Lady Felicia’s Fashions in “The Honourable Thief”
Whenever Lady Felicia Montague appears on “Father Brown,” I stay tuned for the fashions as much as the mystery. Lady Felicia, played by Nancy Carroll, is the wealthy and well-connected parishioner who gets to wear all that is most stylish in the 1950s. So you see her here in “The Honourable Thief” from Season 7 Episode 10. She is wearing a navy and white dress, with matching hat worn at a rakish angle. The slim bodice sports a modified lapel and peek-a-boo opening while the long skirt flares out below with petticoats beneath. You see her with the always proper Mrs. McCarthy, parish secretary, played by Sorcha Cusack who wears a less dramatic, but harmonizing dress and jacket ensemble. Although Lady Felicia is in a bank on the day when she has to auction off some jewels, her dress seems better suited to an afternoon garden party.
Indeed, Lady Felicia also wears wonderful suits, which would have been a common item in the wardrobe of any well-dressed woman in the 1950s for formal and public daytime occasions in the city and banks especially. This rusty number is fitted, with lapels, cut-away front opening, trimming at the hipline (and possibly pockets) in an era when some hip width was considered essential to showing off a trim waistline. Notice that it is definitely a woman’s suit and not just a blazer borrowed from menswear. Mature and sophisticated woman wore such formal clothing regularly.
In contrast, we have the usually casual attire suited to women under 30 of young Bunty, Lady Felicia’s niece. Played by Emer Kenney, Bunty was sent to the countryside because she made too much trouble in London and she wears sporty, tight capri pants and a boatneck shirt with the classic French sailor stripes. Fortunately, in this episode, she also needs to distract a villain with her wily, feminine charms, and so we get to see her in a border-print dress in white, black and flame orange, not to mention a cocktail hat that looks like a satellite. The 1950s are best known for these kind of long full skirts and fitted bodices. She is there with Hercule Flambeau, the master thief and villain (or is he a villain….?) played by John Light who in this episode looks especially natty, and Father Brown played by Mark Williams.
This episode had me thinking about trim little suits and how to make the most of border prints, but every episode with Lady Felicia is a treat.
