AIBU to think less of period dramas that use French braids/plaits?

[mommybunny]

I’m really keen to see Little Women but on the trailer I saw a girl with French plaits and that’s kind of ruined it for me. I remember French plaits becoming a craze in the 80s (1980s!) but as far as I recall they were a new hairstyle then. To me, French plaits in a drama set during the American Civil War belongs in the same anachronistic dump as Mrs Maisel telling her audience that Dr Spock’s message was “you got this”, or the numerous examples of men keeping their hats on indoors.

I’m happy to be proved wrong, and to be shown that French plaits existed before the 1980s, but Wikipedia is no help.

The long flowing dresses with trains in period dramas always really bug me.
More likely they would of been ankle length (worn with boots) because no one rich or poor wants to be dragging their dress hem through shit, piss and offal filled streets then have that smell it following them.

Also agree on the modern saddlery to go with the totally wrong horse type.

It's always a bloody Friesian. With a mane six foot long and a tail that's on the ground.

Just no. 🤨🤷🏻‍♀️

Don't get me started on tack...

They can't use "period" tack because much of it breaches the animal rights that productions sign up to eg gag bits on carriage horses. Really all period dramas until recently would feature horses with docked tails.

There are people who go round the world checking animals are not harmed in any way during filming (those on set and wildlife).

I have family in film and TV who will tell you they have received complaint that the breed of chicken on a programme was historically inaccurate.

Most people won't notice tack or chicken breeds.....

Oh and Fresians are often used as producers like dramatic horses and they tend to be very biddable and smart. And also they all look the same so you can have 2 or 3 on a shoot and swap them because their working hours are limited. Distinctive markings make life harder on a shoot that can be months long.

It all makes sense, annoying though it is as a viewer.

This lady on YouTube makes and wears period costumes that are as historically accurate as possible. She posts videos on how/when they'd have been worn, who would have worn them, etc. Very few of them trail on the ground.

www.youtube.com/user/priorattire

Plaits have beem around forever, I agree, but what about French plaits? To me that's something different but if I Google the history of French plaits it just shows historical pictures of "normal" plaits. Does anyone else know what I mean?!

The French plait is the bit on her scalp where hair is added in.

Ok, I am one of the three per cent who doesn’t think the OP is totally unreasonable. Here’s why:
I was born in the fifties and like many of my school friends I had plaits. They were done by gathering a bunch of hair either side of your face, high up or low down, dividing each bunch into three strands and plaiting the strands, tying a ribbon at the end.
The French plaits/braids that became popular when my own children were young (1980s) were totally different, they started near the scalp and involve bringing in strands of hair as you go. I can’t do them for love nor money but I can do the fifties plaits in my sleep.
The pictures of Victorian hairstyles that someone posted above show only “my” kind of plaits, albeit arranged in complex ways. I think the OP could well be right in thinking that Little Women should show plaits, not braids.
But I totally accept that other times and cultures have used the braiding technique that starts at the scalp and works downwards, taking in hair as you go.

OverUnderSidewaysDown Yes! That's exactly what I was trying to describe.

The French style of plait that starts at the scalp results in a shorter plait than the alternative (v. important if you have very long hair), and doesn't need a hair-tie at the top, so, to me, it seems a more likely style for the time period.

I voted YANBU OP! I too felt a twinge of dissatisfaction when I saw the trailer.

They're not french braids, they're corn rows. They've become fashionable/been appropriated by white people in the last few years. Bo Derek wore them in the film Ten in the 70s.

The Celts & Egyptians had corn rows. Slightly earlier than Bo Derek.

But surely the main question is would they have been worn by white girls in Massachusetts at the time of the American Civil War?

I haven't seen the film, or any trailers - is the girl wearing cornrows or a French plait?

Newsflash - French braids were not invented in the 1980s! They just became fashionable again then....,

Here’s the frame I think the OP is referring to. I would call these French plaits, not cornrows.

I've found this on another forum about the era. Looks to me like it might have been constructed with French plaits.

civilwartalk.com/threads/hairstyles-pre-civil-war-and-post-civil-war-era.143092/

OverUnderSidewaysDown Thanks. Those look like Dutch braids to me actually.

but Wikipedia is no help

You could read a book instead? Go to the library - it'd be an exciting adventure for you!

I hate inaccuracy in period dramas

the clue is in the word "drama" - these are fiction. In fact one could argue that most of history is necessarily fiction as we don't really know how things were exactly, and we have to use an historical imagination (albeit supported by reams of evidentiary documents & objects) to reconstruct and narrate even factual historical stories.

But where would you like to start? Any costume historian will tell you about how our 2020 bodies are different - skeletally & in their muscular development - from bodies 100 or 200 years ago. We don't intentionally discolour or black out leading actors' teeth, although it was very likely that150 years ago, most people had discoloured & uneven teeth. And so on ...

So an inaccurate faux concern about a specific hairstyle as a reason for not seeing the film is just a bad excuse.

Aunt March twerking at Meg's wedding felt like it might be a bit of an anachronistic dance move

No that's in the fourth chapter of Alcott's novel - but it's in Good Wives not Little Women, so that's why you may have missed it.

As someone said upthread about the 70s, watch any older historical film or TV and its era will scream out at you. Even the ones hailed in their day for their scrupulous authenticity. The makeup is usually the worst for that.

Gwyneth, is that you? You didn't invent yoga honey, and clearly braids have been around for a very, very long time.

I think that the people who think that the OP is talking about all sorts of plait and posting pictures of things which are clearly not french plaits/cornrows are perhaps slightly more annoying than the OP. I must admit when I think of the elaborate plaited hairdos of the late 1800s I can’t remember ever having seen a picture of a French plait. However, given the number of women with long hair and the time spent braiding it, it would be a very foolhardy woman who’d definitively say “no, that hair style would have been impossible in 1860s USA”

This is one of the dumbest posts I've seen on here in a while.

"I first encountered French braids during my 80s childhood, so clearly they were invented then."

The quickest of googles shows mentions of them from the 1870s... eyeroll

No such thing as an 'accurate drama'. If you want accuracy get a history book.