IF YOU GO
The "Dressing Downton" exhibition is included in the regular Biltmore admission: $49; $24.50 for ages 10-16; includes self-guided tour of Biltmore House & Gardens and guided tour/complimentary tasting at the Biltmore Winery. Check www.biltmore.com for seasonal rate changes and discounts.
Also offered: 60-minute behind-the-scenes guided "Upstairs-Downstairs Tour" ($17 more) and "Downton"-inspired dining and cocktails at the property's various restaurants; hotel packages at The Inn on Biltmore Estate include afternoon tea.
Tickets/details: 800-411-3812; www.biltmore.com.
Biltmore Estate is always dressed to impress. The Gilded Age mansion, built on the outskirts of Asheville, N.C., by a scion of one of the wealthiest families in America, literally sets the scene in “Being There” and other films that require high-ceiling posh.
But through May 25, the patent leather dancing pump is on the other foot: Rather than doing double duty as an elegant movie set, some of its 250 rooms are hosting “Downton Abbey.”
Well, at least clothing worn by the cast of the popular PBS drama.
And despite the velvet ropes cordoning off tourists, the formal dresses, top hats, cravats and purses in the “Dressing Downton” exhibition look as at home as they do at Highclere Castle, in southern England, where the popular series is filmed.
The exhibition’s 47 mannequins are fully dressed in “Downton” costumes. They are not displayed in chronological order: Biltmore rooms were chosen to complement the outfits.
The Salon, for instance, has a dapper white suit worn by the Earl of Grantham (actor Hugh Bonneville) alongside a white dress worn by his wife, Countess Cora (Elizabeth McGovern); in front and to the side of them is an elaborate purple getup worn by his mother, Dowager Countess Violet (Maggie Smith). Their placement echoes the show: Violet’s garb looks clearly old-fashioned, and her purple signals Victorian-Edwardian half-mourning - a hue/attitude that turns up in her ongoing regret for the end of tradition and the onset of modern times that make it hard to maintain their elaborate gentry life.
Each “Downton” room holds a stand bearing an as-seen-on-TV shot of the displayed attire plus words about what was going on in that scene. There’s also an optional $10 audio guide that offers room-by-room details about the show, the costumes and Biltmore anecdotes.
The real-life Vanderbilts of Biltmore were more affluent and less mired in the past than their counterpart Crawleys of “Downton Abbey.” That said, like the Crawleys there was an Anglo-American marriage (Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt married English aristocrat John Cecil); both families dined formally and were served by uniformed attendants.
Staging a show like this isn’t as easy as dressing dummies at a mall boutique. Some outfits exhibited were made for theatrical productions; others are century-old originals. They were procured from the London firm Cosprop that handles the costume needs of “Downton Abbey.” EDG, a U.S. firm that stages exhibitions, worked with Biltmore’s curatorial staff to stage the exhibit.
The clothes had to fit perfectly, so mannequins needed to be created to match individual actors’ and actresses’ dimensions. Men’s footwear posed peculiar obstacles: Some dummies had to have their toes chopped off.
The below-the-stairs plot of the program is also covered. While those “Downton” scenes are actually staged in London (Highclere’s kitchens are too small for filming), the uniforms worn by footmen, maids, cooks and other help are on display here. Costumes worn by Mrs. Hughes and the valet, Mr. Bates, are in Biltmore’s Servants’ Dining Room. As you’d expect, Mr. Bates looks immaculate in black waistcoat, black apron and matching, shirt-protecting half-sleeves.
In the basement’s Main Kitchen, the uniforms of assistant cook Daisy and the somewhat better-dressed Mrs. Patmore, the head cook , stand at a work table where baskets indicate preparations for a picnic.
Perhaps the characters upstairs are planning a splendid outing in Asheville.
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