Silver Screen Surroundings: Outlander, S1E8, Both Sides Now

"I've looked at love from both sides now..." as the song goes. This weeks 8th episode of Outlander marked the "mid-season finale" of Season 1, which won't return until April with eight more episodes covering Book 1 (also called Outlander) of the now eight book series. Starz has already announced their commitment to Season 2 (though I've heard they've only committed to twelve episodes). Season 2 will cover the second book in the series. There was a great hue and cry in the fandom when it was announced we'd be waiting until April 2015 for the remainder of Season 1. It does seem a long wait and it would have made more sense (to me at least) if they had simply said it was Season 1 and Season 2 versus a split season. But that's how hit cable programs roll these days. Mad Men did it and we're waiting nearly a year for the 2nd half of the final season.

Anyway, after last week's wedding episode, we see Jamie and Claire doing a lot of romantic "bonding" out in the heather and she learns to defend herself with a sgian-dubh, a small dagger usually concealed in a sock or boot. Good timing since she has ample cause to need it in this episode. In a departure from the original book, this episode features Frank Randall - Claire's 20 century husband - and the effects that her disappearance has had on him, his on-going search and belief, despite what those around him are saying, that she has not run off with another man.  The book was written in the first person, from Claire's point of view, which meant that while she conjectured that he must be frantic over her disappearance, we didn't actually "see" it happening. Readers were treated to how wonderful, nearly perfect, the Jamie character is, but our Frank experience was thin, at best. The reality is, however, that they had a marriage - separated by five years of war - and were working on re-kindling their romance; there was no reason to think that anything was particularly wrong between them. A flaw in Diana Gabaldon's first book (and it was the first book she ever wrote, written for practice having no though of it being published) was that the first person narrative left off an important aspect of Claire's moral dilemma of choosing between Frank and Jamie - the one where we needed to see that it was a choice with deep consequences. As it was, many readers simply decided that Frank was somehow bad and Jamie was all good - thus no pesky moral dilemma to deal with. It's a way more interesting story to be working in the "grey zone" than in such black and white terms.

Speaking of Grey, a funny that's been going around:

Reading fan comments has only highlighted this issue. So many have not liked the greater presence of the Frank character into the storyline  - they want it to be Jamie all the way and couldn't see how Claire could have any kind of conflict over this. (hello, wedding vows, anyone?)

The other bonus of the expanded Frank character is that we are treated with the exceptional acting skills of Tobias Menzies in the dual roles of  20th century Frank and 18th century John "Black Jack" Randall. Double roles can often come across as campy with exaggerated differences between the two, but Menzies has developed two distinct characters using only the subtlest of traits. He has also shown how the two characters have more similarities than just their looks, which is a slightly new twist on to the story. In my mind, he's the breakout among a very strong cast of actors.

So, this post will focus on a little of Frank's 20th century world. In the story, Frank and Claire were taking a second honeymoon just after the end of WW2 in the Scottish Highlands where they'd spent their first honeymoon. Part of the trip includes a visit to the Reverend Wakefield, a minister and part time historian, so Frank (also an historian) can learn more about his ancestor, Jack Randall. It all seems so fun and romantic until those blasted standing stones got in the way!

The Reverends house - the manse - in the book is described as large, but old, a little shabby, and overrun with papers and historical minutiea. The house in the show is a little grander and tidier than I think it's meant to be, but it sure is beautiful with its paneled walls and books galore. The last two shots above show Frank in what is presumably a guest room with a beautiful bed and gorgeous cabinets.

We're also treated to the introduction of a new character - little Roger Wakefield, née MacKenzie, who will feature prominently in future books.

So, in honor of Frank Randall (since we might not see much of him through the remainder of the series) I wanted to share some beautiful libraries, especially one's in bedrooms.

All images are linked here. 

If you've been watching, I'd love to hear your views of the show so far  and if you've read the books. I just started #7 "An Echo in the Bone". # 8, Written in My Own Heart's Blood" was released this summer, so I'll soon be caught up. I started with Book 1 this past spring and have been working my way through them. If you have read them, you will know that each are between 800-1000 pages.

Silver Screen Surroundings: Outlander S1E7: The Wedding

So, in this week's Outlander, we finally get to the episode all Outlander book fans have been waiting for. The wedding! It's an arranged marriage, basically forced upon Claire, in order to make her Scottish and protect her from the evil British Army Captain Randall. (Meanwhile, she still has a 20th century husband whom she loves).  This is a complicated tale of lost love and new beginnings, the potential for death and dismemberment around every corner and 18th century customs and superstitions meeting 20th century budding feminism. It's not a simple romance (where we'd have had bodices ripping by the end of the first episode) and things aren't always as they first appeared. The episode itself is quite simple: Claire and Jamie get married and how that was pulled off, and, what they each did during the day to prepare. Claire drinks - a lot - while Jamie and his cohort see to the details of obtaining the dress, the groom's family tartan, the ring, the church, the priest and by the end, gawping ear-witnesses to the consummation so that everything is all legal. Certainly, things are turned on their heads as the groom does all the work (and comes to the union a virgin) while the bride is drowning her sorrows trying to forget her troubles.

All that said, a dramatic wedding always has great costume potential and this one did not disappoint. Costume designer Terry Dresbach and her team truly created a showstopping masterpiece for Claire's dress. Terry's blog offers a lot of back story, how they made the dress (3000 hours of work!), historical references and more.  One of the most notable aspects of the Outlander books is the detail that author Diana Gabaldon gets into. Every physical detail of the characters and their clothes was described. Eagle-eyed readers are looking out for the smallest details and some have been very vocal with their disappointment if even a hair is not the right shade or texture, or that actress Caitroina Balfe's (Claire) eyes are blue and not the perfect shade of "sherry" colored eyes described so often in the book.

So, for the production team to bring its own creativity to the table, they are potentially pissing off the rabid fan base. It's kind of like designing for the most picky client in the world (times thousands) who wants everything exactly so and nothing less will do.  This is not to dis the fans (I am one, after all) - it's just that the author created a million monsters with her attention to detail.

Anyway, there's not much to the set decor. It's set in a wayside inn somewhere and while there's some pretty atmosphere, the accommodations are, as they would have been, pretty basic. It's all about Claire and Jamie getting to know one another, and of course,  their costumes.

Claire's gown features silver metal embroidered acorns and leaves falling to the ground. They used real metal strips, not metallic embroidery yard, and painted a patina on them. Again, if costume design is of interest, check out Terry Dresbach's blog.

The costumes themselves are so detailed and glorious that it's easy enough to use them as inspirations for beautiful interior details:

This Anthropologie bedding reminded me of the sleeves on the dress.

This palette with its mix of grays and sheer fabrics, rough woods and a little sparkle captures the essence of the dress.

And perhaps a little more sparkle. Note: they used shaved mica to create a sparkle in the dress. Also note, Season 2 of the series will bring us to the Court of Louis XV in France - so we'll certainly finally have some wonderful interiors as well as costumes!

I thought the shirring of the fabric underneath the canopy reminded me of the structure and gathers of the skirt.

And now, for a few moment's with our bridegroom, James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser.  In the book, his borrowed clothes were bright red.  For the series, they decided to have Jamie want to wear his own clan tartan, which was created for the show to be related, though not the same, as the muted MacKenzie clan tartan. Up until this point, Jamie has been a "simple" young man (he's only 23) - an ex-mercenary soldier,  a stable hand and a MacKenzie clan relative with a price on his head. Claire doesn't even know is real last name until the wedding because he's in hiding from the British. So, it initially seems that Claire is marrying "down" - someone younger, less experienced and not as sophisticated. His education was briefly referenced a few episodes back, but they have intentionally kept his true depths a little hidden. In fact, the character speaks several languages, including Latin and Greek, was educated in Paris, and is surprisingly sophisticated. He's Claire's match and his wedding cloths had to symbolize his true status - though he is poor, he is technically Laird of his own estate and had a deep seeded sense of honor and chivalry that would make most women swoon. 

And, speaking of swoon-worthy - not so much the stable hand here:

As for inspiring interiors - two names came immediate to mind: Ralph Lauren and my friend and fellow decorator and blogger Scot Meacham Wood:

Scot Meacham Wood's living room (aka Tartan Scot)

Note: all links and credits to above images here. 

Only one more episode before the mid-season hiatus of the show, to return in January, along with Downton Abbey and Mad Men. There are lots of sad faces out here in tv land!

Everyone's a Critic: The Harshness of Online Commentary

House Beautiful magazine recently posted an article on their website called The Ugly Side of Beautiful Rooms: Design in the Age of Internet Comments. The article, written by Annmarie Dooling, talks about the invective spewed online in comments sections and why people feel that it's okay to say things online that they wouldn't say in person. As the article says:

You'd never walk into someone's home and say "Vomit." So why is this happening so often online?

Of course, anyone who has been hanging out in the blogosphere as long as I have (since 2005!) knows that online comments are the worst. That the magazines are just getting around to noticing this is probably because they are pushing so much content out on places like their Facebook feeds that they are clearly inviting comments, which includes all the rude ones too. 

Reading this, I was reminded of all the negative comments I received when my condo kitchen makeover was published on various websites and was a featured in The Boston Globe and Country Woman magazine. 

This was the before. Clearly. A tiny little space with dark knotty pine cabinets and no storage space. 

Here is the after (photo by Michael J. Lee) that is on my website and was featured on Apartment Therapy and Shelterpop.

And this the version reshot by Michael for Country Woman magazine.

And this was the pic shot by The Boston Globe. (sadly, I didn't think to stage the space with flowers or pretty pots and pans - I had no idea what they would be shooting and this ended up pretty bare bones).

The "hook" on all these articles was that I'd done most of the work myself (with a dear friend) and spent less than $500, excluding appliances which were given to me in trade. If you've been reading for a while, you'll undoubtedly remember this project which I detailed extensively.

Now, the thing is, design is subjective. Tastes vary and what I like isn't what you will like. But just because I don't love orange doesn't mean it's wrong, or "vomitous". I'd happily use it in a client project if that's what they wanted. My little kitchen makeover was not for everyone - of course. Decisions were made based on space available, my skills at remaking things, and a very strict budget.  This, of course, is true of any design project. Budget, the functional needs and tastes of the client, the space and more all play a part in the final outcome. And a single photo doesn't usually capture all this "back story". Yet the comments can be overwhelmingly negative. When the now defunct Shelterpop ran the story of my kitchen, it resulted in many, many comments and most were negative. A large majority thought the before was better (seriously?). Several hated the window treatment, someone suggested it looked like a garbage bag, many hated the counter skirt. I was even taken to task for adding storage under the new counter because it meant I had too much stuff. Several people we offended that I received the appliances in trade and refused to believe this was possible - therefor it wasn't really a $500 makeover. Of course, "$500 Makeover!" made for a good headline and certainly, the appliances added a few thousand. But even with the old appliances in place, the change would have been substantial. After Shelterpop ran their article, Apartment Therapy picked it up and posted a few photos. I will say, their comments were generally much better and more constructive.

The first comment was what I would consider a total "win" when it comes to constructive criticism. (Maybe I think so because I totally agreed.) I would have loved to do a tailored skirt, but a gathered skirt was so much easier to carry off, a tailored skirt required a lot of math and planning, which at the time I wasn't that interested in doing. And I loved the banding idea as well.

The second comment is, as they say, ridiculous. Tell us why it was ridiculous! Was it the burlap? That it was a skirt at all? Of course, I would have loved to install a nicer counter with cabinets below. But not for less than $500. Instead, it was an old door mounted on a frame and attached to the wall with plastic shelving below, and then covered up with the skirt. It was all about function.  But, rather than just saying "ridiculous" (I guess it's better than "vomit") tell us what would have improved it - like the first commenter did. Obviously, comment three came to my defense. And comment four managed to do both a compliment (always should be first) and then a criticism. And that was fine. They were right - burlap isn't exactly elegant. But it is cheap and it was trendy a few years ago when I did this.

When negative commenters are criticized - they usually fall back on the tired old notion that all people want are rainbows and sunshine types of comments. Not true! As the examples above show - you can be critical and say you don't like something without being rude and obnoxious about it. Some people assume it's jealously on the part of the commenter. I've never really believed this is true 100% of the time. I think there are people who just feel better about themselves when they can be critical of things - it makes them feel somehow smarter.  And, I think there are people who just aren't that smart and don't have the vocabulary to launch a true criticism of what they are seeing.

Sadly, this type of negative commentary isn't the purview of non-professionals. A few years ago there was a designer who had written a book about things they didn't like about other people's houses. This somewhat snarky headline was used to help sell the book which actually had great advice about how to improve one's home. There was also a Facebook page where they posted groupings of house photos within a theme and invited the "fans" to comment. When it starts with "things I hate..." you can only imagine the direction that the comments will take. Now, I had interviewed this person not once but twice. We had a professional relationship of a sort. I was always uncomfortable with their brand of snarky criticism, but largely ignored it. Until one of my own project photos popped up as an example of a bad rental property.

It was grouped with several supposed waterfront rental houses (this was not a rental house) that were considered by this designer and followers to be nasty and worthy of invective. One of the comments really got me - something to the effect that it looked like "grandma's furniture". In fact, the client was a Grandma and it was her furniture. Everything was criticized from the color palette, the furniture and the window treatments, that it was too formal for a beach setting. Now, I will admit, the photograph (which I took myself) did not do the room justice. I was just happy to get the outside and inside matched up (two different exposures merged together - a personal photographic victory!). Without knowing any of the context, these supposed design critics just had a field day. For instance, the valance was too wide and empty on the left side - why didn't the window treatments split in the middle versus being stack right? Well, because the door opened left to right and the clients wanted to be able to sleep with the window open at times, yet still be covered. You can't do that if the drapes are split in the middle. The 10' wide window required a lot of fabric and the drapery had blackout lining. Needless to say, the stack back on the right was very wide and in order to be able to fully open the drapes off the windows to showcase the view, they had to be hung as wide as they were.  All this is to say that there is usually more to the story than meets the eye in a photo. In this case, the client, a realtor, was selling her home and wanted to play up the ocean view. We redid the entire master suite with this in mind.  The house sold in a bidding war the first weekend it was on the market for well over the asking price. She loved it, it served its purpose; to me, that's a successful design.

But how offensive was it that a fellow designer would use (without permission obviously) a photo from someone else's portfolio as part of their "let's make fun of this design!" Facebook page??  When I emailed them, demanding that it be taken down, it was. The blame, however, was put on a "fan" who had sent in the photo. (Note, my URL was not on the image at the time this happened).

So, the rude comments don't just come from those who don't know better, are "jealous",  are merely trolls, or who are perhaps lacking in sufficient language skills to provide thoughtful commentary. Sometimes, the negativity is fomented by industry insiders and those who just find it fun to make fun. Shame.

If you don't like something, that's ok. Most designers and clients can take legitimate criticism. But nastiness for its own sake is, oh, what's the word?

Ridiculous.

Silver Screen Surroundings: Outlander, S1E6 The Garrison Commander

For the most part, Outlander is very much an "outside" story. There's lots of sleeping rough on the road, horse riding through the Highlands, campfires and buggy roadside inns. In other words, unlike Downton Abbey, there's not much in the way of fine interiors and "Get that look" opportunities.  So, while I adore the story and this television production, I am a little starved for just some pretty set decorating.  This week's episode on Starz features a very beautiful interior (finally!) that could be brought right into the present day.

Our heroine, Claire, is still looking for a way back to the standing stones in hopes of getting back to her own time and husband. So, when a British officer comes across her in the company of the Scottish MacKenzie's on the road and takes interest in her welfare, she's all too happy to head off with them in hopes they will give her transport closer to where she needs to go. By this time, however, she has developed an affection for the Scots and isn't interested in turning them in for holding her captive - though they have in truth been holding her against her will.

Most of the episode takes place in the dining room of a British Garrison in a small town in the Highlands. Claire joins a group of British officers who at first seem very cordial and "her people".

Well, cordial to Claire, an English Rose as she's called, but not so much to Dougal who has accompanied her to the Garrison. Dougal (on Claire's right) is treated with great disdain by the British  as at the time they saw the Scots, in particular the Highlander's, as nothing short of un-educated savages and barbarians.

Claire has managed to charm the officers and has received an offer to be escorted back to Inverness (which is near the standing stones) without implicating the MacKenzies in any way and she's ready to be on her way. And then enters Captain "Black Jack" Randall, who is Claire's 20th century husband's ancestor (both characters are played by Tobias Menzies in a real tour de force performance).  Randall, who is clearly disliked by his fellow officers, manages to put into question why Claire spent so much time with the MacKenzie's if she is so innocent - even accusing her of bedding Dougal. Needless to say, she takes umbrage with this but he keeps needling her until she loses her temper and shows support for the Scots and criticizes the British for being occupiers. Well, them's fighting words, obviously. Eventually, Claire is left alone with Randall, who proceeds to question her loyalties and to show his hand for being the sinister and depraved character that he truly is.  While Claire keeps trying to find some good in him (since he is her husband's ancestor) he plays on this weakness of hers in a devastating way. While recounting how he flayed open Jaime's back a couple of years before in excruciating detail, he's showing how much he got off on the lashing and how he felt that Jaime played a part in the macabre dance by refusing to yell out or ask for mercy. The flashbacks are gruesome and even when the visual is only Randall talking in the dining room to Claire, we still hear the lash. I had to turn the sound off and look away for a bit - it was that awful. All the while, he's allowing her believe that he feels deep guilt for his behavior and she's thinking that he's possibly redeemable. And then he punches her in the gut - literally.

In a scene not from the book, we see Randall being shaved by his servant using a bone handled straight knife.

Here's a closeup where the blade looks fairly new:

While Claire's is watching him being shaved, she flashes back (forward?) to having shaved her husband Frank with the very same straight edge blade - which he says was a family heirloom. In this closeup, we see the blade with over 200 years of aging.

In doing research on the set decorator Gina Cromwell, I ran across a website for Whetton & Grosch who are model and props makers in England.

They made the prop blades both "new" and "aged". It's a small detail - recreating a straight edge to be new and then aged 200 years -  and one I wouldn't have necessarily noticed - that makes this production so special. From the costumes (by designer Terry Dresbach) to the props and sets - production designer John Gary Steele is creating a world that is true down to the small details that may not even be noticeable, but are so authentic.

If you check Whetton & Grosch's website, you will see other familiar props - including Mr. Bates' doomed leg brace from the first season of Downton Abbey.

Next week's episode is the one all Outlander fans (especially the women) have been waiting for - "The Wedding"!

Silver Screen Surroundings: Outlander S1E5 - "The Rent" plus, visiting a wattle house

In this week's episode, our heroine Claire is taken on the road with a pack of MacKenzie men to collect the rents from outlying tenant farmers who hadn't been able to make it to The Gathering at Castle Leoch. War Chieftan Dougal figures it would be good to have a healer along and Claire sees it as an opportunity to get out of the castle and perhaps closer to the standing stones and maybe even back to the 20th century.

At one of the stops, Claire finds a group of women who are singing a working song which aids in the rhythm (and helps pass the time, no doubt) while they prepare a large piece of heavy wool for dyeing. Such preparation includes pounding hot urine into the fabric which helps it accept dyes, notably indigo colors, and sets the color quicker. (see more information on this process here).

Edited to add: I came across a blog Three if by Space who is reviewing the series. She clarifies that it's called "waulking" the wool, not working, though they are probably related words. Anyway, she has a link to a video showing more modern woman doing the same thing with the wool and singing along with the series. Click here to view.

As this is an "on the road" episode, there aren't too many interior scenes, with the singular exception of the straw wattle house where the ladies do much of their work - and relaxing.

Wattle and daub huts have been around for millennia. This is a wonderful brief video on how they are built.

I thought it surprising that the hut used in the show still had open walls that have not been filled in with daub. The photo below shows the thatched roofs over more traditional wattle and daub structures on the right and middle, with the more open structure on the left.

I'm not sure if this is typical as my initial thought was that there would be no protection from the cold wind and rains in the Scottish Highlands, not to mention the wood would deteriorate very quickly. Plus, one errant spark from the fireplace or a candle and whoosh - there goes your romantic looking structure.

To this day, wattle fences are still very popular and are certainly very pretty.

Source unknown

image via Vogue

One of the first times I remember seeing a wattle fence was in the movie "A Room With A View" in front of the house rented by the Mr. Emerson's. (view below from inside the house).

Back to the Outlander set - I can't help but wonder if they chose to leave the ends of the house walls open structure to let in more natural light for filming, or perhaps just for atmospherics?

Well, it's pretty, nonetheless.

Meanwhile, that table looks like it's straight out of the Restoration Hardware catalogue.

Claire and Dougal MacKenzie square off

One of the most brilliant (though sometimes also the most tedious) aspects of the books is the level of detail author Diana Gabaldon gets into, particularly the nastier parts of traveling "rough", sleeping on the ground, wearing the same clothes day in and day out and little bathing.  Unfortunately, so far in the series, the producers aren't ready for the star Caitroina Balfe to look quite so unkempt as all that and in this episode, she looks a little too clean and pressed through out  to be plausible. Recalling this part of the book, Claire basically had one dress which she wore day in and day out. Her wardrobe, supposedly cobbled together at the castle from discarded clothing,  looks brand new and perfectly fitted to her. More importantly, it never looks dirty, even after she's pitched in  working the wool, which had to be a dirty, sweaty and messy task. Yet, her white scarf is as starched looking as it ever was. I would argue nothing kept in a traveling bag would be particularly pressed looking. Dougal, in the photo above payed by Graham MacTavis, is the second most important member of the Clan MacKenzie after his brother the Laird. On this trip, he was the man in charge, the boss and owner to whom all the crofters were paying their rents and asking for advice. His clothing would naturally be the best and most impressive among the men and yet he looks travel weary and his white neck cloth more appropriately grimy looking as compared to Claire's. The harshness of the setting is all a part of what Claire faces and we're not at all seeing that natural degradation brought on by lack of soap, hot water and a change of clothes.

Still loving the series though!