in the scene.

And Claire is the only woman not wearing some sort of elaborate necklace or choker, which helps to highlight the breast-centered nature of the dress in a more modern, 20th Century kind of way.

Also note that this may be one instance where a character wearing green doesn’t appear to be a natural ally of Claire’s. But who knows? She has a knack for winning people over.

Louise is costumed so as to make this difference between Claire and everyone else all the more glaring. Her gown is an explosion of print and lace, ruffles and bows. Mary, in keeping with her character and to underline a certain sense of countrywoman kinship with Claire, is dressed almost as simply as she is – again, in that virginal blue-and-white we saw on her earlier – but even she is sporting lace and exuberant sleeves, in keeping with the fashion.

The point is, this dress sums up just about everything there is to know about Claire’s character. She’s modern, strategic, lusty, reckless and attention-seeking. Showing up in Versailles in such a starkly unadorned dress like this is akin to Madonna at the ’84 MTV Awards, showing up in a wedding gown. It stood out for being shockingly different, ensured everyone would be talking about her, and it was relatively easy to maneuver in, all things considered.

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[Photo Credit: Starz, metmuseum.org – Stills: Tom and Lorenzo]