reign: style profiles

Are you watching this yet?

One of my favorite things about Reign is that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they dress. The creators have attributed distinct personality traits into their wardrobe choices, and it makes for an interesting commentary on the development of each character. (Listen to my Reign soundtrack to get in the right frame of mind).

Because it's a Thursday and on Thursdays we watch Reign, I thought I would do a little breakdown of the things I've noticed via beautiful clothing, sparkling jewelry, and fetching crystal belts.

Let's start with...

Queen Mary Stuart:

She is fierce. Of course, she wasn't always that way. She arrived fresh from the convent, nervous and excited and very naive. At the beginning she wore a lot of white and pastels, a brand new baby at court. But now she is bold, I-am-woman-hear-me-roar, strong and golden.

She often wears stunning metallics and striking patterns. Her go-to colors tend to be darker like black, navy, and red, or incredibly posh like head-to-toe gold.

She rocks a plethora of crowns and headpieces, and tends to wear more form-fitting pieces because if you've got it, flaunt it. She also favors incredible earrings. Her hair stays pretty basic, down and side-braided. Not a lot going on there lately. I'd love to see some giant, va-va-voom curls on her.
She still occasionally veers into that bohemian territory, with flowing blouses and sheer fabrics (most likely influenced by fairy princess Kenna, who I'll get to later). Her bohemian nature tends to come out more when her and Francis are in blissful happiness, which unfortunately is quite seldom.

All of her clothes make a statement.

And that statement is I am queen, bro, lookit. 

Lady Lola:

She loses major lady-in-waiting points for having an illegitimate child with Mary's husband (pre-marriage, mind you), but I have to say she's growing on me. She stumbled around for a bit, but I think she's trying her best to be a good friend. And I'm not going to pretend like I don't secretly love the idea of her and Narcisse hanging out. I have a feeling on tonight's episode they will be having that tea date.

Her style is actually one of my favorites on the show, which probably endears me more to her than anything else.

She is a romantic, through and through.
Red, peach, purple, cream, lots of beads and embroidery and flowers. Always flowers. If Lola isn't wearing a flower of some kind in her outfit, something is horribly wrong.

She is very faithful to the empire waist, and tends to have some of the most intricate details of anyone on the show. I always pay close attention to her clothes. She has been quite unlucky in love (does anyone remember her first love, who was forced on Mary by Catherine and then unceremoniously murdered in the woods? Yikes), as evidenced by her brief fling with Francis that produced a son and her brief marriage to an impostor who had to leave her to save them both.

Let's hope her romantic clothing will nurture some actual romance in her life.

Lady Greer:

Oh, Greer. She is our resident blonde bombshell, and she has always been my favorite of Mary's ladies.

She is the only one of the ladies who is untitled, so her sole purpose is to find a suitable husband to give her wealth and title to save her family and yadda yadda.

From the very beginning she has been lavish. Most likely to make up for a lack of title, she has always adorned herself with decadent jewelry and accessories. She's nervous and stressed about finding a rich husband, so naturally she falls in love with a kitchen boy.

Her daily elegance works well to counter-balance her insecurity, though. She dresses in rich, earthy, cool tones. A lot of grey, blue, and green. Since she's also a sexy beast, she employs sweeping gowns of black and navy and occasionally white to illustrate her dedication to virtue. She wears strapless dresses more than anyone else on the show. The richer, the better.

Also, her wedding dress? Amazing. 

Lady Kenna:

The hippy child!
(Also, RIP Aylee and her exquisite head of braids).

Kenna is 100% bohemian. All of the time. One time her dress was just one giant butterfly on her chest.
She wears flowing, sheer garments. She utilizes layers, lace and tassels. She rarely wears anything truly form-fitting, but since she's so slender her clothes are always flattering on her.

She pretty much functions exclusively in headpieces and flower crowns. They're dainty and sometimes crystal, probably to hold all of her wishes and dreams. She also loves to sporadically braid tiny strands of her hair, sometimes stringing them with beads.
Despite her flower-child appearances, she's actually quite feisty. She's strong-willed and very stubborn. She is also unlucky in love, but unlike Lola, it has been entirely her own fault. She tried to be the king's mistress for a while, and that backfired horribly. She's definitely my least favorite, but I am enjoying her and Bash together.

Her clothing style is the result of her very free spirit and her forward thinking. She's a physical being (that's my way of not saying anything truly insulting about her). She's a bit ditsy and selfish, but she completes the ladies-in-waiting and brings her own flare to their interactions.

Queen Catherine de Medici:

Possibly my favorite character ever. She is so evil but deliciously so. The fact that she's played by the one-and-only Megan Follows of Anne of Green Gables makes it even better.

Her style strength most definitely resides in her absurdly opulent jewelry and her crazy collection of crowns. So many crowns.
She bathes herself in fantastically monstrous necklaces and giant rings topped with super-sized pearls and gems. I want them, just once, to show us her accessories closet. It has to be absolutely magnificent.

She is matronly, which is fitting for her station and her level of sophistication. She is dangerously smart and wickedly talented with poison. She wears rich, shimmering fabrics and is always rocking the up-dos. She never lets her hair down, both physically and metaphorically. She did once, but that was only to seduce the king so she wouldn't be beheaded. She's a sneaky gal.

My favorite dress of hers so far was at the end of season 1, and it was this glorious, shimmering black and cream gown. She normally utilizes thick, flattering layers with capelets and the castle-era version of a business blazer.

And lastly, the men of the show.
Francis, Bash, Condé, Leith, Castleroy, and every single other man.

Black, brown, leather, the end.

Unless you're freaky like Narcisse and employ the many talents of a rather stunning blue peacock coat.

Ugh. I wish I could say I hated it. But I did not.

Reign airs TONIGHT at 9/8c!

(p.s. see all reign posts)

Major credit to Fashima's Fashion of Reign Tumblr, which is one of my favorite sources for Reign details! I borrowed many photos from her site. Check out her page for exact outfit and accessories info, as well as countless Reign-inspired conversations and inspirations. She's fantastic!

reign: put on your queen face

On Thursdays we watch Reign!

Welcome, my dahlings, to another Reign post. 

Honestly I just can't help it. Not only is this show completely intoxicating in its wardrobe choices, it also just has that nitty gritty addictive ingredient that keeps me obsessed. It also occasionally gives me a toothache, because of the extra-sweet things like #Frary, beardless Nostradamus, and Bash's courage.

I know and understand and accept that this show is absurd, but I can't help but care about it. I want to post rants about Lola (UGH LOLA) and comment on the uppage of leather usage and talk about how angry everyone is and how much the plague sucks.

So join with me if you will - and if you don't care a flying hoot about this crazy show, at least you can ooh and aah at all the outfits because lookit. 

I want to start with saying that gold is obviously the new black, and black is obviously the new gold. It makes sense in my head but the bottom line is that a plague-infested France means lots of dark colors and brooding. Although the brooding may also have something to do with assassinations and illegitimate children and plotting and marital issues and GHOSTS but that's a whole different conversation. 

Apparently all of those things are just really encouraging for dark leather.

Unless you're a villain then RED LEATHER IT IS. 

Because red = evil. 

(Is it weird that I kind of want him and Lola to get together? Seeing them hovering over a dead body together just screams chemistry. Maybe the red leather actually stands for "evil but secretly has a heart of gold"). 

Also, look at Nosty. I kind of hate the nickname "Nosty" but his new baby-face just begs to be nicknamed. Maybe "little Damus?" Or maybe I'll just start calling him Gandalf. The point being, Nostradamus is a hunky giant wizard man. I think I knew he was tall, but he's really tall.

I'm becoming increasingly concerned for his character, though. Last we saw him he was riding away like the Hunchback of Notre Dame after being almost drawn and quartered, and we have yet to know his fate. He can't possibly stay away forever! Considering Catherine tried to kill-by-snake the love of his life mere episodes ago to keep him from leaving, I can hardly stand it that she hasn't even mentioned his mysterious disappearance. We sort of need him to keep the doomsday visions up-to-date. Or I suppose they could just bring in more ghosts, which I'm totally okay with because that nurse was amazing at being the horrifying, eyebrow wielding Henry! As soon as this season started I remember thinking, "I hope Henry comes back as a ghost. That would be fun."
Except that it wouldn't be fun for anybody because he was the worst.

I'll say again: brooding abounds. Nobody is happy. Everyone is scowling, glaring, worrying, pouting, whimpering, crying, yelling or worse. (The "worse" being dying of plague).
This is the Reign of full-on stink faces.

Side note: I want Francis and Mary to be matching all of the time. Cuties.

It's a good thing all of these people are beautiful because even despairing, they're nice to look at. Mary rocks at wearing furry coats and wearing her QUEEN FACE.

Black and gold, guys, black and gold everywhere. Mary totally had that combo down pat all throughout season 1 (before it was cool to be sad), but the beginning of season 2 brought the entire kingdom into these sombre tones. A symbol of the heavy Darkness. Even though Darkness was just a creepy, sharp-toothed guy, he was apparently right on the money because the plague actually did come, nasty sores were seen, people died, and worst of all, Leith got his land taken away from him! Oh the injustice!

Let's go back to that red-leather guy for a sec. His name is Narcisse and he's trying to swoop in and take over all the cray cray that's up for grabs in the wake of king Henry's death. (And maybe to take Lola as bride numero quatro?)
I can handle a lot of his snark and greediness, but taking Leith's land away was grade A jerk level. I'm hoping Francis can come up with a mighty replacement for good-hearted Leith because he deserves way better. You know who doesn't deserve better? Greer, for breaking his heart in the first place.
(It's okay, I understand you, Greer. But really. Love or money? Which one lasts longer? Also, side note, your father is a tool.)

I'm now giggling because if you don't watch this show this is just a bunch of babbling nonsense.

Here's some more pretty clothes:

Anyway, my favorite thing about these dark beginnings is that by the time the Coronation arrives, the shocking, vibrant red that takes over the screen is breathtaking. Everyone is still wearing black and gold, but then Mary and Francis, the crowned King and Queen, are rocking the red.
It's a punch to the senses after so much dreariness, and I absolutely love it.

And thus began the new era of color! 

The new queen and king were crowned and in love and happy as clams, and the plague was over, so color could finally be granted at the castle once again. Florals were encouraged. Lace capelets were passed out like candy. Bejeweled bodices were honored guests!

I think, if I may be so bold, my favorite episode clothes-wise so far has been The Lamb and The Slaughter. I don't think I've ever seen the ladies of the show so beautifully dressed, and all fluttering together like butterflies. Post-plague days are all happiness and champagne. (But don't worry, there is also still plenty of intrigue, including demon horsemen and murder and more restless spirits).

I adore Greer's green velvet dress (which is really saying something, because I don't like velvet), and these are a few of my other favorites:

SIDE BAR:

Leith and Greer has been one of my favorite side stories since the show first introduced it. I have always rooted for them and hoped that, somehow, they could be together. I always laughed a bit when Greer was sidled up with silly, more "appropriate" suitors that would provide her the security and status she so desperately needs. I laughed at poor Mr. Castleroy, whom she called Lord Peppercorn, who seemed like just another little sidetrack to her real romance with Leith.
But then bam! Peppercorn grew some healthy stubble on his face and put some product in his hair, and all of a sudden he's sultry and interesting and totally perfect for her!
Now I don't know what to do!

Ooh la la!

Okay - I loved this next outfit for several reasons. 

First of all, Mary is gorgeous in pink and gold. Secondly, I love sweet moments between Mary and Francis so much I can't stand it - especially when they're short-lived. I just want them to be happy for Pete's sake. Lastly, I recognized Mary's unique earrings from one of her season 1 outfits, which always makes me really excited for some reason.

This show actually reuses things here and there, and I enjoy spotting them. I've noticed them repeating items like earrings, belts, blouses, and other accessories throughout the 25+ episodes. I covet so much of their fashion that I have started to notice when something makes a reprise appearance. I love when they re-wear clothing and accessories because it feels more authentic. And when absolutely nothing else about the show is authentic, it makes for a funny and enjoyable little surprise!

Do you remember the season 1 outfit featuring these earrings? Hint: go here!)

I take that back - the show is authentic. Not authentically historical, but authentically Reign. It's a fantasy. They definitely know what they're doing. They're purposeful and creative and have made their own beautifully-clothed fiction. And we're all happier for it.
Except, as I mentioned, when bad men wear red leather and Leith gets his farm stolen.
But I digress.

This episode in particular made me cry. Not because of the demon horses, I might add.
I thought the ending of the episode was one of the saddest and most beautiful of them all, and it made me heartily curse the darn history books for revealing to me that Francis will die within a year of their marriage.
I'm just so glad they're in love and working together and that Mary is so kind and forgiving, and that Francis is sweet again and flying lanterns. I want their remaining time together to be good.
I'm also so hoping Reign can continue to create their own history so that Francis can just live and they can have babies and be happy forever and ever.

P.S. I have realized, after going through my first two Reign posts, that I have devoted entirely too little time to the wickedly talented and devious queen Catherine. I love her heartily, and I feel like her fashion has really come into its own these last several episodes. She has always had copious amounts of gorgeous jewels and crowns, but I think post-Henry life has been really freeing for her and her wardrobe. I promise to carve out a special Catherine portion in my next Reign post which, I fear, will be rather soon.

I just hope Nostradamus is back by then!

Major credit to Fashima's Fashion of Reign Tumblr, which is one of my favorite sources for Reign details! Check out her page for exact outfit and accessories info, as well as countless Reign-inspired conversations and inspirations. She's fantastic!

p.s. see all reign posts