What would you call the female lead’s style in Ludwig? (Anna Maxwell Martin)

[Mixymaxymoxy]

Has anyone watched Ludwig on the BBC? I’ve watched the first series and started on the second. Anne Maxwell Martin plays the female lead, and I am just fascinated by her character’s style. Her hair is a very odd bob with a too short fringe and looks like she has cut it herself with kitchen scissors. Her dress style in the second season is an odd mix of old fashioned school girl (knock knees, short pleated skirts, white ankle socks and big Clarks shoes), and 70s/80s woman - striped polonecks, maroon anorak. It’s like she’s dressed from a school jumble sale.

What style is this? Why have they chosen it and who dresses like this in real life?

I think I’m fascinated because its so far from anything i could ever wear (big boobs, big hips). And I love the house her character lives in - I guess a lot of the clothing choices reflect that 70s / 80s vibe.

I love this thread, though v.peeved that the punishment for living in Australia is not to get BBC stuff until it's sent to Britbox, so I haven't seen the new clothes.

I love her house, and there are still quite a good number like it - though always single-storey - where I live in Melbourne.

The salt and pepper pots she uses are fab.

As you were.

I rewatched series 1 before this series because forgot everything!
I was struck by how much turquoise there is, and once noticed it i couldn't stop seeing it everywhere.
The police station turquoise walls, sometimes blue lights shining, the block of flats all had turquoise fronts, Holly's kitchen, Lucy's house...it's very stylish and considered.
And I love AMM and her quirky clothes.

It probably is that deep, actually. That's absolutely how costume designers think.

I'd disagree with the PPs who are describing her look as dark academia. It really isn't that aesthetic at all. It's more thrifted 'geek chic' style. Dark academia is much more put together and coordinated and has a much more limited colour palette. It's not quirky.

She is meant to be a photographer not an academic

As a person living and working in Cambridge, I'd describe it as someone's idea of how frumpy, quirky, academics dress. I don't think it is though. I have seen big jumpers tucked into mini skirts, but on people 15-20 years younger.

The socks thing was fashionable last year and I remember reading about the style in The Guardian in Jess Cartner Morley's column. I don't think she was channeling the 90s teenagehood of husband and his Cambridge mates.

Re the house - it's not in Cambridge and nobody on a police salary would be able to afford the quite similar expensive 1970s houses of which there are very few in Cambridge.

Re Toast - we had a branch of Toast, it didn't last long and is now Space NK or something similar.

I think the house is lovely. I live in a 1970 house and though it’s nowhere near as big or as fabulous, we have enormous windows and lovely 1970s wooden handrails and newel posts plus the original fireplace (which is pretty horrible really but right for the house).

70s house here too @BestIsWest . Just love our big windows and decent size rooms. V underrated era for architecture if you ask me. Love the modern touches in Ludwig house too and the colour scheme.

I imagine all the posters on style and beauty who say things like “just wear what you like” or “I just wear whatever I feel comfortable in” dress like either Anna Maxwell Martin in this, her character in Motherland or Edina Monsoon.

Yes! Turquoise, red, orange/rust and blue. Once you see the colour scheme it's everywhere. Even the prison visiting room had red chairs and turquoise tables.

In the episode at the theatre, all the audience in the stalls were wearing shades of blue.

i do love this side of the styling, i actually love the house, im sure it can be open and sort of they want to convey that feeling. But the dark blue rooms with the reddish, terracotta lighting looks very cosy to me.

Still not convinced by the ankle socks and Clark’s shoes - grown women dressing like little girls 🤷‍♀️.

I think it's all a bit try hard quirky, either by AMM herself or someone on AMM's behalf. Maybe I'm too cynical, just not sure I believe that in real life outfits like this really are just thrown on for the love of the individual pieces, it's more a careful choice aimed at saying look at me I'm so much quirkier and more interesting than everyone else.

Put three people with say short fringes and deliberately mismatching tops or short skirts or unusual socks or shoes in the same room, and it will look much more unimaginative and like a uniform for quirky wannabe cool girls.

I've just noticed the use of three colours on the main characters in Matlock. They all match the office interior. I'll be looking out for this more now.

Yes, I loved her clothes last season -- there was a very short (orange?) a-line skirt that looked wonderful with thick tights and a jumper on her rangy body type. But I can't hack the ankle socks and bare legs. Or that fugly jacket.

I loved her thick, cable (?) knitted jumper from the last season and the orange skirt too. I loved her hairstyle and have always liked micro fringes on every woman who has one because I don’t have the hair or face shape to make one look good on me. In the last episode she seemed to have on a jacket which reminded me of old fashioned/retro school tracksuit tops. Her look seems to be a hockey skirt, vintage tracksuit tops, cotton socks. Like a hockey player she is thrusting herself forwards to achieve her goals and isn’t bothered about usual social etiquette at this point, barging her way into the local newspaper offices and probably making the situation a lot worse. Her actions and motives are quite comic but she isn’t overplaying it.

Yes the autumn / wintry styles were fabulous - cord A line skirts, big chunky, thick tights often so in the same colour. It’s a style I can ever wear (am the opposite in body shape, size, colours in every way possible compared to AMM!).

But the second season outfits look deliberately fugly to me. Turquoise leather sports jacket, dark red pussy bow blouse, tartan miniskirt, black tights 🤷‍♀️ What’s that all about?