Ode to a Brown Cardigan

[@linziharvey2518]

This is what the internet should be for. I could watch videos like this all day long! 😂

[@stanceymackenzie]

I am so glad you think so, this is the sort of thing that makes me very happy and I am so pleased that sharing it pleases others too.

[@sarah.sparkles]

Love this video and would love to see more costume spotting videos

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thats lovely thank you very much. I do have one or two other garments I think about a lot.

[@debcarroll8192]

I love the cardigan you are wearing, with the little puff to the sleeve. It's lovely.

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thank you, I have a few of them in different shades of brown, they are from Emmy Design Sweden.

[@LadyLJOII]

This is why Constance MacKenzie's channel clicks with me. :-) I have seen the movies of I Take The Castle, The Easy Virtue (oh, that dog), and I love both of them. The cardigan got past me, I usually notice those things. I noticed the costumes for the 1970's-80's BBC versions of Jane Austen's P&P, Emma, S&S, Persuasion, etc where they repeated using the costumes, especially the ladies. It caught my eye. And I love the Robert Hardy version of ACG&S. They have a wondrous cast, but Mrs. Hall is my favorite character.

[@stanceymackenzie]

I am really glad you enjoyed it and it is fun seeing how all those frocks get worn again and again.

[@stanceymackenzie]

And I do love the ACG&S it sometimes can't help but look a bit 70s even though a lot of the clothes must be 30s and they where not so old clothes then when it was being made.

[@geraldinefields1730]

I love seeing vintage clothes. Thank you.

[@stanceymackenzie]

its fun isn't it.

[@atorres8760]

You must have popped up on my feed because I was looking for a knit cardigan pattern. I stayed because how could you not? Drinking martinis on a coal scuttle while waxing lyrical about a cardigan? I’m here for it.

[@stanceymackenzie]

I am delighted you stayed considering this was not what you where looking for.

[@lisahodges8299]

I am so impressed. I though that I was the only person who obsesses with costume pieces. I first started when I visited the Grave Darling museum as a child. Birdy

[@stanceymackenzie]

Oh I am obsessed alright and there are many of us out there.

[@kateh9694]

A brown dress with a cream trim on the upper body worn by Keira Knightley in P&P 2005 was also worn by Charity Wakefield in 2008 Sense and Sensibility. It is even featured on the cover of the dvd :D

[@stanceymackenzie]

I think I know the one you mean I’ll have a look.

[@cadileigh9948]

OOh 2 in one week !. Thank you don't watch Films but will look for the 2nd book/play. First fell in love with I capture the Castle as a teenager and was lucky, after school and before art school ,to work as village librarian in a castle gatehouse with moat and swans nest under the window slot and a crumbley Elizabethan house within the walls but far from SE England. Wanted tea dresses like Topaz loaned to Rose and eventually got a couple for 10p each when Oxfam shops first happened and old ladies donated. Am about to start knitting a sensible soft thick Norwegian wool I bought for £2 again in Oxfam 50+ years later. A cardigan to replace my winter fuel allowance.

[@stanceymackenzie]

I have not managed to read the play of Easy Virtue, but I did go and see another play of Dodie Smiths at the National Theatre this spring, its was called Beautiful Octopus, it was also set in the 30s and it had some similar feels to I capture the castle of a sprawling 30s family and there sagas.

[@TMIvey-gk4mw]

What a sharp eye you have! I actually apply the same principles when thrifting at my local Goodwill store. If I see a piece of clothing that matches one that I already own, regardless of size, I will buy it in hopes of making it into something else that can coordinate with the original item, or have it as mending fabric in the event the original garment gets damaged, or to alter the original garment using the found piece as extra fabric. Fourth option if it is one size up or down from the original can be a back up in the event of weight fluctuations.

[@stanceymackenzie]

Excellent plan my Mother does this with when she finds repeat garments in charity shops, I am more likely to buy something that I feel I can use the fabric to make it into something more me.

[@ykaylow1803]

Another video bringing such joy !

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thank you.

[@bdoll1012]

Lovely video, you have a great eye for detail, that was interesting and we can all wonder about the history about the Brown Cardigan! Thank you!

[@stanceymackenzie]

I am glad you liked it, thank you.

[@petapendlebury9024]

I'm happy for you to have all the brown knitwear! I'm more of a navy/grey fan. I too love spotting stuff like this. Although modern I'm currently watching, and enjoying, Will Trent. His sidekick in the series sports quite a lot of fetching knitted vests! Loved the very small cameo of ear tips 😺

[@stanceymackenzie]

A knitted vest/tank top is always nice. Yes the dog was lying down between me and the camera. I actively encouraged him to sit with me for the All Creature’s Great and Small bit, but he had none of it. There’s various clips of him standing right in front of me while I’m trying to film as well.

[@kjtherrick4031]

Thank you for this very interesting recap of these books and their movies or telecasts. It's fantastic that the same sweater has been used in several productions for more than 40 years. Of course, now I will absolutely be keeping an eye out for recycled costumes! I'm fairly sure that some of my favorite costumes in various Hollywood productions of old were nevery reused, which frankly, is quite sad because many were gorgeous and deserved more of a life on film or in the real world.

[@stanceymackenzie]

It's great to see items more than once, and from following the Recycled Movie Costume account I have seen a few old Hollywood costumes that where use quite a few times, sometimes remodelled or trimmed for different performers.

[@katewill7302]

Bravo! I love everything about this video. Everything!!! Well done!! Subject, filming, location… looking for a stool to sit on while I have a cocktail in the kitchen, might also need an aga… the intertwining about multiple subjects in a clear way… Bravo!!

[@stanceymackenzie]

I am so glad you liked it, its not actually cold enough for me to sit right by the Aga just yet but I do gravitate towards it naturally.

[@annacatherinesendgikoski1965]

A cardigan, brown and cream, I can't imagine you waxing lyrical about anything else, my friend! A new series is in order, Constance from the Kitchen Floor or How I keep warm next to the Aga!

[@stanceymackenzie]

I am sitting in a tin bath which is a reference to a key scene in I Capture the Castle, but you can't really see it as my skirt covers it up

[@annacatherinesendgikoski1965]

@stanceymackenzie I knew it must be referencing something! Also, the...martini! LOL

[@stanceymackenzie]

Who doesn't have a martini in the bath?

[@annacatherinesendgikoski1965]

@@stanceymackenzie I'm slipping then! I can honestly say that at 60, I apparently have yet to live! 🤣

[@stanceymackenzie]

In my days of drinking it was actually more likely to be a beer but nowadays it's going to be a cup of tea.

[@annemarieskidmore5194]

Love this, Constance, miss my aga use to sit in the dog beds with the dogs as we all dried off. ❤

[@stanceymackenzie]

we used to have all four of us sitting in front of it, that consisting of our old dog, the barn cat and my partner and I. Our new dog is less keen on sitting near it as he has too much coat to ever need and additional heat source.

[@ladyedith]

Love this! There are a couple of pieces I've seen re-used in other productions. Both starting in Dr Who. Sarah Janes 'holiday' dress seen at the end of Seeds of Doom ( the red polka dot number) is also worn by Betty in the episode of Some Mothers Do Have 'em with the car half way off the cliff. Also Sarah Janes 'Andy Pandy' dungarees aooear on Carol in the Liver Birds - though I don't think it's the same dungarees as SJ's had stars embroidered on the chest pocket and I seem to remember Carols didn't.

[@stanceymackenzie]

I love the fact you have spotted some Doctor Who costume reuses especially on my favourite girl Sarah Jane, very likely those items went into the BBC costume store and got reused on even more occasions

[@jayneterry8701]

I like that your sitting in the wash tub 😂 . Kept staring at the wrinkled blue towel 😅 🩷

[@stanceymackenzie]

I did wonder if I should give it an iron beforehand but I only pressed the front of the dress before I sat down, the Towel is actually one I dyed green to make it more practical and a tribute to dying the clothes green from the book and film of I Capture the Castle.

[@782sirbrian]

Something I never paid attention to, but I shall from now on !

[@stanceymackenzie]

I hope you do, I find it entertaining

[@grizeldamayhem]

The great existential questions of my teen years centered on why Cassandra didn’t love Stephen. 😂. Dodie Smith had such an interesting life. All the volumes of her autobiography are great reads.

[@stanceymackenzie]

Such an interesting women I remember listening to the screenwriter for the film version of I capture the castle incorporated some of the events of Dodie Smiths autobiography into the film.

[@c.w.3750]

I've no idea why sitting on a huge pot in the kitchen whilst drying a towel and writing but why not, It's more interesting than I thought it would be. I've seen none of these movies but read the books.

[@stanceymackenzie]

The bath and the towel on on the clothes rack is referencing Cassandra having her bath in front of the fire And the towel is green in relation to them dying their clothes and bedding green in the book and film. And the writing is referencing her diary but I don’t fit in our kitchen sink.

[@c.w.3750]

@@stanceymackenzie I knew there'd be an answer. Situationally it's interesting and now it all comes together. I'll have to watch the movie.

[@DAYBROK3]

as a canadian we didnt get to see the vet stories until the early 80s, i vaguely remember reading the take the castle book, i often read my kids books cause i used to be a crazy reader

[@stanceymackenzie]

I really enjoyed the Herriot books as a teenager and although I watched the film of I capture the castle before the book it only wetted my appetite to read the book and its now a firm favourite.

[@Nessi-dances]

That is a very "you" cardigan! Good eye, spotting it in the 1970s show! 💜

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thank you it has been on my radar for a good ten years now and I really was delighted when I saw it on All Creatures Great and Small

[@hagstoneshouses]

This was so interesting ❤

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thank you.

[@lynnsaull5723]

It definitely seems machine made, it looks like it has very flat finish, I know handmade Fairisle jumpers and cardigans are slightly bulkier. I only know because my mum used to knit, and crochet, garments that were photographed for the front of knitting patterns. I remember her making several Fairisle jumpers and cardigans, in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I would watch in fascination as she produced these complex garments, with wool and a few sheets of badly typed A4. The general colour scheme was browns, creams, greens and heather colours, which I believe are traditional. My requests for one were not so politely refused, and unfortunately my own knitting skills are not up to producing one.

[@Dianestitchcraftrelax]

Thank you.

[@lynneeie5226]

Wonderful intro!! With me, it would be a grey cardigan & I am not among the hawk eyed, sadly! My husband, the farmer, is quick to notice a sudden change of season & back again, or the tracks made by tractors in the fields of a “medieval” wheatfield… makes me laugh, because I don’t notice at all!

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thank you, I do notice the farming stuff too although not as much as my partner, I make this part of the fun of watching rather than considering spoiling it. Although I am sure other people watching it might be less inclined to think so. So is it a particular Grey Cardigan you like?

[@lynneeie5226]

Nothing particular - altho if I were to knit a colorwork sweater it would be in grey & cream… so your beige is my all things grey. I have two wool cardigans I alternate - both grey! One charcoal & light grey (Kate Davis’ Epistrophy. And a vintage (1980s but very ageless pattern) wool cardi with pockets I have recently gotten from my mother. They are my staples in winter. There are two or three traditional Norwegian or Icelandic sweaters I have in mind & then the Victorian pattern Mijn Wolden made from handspun yarn also appeals. But - Halloween stripey short socks & then winter beret & mittens are next in line.

[@infantteacher1]

Can you look at the costumes in David Mamet's version of The Winslow Boy. Subscribed. Lovely - thank you.

[@stanceymackenzie]

I can certainly have a look, it’s not one I know, is there any garment in particular you want me to look out for?

[@beefitze7281]

you may also like to discover , the newer series of All creatures ...has some lovely costumes, Young James Herriot , a small island, dancing on the egde any Stephen Poliakoff film , island at war , dance to the music of time, their finest , outlander, gosford park all come to mind for evocative clothes of the time, btw the cardigan could almost be an early missoni , film lights and contrast colours will change the look, how nice to see how well the reuse the costumes, ;;::)))

[@stanceymackenzie]

I think I have seen all but the Young Herriot series that you mentioned and they do indeed have some great costumes and some absolutely cracking knitwear. I have only seen the first series of the new All Creatures Great and Small as I had just rewatched the original and I find they need to be viewed very much as separate entities to avoid comparisons. Gosford Park is one of my favourite films and although I remember the buss around it when it came out at the cinema I did not see it till may years later and both the visual and written story telling is fantastic. I adore all the Tweed.

[@jacquec9768]

I'm sorry are you sitting on a washtub

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thank you. I am indeed sitting in a tin bath, its in reference to quite a pivotal scene in the first story I talk about happening while Cassandra is taking a bath in front of the fire. That was the best I could manage.

[@pheart2381]

I haven't noticed a repeat garment appearance,but I have noticed a clam-shaped sewing basket in 2 or more productions. My favourite costume series at the moment is the Flambards series,which aired in the 80s and is now on KZbin. The shoes..the coats...the hats...I want them all!! Another recent discovery is Maelstrom,set in Norway before designer labels became the absolute fetish they sadly are now.

[@stanceymackenzie]

Oh that is really eagle eyed spotting well done, I don't know the Flambards when is it set or is it contemporary to the 80s? I am watching a 1960s series at the moment and the fashions of the 60s so none of the clothing really does anything for me on the men or women so I just watch the cars which are also a bit modern for me but I am still enjoying it.

[@pheart2381]

@@stanceymackenzie Flambards is set in the Edwardian era mainly. I think the reason I like the clothes in the series is because they are their ordinary everyday outfits for the most part. They are not trying to impress anybody,but the tailoring and fabrics are lovely. Her jacket at the train station 😍😍😍

[@stanceymackenzie]

That does indeed sound like a good series to watch.

[@bastelkiste2242]

Thanks , dear algorithm for this

[@stanceymackenzie]

I am glad you enjoyed it, thank you.

[@amyscottrobinson3254]

That’s amazing! I have never been eagle-eyed enough to spot a repeated costume, but that may be because it has never occurred to me that might be a thing - I’ll be on the lookout now! I love both versions of James Herriot. What do you think of the costumes in the new one on channel 5? I want pretty much every jumper Helen wears. The puff sleeved brown fairisle one in season 4 in particular.

[@stanceymackenzie]

Its funny how we all have different things we watch out for, I miss quite a few things about cars that my partner points out stuff that will completely pass me by. I watched the first series of the new series I did enjoy it, I think that I watched it too close to watching the old series so I could not view it in its own right. But it does look nice and there is some lovely knitwear, although the main garment I remember Helen wearing that I liked was a sort of pull on waterproof with a hood.

[@michellecornum5856]

I hope you encounter it in person, one day. Maybe, even recreate it?

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thank you I hope to see it too but I am not sure I have the colour work or machine knitting abilities to make it myself

[@GM-qq1wi]

Damnnn. You're good

[@stanceymackenzie]

Thank you.

[@michelemilne9612]

I love the scene where Topaz dyes all their clothes green 💚

[@stanceymackenzie]

Me too and that is why I had a towel I have dyed green on my clothes horse in the video.

[@SaoirseGraves]

There is a dusty pink pelisse that makes an appearance in several regency era films (though I didn't see it on the recycled movie costume pages!) ... Aunt Gardiner is wearing it in the 1995 P&P when she and Uncle Gardiner set to 'walk in the direction of the church'. I'm fairly certain the same one shows up on Louisa in the 1995 Persuasion... and I'm sure I've seen it at least in one other film though I can't remember which at the moment. I love the colour of it though personally would dislike most regency on myself (and I would also dislike the likelihood that it would cause people to ask if I've seen Bridgeton - I haven't) *and* my ego would have me believe I'm a bit too 'goth' for a long pink pelisse 🤣👻😅 I love the nerdery and attention to detail in this video!!!

[@stanceymackenzie]

Hello, thank you so much for your answer, I am glad my nerdiness has a small audience. I have just found myself googling Aunt Gardiner 1995, I think I have found it and next time I watch the Amanda Root Persuasion (My Favourite) I will keep an eye out for it. I do have a reasonable amount of pin regency clothing but I have not watched Bridgerton ether, I am delighted that other people enjoy it and have fun with the costumes but its not really for me( although I have read a huge amount of regency romance novels that it developed from so I have definitely indulged in that world.)

[@SaoirseGraves]

@@stanceymackenzie 😁🤎 That Persuasion is also my favourite! The clothes look so lived in for a start! EDIT - Ah! Just remembered, I think the pelisse in Persuasion may be a different one but the other place I have seen it is on Charlotte in the 80s P&P (which I also love but for more personal pedantic reasons.)

[@stanceymackenzie]

Oh why do you like the 80s P&P, I also like that one and when I was a student I wrote a paper comparing the 80s 90s and a bit of the 2005 P&P costume design.

[@SaoirseGraves]

@@stanceymackenzie What a great paper topic! I think it's the most literally accurate to the text but oddly still seems to get certain details twisted in that way that, I guess I just enjoy. In my opinion, it's got the best Mr Collins and the most elegant Aunt Gardiner (she looks amazing in rust colours!). It gives me a lot of little details to absorb and question... I like it's portrayal of music (ex., Lizzie sings Ashgrove with Brahms, who wasnt born yet, in front of her!?). The costuming isn't the most 'historically accurate' but it always gives me something to observe deeply. It makes me want to make and wear partlets/chemisettes like Lizzie's. I love Mrs. Bennet's house clothes. Lizzie's stays also give me a lot to think about ...and I wonder things like if costume elements were somewhat left to an actor's preference and comfort? Kitty, specifically, never seems to have historically influenced under layers on. Etc etc etc. (Sorry for the long answer!)

[@cypriennezed5640]

The cardigan is haunting you! 😆

[@stanceymackenzie]

I’m very happy for it to do that.

[@Cellottia]

I clicked on this for a poem… Perhaps I’ll write it myself…

[@stanceymackenzie]

I hope it was not a disappointment, and I hope you do get to write your own poem.

[@alibabafurball]

I really try to be delusional and say to myself ...no this can't be the same as the other film lol.

[@stanceymackenzie]

Is this because you do not want to break the magic of it being a story in isolation? As I work in the film industry I have already broken all the spells and get great pleasure in looking out for costumes, locations and cars that are used over and over again.

[@alibabafurball]

@@stanceymackenzie you got it, even the fabric in the 12th century play can't be the same in the 18th century play lol. I love to immerse myself in the magic of the illusion on the screen. Somewhat like how people look at a painting and know it isn't real, but a depiction of reality. Some paint very well like davinci in almost a 3d appearance when you see it to other that are not so good. It is the not so good that you have to get more delusional about what you are looking at lol.