SPOILERS Rivals Season 2 🥳

[Blossombunnyy]

On Disney in May 15th 2026

Who's excited?

I can't wait the trailer looks so good.

I joined this thread at the beginning but have had to avoid it until I finished watching. Have eked it out as slowly as possible but finished today.
Now to read the thread.

Just finished the lot for the ( cough ) third time
But I did have my second shingles jab yesterday and feel like death warmed up , so needed a comfort watch
Almost finished my original hard back copy of Polo for the millionth time
Cant wait for November

I did wonder if the whole breastfeeding thing with Jilly had to do with the fact that she was unable to have children, and obviously didn't breastfeed her adopted son and daughter, so was a bit defensive around it and portrayed it as a Bad Thing.

We should do a How Cooper Are You? scoring thing - on the negative side for me I did breastfeed three children, live in the city, am left-leaning and don't like dogs. But on the plus side I love reading, I like a drink, I grew up in the country, quite like horses and I'm pretty messy. I'd give myself a 6 out of 10.

But could you ‘see through’ your house when you were growing up?

ie net curtains or not!

@Redlocks30 Oh, interesting! I think we had one in the bathroom on a bit of curtain wire before we got a frosted glass window, but the rest of the house just had regular curtains. Are nets a signifier of the uptight bourgeoisie and therefore Bad Cooper? Or are they decent houseproud working class and therefore Good Cooper?

Which character is your favourite? I think mine is Flora Seymour

I have inherited furniture and moth-eaten carpets so I think I score quite highly; I am also not averse to drinking wine out of a tooth-mug when necessary! I weigh more than 7.5 stone though which loses me some marks

Flora is also my favourite @ohyesido I love her playing the viola in Appassionata (which taught me everything I know about orchestras!)

I like Flora too. And Dora Belvedon from Pandora and subsequent books.

For people who were old enough to be fashion conscious in the 80s - what do you think of Taggie’s fashion in the show (is it period accurate, or have they tried to make her look more suitable/modern for the 2020s so as not to alienate the youth viewers), and what would you have thought of it at the time (ie what would it have suggested to you about her character and where she fit in socially)? It doesn’t usually seem to me like what I would think of as 80s fashion - for example, I think she wears straight leg jeans rather than skinny ones? Her style often seems to me more American country than what I would think of as British 80s. Doesn’t she wear cowboy boots? What sort of a look do you think the costume designers are going for - is there a particular actress or socialite from the era you think they’re drawing on?

I have wondered occasionally about her clothes as they seemed a bit old fashioned to me and more like what I wore as a student in about 1983, especially the flowery stuff which seems like early Lady Diana to me.

I was 24 in 1987. I’m trying to think what I was wearing. Check shirts yes. Chunky jumpers - I had an Aran one. My favourite jeans at the time were a pair of Levi’s - they were the first pair I ever had that were cut for a feminine shape, I think they were a couple of years old by 1987, they were a similar cut to the mom jeans of today, high waisted and slightly loose in the leg but tapered.
Straight leg jeans were coming back in towards the end of the eighties. I bought a new pair for my honeymoon in September 1987 and they were dark blue and quite tight fitting but not skinny. Skinny or drainpipe as we called them were more towards the late 70s, beginning of the 80s. I remember being ridiculed in 1979 for wearing a baggy slightly flared pair!

Much of my clothing budget went on work clothes then though - much more like some of Sarah Stratton’s stuff!

I think you have to take in to account character as well as fashion.

Shelley and Caitlin would have worn fashionable clothes on a teen budget. I would have been around Caitlin's age and recognise the style of outfits and make up. T'Pau with a bit of Banarama/Madonna. Pop.

Cameron, Beattie & Sarah are Dallas to Howards Way. Maud's clothes are Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks.

Taggie wouldn't wear fashion as such. That said I agree with Best that jeans were more of a Mom cut, think the George Michael Faith/Bros shape. Lots of plain tshirts tucked in. Loafers and chunky jumpers & oversized cardigans were definitely in. Cowboy boots were niche but post Footloose were possibly available on the high street. And I suppose mainstream rock (Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, INXS) were huge so maybe they've drawn inspiration from there. A bit of Brooke Shields perhaps.

They've simplified the Laura Ashley dresses for Taggie - I suspect Lizzie's are original (busier) LA patterns.

@BestIsWest god one of my aunties was a bit Sarah Stratton too for her job in the 80's I love looking at pics of her from back then, she got a job years later with a travel agents & had a uniform & everyone thought she was an air hostess as they were called back then 😆😂

Taggie's isn't really reminding me of anything my older cousins or my sister & her friends wore but they would have been teens so more Caitlin's age so I suppose it makes sense, I love all the clothing, it's such a buzz! The wardrobe dept are really nailing it 😎

Edit to add great post @Notonthestairs

I was wearing a shell suit like this in 87. Probably not the right style/class for Taggie! 😂

Thinking about jeans - I think you need to look at Aha for shape. Women's jeans weren't cut that differently.
(In fact we all need to look at Aha 😂😍)

Whoops, I mean A-ha (the band)

Great posts, thanks to you and @BestIsWest!

Ah yes I hadn’t made the connection but of course Caitlin does have a bit of a Madonna/Rosanna Arquette look circa Desperately Seeking Susan.

Maud as Stevie Nicks is such an interesting thought and yeah I can imagine them drawing on Brooke Shields for Taggie! Agree they seem to have calmed the Laura Ashley dresses/patterns down for her.

i guess it really shows not to stereotype an era, as of course with the 80s it’s always tempting to characterise it in terms of the most extreme, harsh stuff, neon colours and Flock of Seagulls haircuts and etc.

Looking forward to when the 2010s become period and every hair and makeup person will have to make a choice about whether to give the male characters that ‘dragged to the side in a windstorm’ teenage boy hair that was so popular for a while - will it look so ridiculous and extreme that future audiences just don’t believe it was ever real.

Yes, thinking about it SIL was 16 in September 1987 and had the same hairdo as Caitlin (she was my bridesmaid so I have photos). She wore a peach coloured dress with a puffball skirt to the evening party. She was a massive Madonna and Bros fan.

I think it’s a lower middle class marker (Bryan and Jen Teale)? Solid but aspirational!

I don't remember Taggies cowboy boots but in 1987 I had a pair of swede boots with some pattern on them, possibly with beads, and fringes down the back. I do agree that some of her clothes and style don't seem of the time.

I also had the exact shape of dress that Lizzie wears in one scene but with a different flowery pattern. From Laura Ashley. I wore it to a wedding but in 1991.

Only looking back from Season 2 can I see how awful Taggie’s Season 1 wig was.

Was it a wig?! I’ve watched Season 1 about a dozen times at least and not noticed this!! Her hair did look way different in Season 2 but I thought just a fringe and highlights. Gonna have to watch it again now…

A few of the cast have wigs/hair pieces. I saw a post about it on Instagram. Taggie and declan wear hair pieces.

Yes. Great posts about clothes! I love those youtube things about wigs, when done by someone enthusiastic and knowledgeable about wigs.

I was 21 in 1987 and Taggie's jeans / jumpers were very much my sort of thing, or baggy tee shirts tucked in for warmer weather. Wouldn't have been seen dead in Laura Ashley, that was more for my mum's age group. My music taste was more early 80s, Two Tone, The Jam, Madness etc so I wasn't really influenced fashion-wise by the New Romantics, Madonna etc, I was a bit of a tomboy really. I have never had to do the corporate suits etc as I don't work in an office based profession. I did have big hair (perm) for a while though.

Maud’s wig annoys me. It’s the wrong shade (and possibly shape) for the character and the actresses natural colouring which in turn makes the make up tricky.

its right in that Maud wouldn’t change her hairstyle from her youth - so long ringlets. But I think there would be more volume. I’d love to see that change - her wardrobe is perfect though.