Costuming in "The Tudors": Anne Boleyn, Season One

So, Anne Boleyn.

Anne is difficult to talk about in terms of clothes for a lot of reasons. She is a very complex character with a lot of different motivations and mood changes and her clothes reflect that. She also has the largest and most eclectic wardrobe of any other character on the show and will usually only repeat an outfit once if at all. It's for this reason that I had to divide her into two separate entries. Also, because her style in season one has some really notable differences from her style in season two but I figured I should come clean about my laziness.

So what about patterns in her style? First of all, you have probably noticed that the general women's dress style of this time is a very repetitive silhouette that defies age and class differences. The design is quite simply a dress with a square neck and tight bodice, a larger skirt and long sleeves that are either fitted or bell-shaped. That's it. There is sometimes a panel in the front of the skirt but otherwise that describes pretty much every dress you see. What is different about Anne is how many variations she has on this basic shape in season one. In season two, she deviates from it most of the time because of her style change after becoming queen. Here she conforms but does so in interesting ways. 

Also in this season it is good to note that she comes from a well-off family, her father is an earl, so a lot of the clothes that she has are fairly nice because of her family's position. She is also made a lady-in-waiting to the queen and, as such, must be well dressed and her lady-in-waiting court dress is one of the few outfits she repeats more than one time. She also spent a lot of time in France, also as a lady-in-waiting, so there is some definite French influence to some of her outfits (which I say only knowing what "looks French" not what actually "is French"). On a side note, she also owns more hats than any other girl on the show which is more of a fun fact than anything important to remember. In terms of color, she wears mostly red, blue or blue-grey, and gold-cream shades with purple becoming an important symbolic addition towards the end of the season.

So you must be wondering about those pictures I put in the text there. Those are promotional pictures for the show that I found completely hilarious. They're so sleazy-looking and romance novel-y and kind of look identical to promos for "True Blood" and Anne has that whole "Angelina Jolie's leg" thing going on when that would be super scandalous in this time and Anne didn't even sleep with Henry until after they were married. It's a great way to say, "Hey, we're not a boring historical drama. We have softcore!" Crazy. Also, crazy to me is that both those dresses she's wearing, she actually wears in the show. In particular the one in the vertical picture is actually a Christmas dress that looks way less slutty when she wears it on the show.

Season 1, Episode 1

Anne's introduction in the first episode is brief and actually kind of underwhelming considering her significance. It is almost as if the director is aware that everyone knows to focus on Anne so he deliberately focuses more on Mary in this scene to the point where it was really hard to get a shot of this dress. Mary is the one in the nicer dress. Mary is the one in the foreground who reacts to her father telling her they are going to meet the king of England. I think they even tried to make Mary happier than Anne in general just for this scene. So why is the scene all about Mary and not Anne? Because the audience has to believe and understand why Henry initially took Mary as a mistress and not Anne.

There's not much to say about this dress. It's strangely common looking, especially for her, but I imagine it is because she is just bumming around the house and has nowhere to go or because, again, they are trying to have Mary draft her in style in this scene. The only other thing to mention here is that she is wearing her famous "B" necklace that appears in every show/movie/whatever that has Anne Boleyn in it because it is in the most well known portrait of her. She doesn't wear it much throughout the show as a whole but it is here for her introduction.


Season 1, Episode 2

At the summit, Mary tells Anne that the king wants to see her. Anne doesn't say anything, just responds with a dubious smile. I'm not sure what is meant by it. I assume she is either smiling for Mary's sake but she is concerned considering the fate Henry's mistresses generally fall to or she is smiling because she realizes that this could be good news for the fortune of their family. Either way, it seems clear that she is not forcing a smile because she wishes to be chosen. Anne had no interest in this in the last scene and she seems far too knowledgeable about the ways of the world to think this is her misfortune.

Again, she has on the "B" necklace. Unfortunately, this is the most you ever see of this outfit so I can't say much on it. The only thing I can point out is that she has on a red coat, a color that is common for her, and that she appears to be dressed more simply than Mary who has on gold and cool pink and almost purple tones. She is not out to find a man or a king here.

Anne's father tells her that the king's French alliance and interest in Mary are waning. She says, "Poor Mary" and he says, "Poor us. When she was his mistress all our fortunes were made. Now most likely they will fall." He then tells her to seduce him and she says that would be pointless since he always ditches his mistresses so he tells her that she could probably find another way to keep him interested for a long time.

It would be pretty safe to say that red is Anne's "plotting color". Whenever a big new development is made in playing the king that is not her doing, she is in this color as she was in the previous scene when Mary being chosen meant good things for their family. This is not so much a color of her own power but a color that means progress in giving her family power and this theme runs throughout her entire time on the show.

This is the first scene where Anne is really made up. Her dress is more detailed, her hair is more carefully done up and there is some kind of bead headband in it. She still has on the necklace too which will fade in appearances after this. Also, the traveling cloak simply means that she has traveled to Paris meet her father.


Season 1, Episode 3

When Henry meets Anne it is during the morality play. Henry is Honesty and Anne is Perseverance. I guess because Henry is all about the brutal honesty? I think Anne's is a pretty damn good choice for her though. Anne was smartly positioned next to Princess Margaret so that she would have to come in contact with Henry when he goes to save his sister. There's not much more to this since all the girls are dressed alike but I will point out that she is in white, showing purity, and a crown, *cough cough*. The masked show thing will appear again in season two.

At Hever Castle, the Boleyn home, Anne lies on the ground as her lover recites poetry to her from a tree about how he is sad she is leaving him. She is dismissive of him because she must go and do as her father has asked and because he is married. He insists that he is separated and will divorce but she says he can't ask after her again.

This dress is kind of an odd one for the times but really great for the scene. She is exposed at both her shoulders and elbows and her hair is free. She looks unraveled and is feeling the strain of what she has to say to him. Also, before she dumps him, she seems genuinely amused by his poem and talks about how it is a woman's nature and a poet's to give their hearts freely. There is an element of laying her heart bare in the beginning and then becoming unraveled. She doesn't really want to leave him and can't give too much of an explanation why she must but she knows logically that this is what she must do. Harshly cutting off ties and insisting that it is the fact that he is married that is the problem is the only way this will work.

This is Anne's lady-in-waiting dress. Since it is pretty much a uniform there is not much to say about it. It is a blue-grey which is one of the colors she seems fond of and also serves to make her stand out less than Catherine of Aragon in her red coat. However, although the color is modest, she has a lot of detail on her dress with the jewels on the bodice and the striped sleeves. I think she comes in at JUST modest enough to be a maid. Compared to the other ladies, she isn't too much more fancy although her headband is so similar to Catherine's that I wonder if that was intentional.


Season 1, Episode 4

In church Anne is in her uniform again but here she might be purposefully trying to stand out with her veil. It seems pretty customary to wear a black veil in church but here she is with a white veil and sequins. She wants him to notice her, particularly because of her next move.

Anne rejects some jewels he gave her and then leaves to go to one of her family homes saying that she is unworthy to receive them and that she will think of him on her journey.

If you can't tell her lack of enthusiasm from the pose, the clothes do help. She's in a drab brown and a large, uncharacteristically bland yellow headdress. The question is, is she unenthusiastic about him or the trip? Also, short sleeves are a rarity and I'm not sure what they mean here. Maybe it is representative of the familiarity she is developing with him.

Anne reads a letter from the king out loud to her brother. The letter says that he is upset she would not accept the gift and that he wants to find a place in her heart. George takes the letter and finishes reading it and she shows him the necklace that he gave her, the one she is wearing in the scene.

Again she is wearing the exposed and unraveled dress. She does not seem to care much for his affections at all, rolling her eyes at one point, and is perhaps a bit overwhelmed by how much he cares for her so quickly in the same way she felt overwhelmed by the affections of her former lover. The necklace I gather is supposed to be rather expensive, at least more expensive than the previous gifts, and the fact that is has a cross is interesting. It's probably because the last time he saw her was in church.

In this scene Henry confronts Anne for the first time since she returned, grabs her by the throat and demands to know who she was talking to earlier. She says it was her brother and they kiss for the first time.

Creepy foreshadowing aside, it is interesting how she is in her lady-in-waiting dress here when she is not shown to be among the queen's posse as she was in the last episode.

She is then shown dancing in court with Henry watching her, although this time she is not on the job. This red is important because although this particular scene does not show advancing for her family, the next scene when she is in a nightgown, reading a letter from him does. Her father is there to read it to (appropriately since this is the dress she wore when he asked her to seduce the king) and the letter makes it very clear that Henry's affections for her are rising drastically which works in their favor. However, for her personally, she is still unsure how she feels about this.


Season 1, Episode 5

Henry goes to visit Anne at her place after she sent him a letter and a locket with her picture in it. He offers to make her his official mistress and she gets offended saying that her virginity is for her husband alone and mentions how her sister is called "The Great Prostitute" after her stint with him. He storms out and her father gives her a not-pleased look.

This dress has pinkish-red sleeves and skirt that are almost purple and a blue bodice with this all over diamond pattern. Obviously, since Anne is not royalty, she is not allowed to wear purple yet but this does beg the question, were she to become his official mistress, would that elevate her to a royal status worthy of purple? Of course, this is conflicted with blues similar to her lady-in-waiting dress. She is caught between two stations here and the pattern certainly looks like conflict in a dress form.

Anne gets another letter from Henry that George steals away from her and makes fun of. He asks her if she is in love with him and she does not respond.

This outfit never appears again which is strange because it is so elaborate with lots of pattern and puffed sleeves which she really only wears in season two and in yellow, a color she doesn't use often. There's only one other time in season two when she wears a yellow like this as she is much more commonly seen in a cream-gold dress that will appear many times later this season. In the scene in season two when she is in yellow she is trying hard to be a beacon of sunshine when everything is falling apart. Here everything is coming together. Although, in both scenes, she doesn't seem happy about it in spite of the sunny color. It is unavoidable however, that in terms of style, this dress doesn't fit. Maybe it is just foreshadowing of her queenly status because before this the king officially decided that he would marry her and this style is similar to how she dresses in season two after she is crowned.

Here she is in a pure white that hasn't been seen since the morality play (right in the middle there; sorry for the bad shot). The reason is probably because in one of the last scenes she was in, which I didn't screenshot, she was in bed with Henry and he chose to honor her request that they don't have sex before marriage. Then, in the scene right before this one when she was in her lady-in-waiting dress in the queen's chambers, the queen and she exchanged a look where Catherine appeared to be gauging her intentions. Catherine said nothing and seemed to decide that she was innocent in the matter of her husband's affections. For both reasons, she is dressed like an angel.

But not for long.

 Season 1, Episode 6 

At the Boleyn house, Anne reads a letter from Henry about how much he misses her to her father and uncle. She admits that at first she did not care for the king but that she has changed her mind. Her uncle advises her not to be fooled by her own masquerade because the goal is to get rid of Woseley.

Anne is in her exposure and unraveling dress. Not real tough meaning here: she kind of admits to feelings for the king. The last two times she wore this dress she was overwhelmed by the emotions of others for her; now she is overwhelmed by her own.

She wears this dress for the last time in a scene not long after this one when Anne talks to George about how she can't tell her secrets to him anymore because he would share them. Something is weighing on her again and I think it is the weight of the requests of her father and uncle and how she is being used by them.

"Things can never be as they used to be," says Henry as they ride off to have a picnic.

The details of what she is wearing are not really important and I don't think this dress comes back again. The point here is really that Anne and Henry match perfectly in color. Anne has accepted her future with him and they have both reached some degree of happiness and hope.

After getting torn down a few notches by Catherine of Aragon in a scene in her chambers, Anne makes a very modest showing at court. Her brother then shows her a picture of a falcon, the Boleyn crest, attacking a pomegranate, the crest of Catherine of Aragon's family. She gets mad at him, saying that this is not a game and it's dangerous.

This reddish-brown dress says, "Please don't look at me." She is feeling humbled so she wears the simplest dress possible in a dull color that both acknowledges her family's status raising and show her own bleak outlook about it. It's also notable that she is standing to the side while Catherine and her ladies pass. She isn't one of them anymore.

Anne tries to put on her uniform one more time. Henry approaches her in the middle of court, gives her a gift, and says he loves her neck in this scene for some more terrible foreshadowing and after he leaves, everyone in the court stares at her and whispers about her. She realizes that she can't return to court like this anymore because now everyone knows. The dress can't come back because she must accept a new role.

In the last scene with her uniform, she is in the queen's chambers wearing the new necklace. Catherine calls her an expensive whore and says Henry will tire of her before officially dismissing her.

Henry and Anne wait to hear from Woseley whether or not Henry has gotten his divorce.

This outfit is so perfect I can't even. Here's why: that dress is clearly something she already owned but that headdress thing is clearly brand new. Everything about the dress looks like her usual style and is actually kind of childish looking with the little embroidered flower detail on the front of the bodice and the light blue-green and pale yellow colors. She is new and young and not yet endowed with the money to buy newer, more expensive clothes that would befit her hopeful position as queen. On the contrary, this headdress is something only a queen or a woman of very high status would wear. Henry probably just gave it to her and she is only comfortable wearing it now that she is no longer a lady-in-waiting and is on her way to becoming the queen.


Season 1, Episode 7

Henry and Anne meet with Woseley after his failure to get Henry's divorce in the last episode.

This is the same dress from the end scene of the last episode when they heard that no divorce has been gotten but look how much more modest her headdress has gotten. These scenes are connected. She isn't queen yet and will have to wait.

Henry meets with the French about a war with the Holy Roman Empire and Anne joins them.

Anne is in her element here. She knows the French well having lived in France for so long and she is more than happy to talk in his language and impress him with a gift and a joke. I think this outfit she has on is supposed to read as French as well with the black and white damask sleeves, the lace on the front, and the kicky little hat.

Anne has a threat of the sweating sickness after one of her maids dies from it in her arms. In the first shot she ends up panicking and unable to breathe while in the carriage with her father. Her father and brother are told that there is no hope and that she will die. She recovers however and wears the same dress when she sees Henry again except with a black veil.

This dress spells doom. The black and cream color combo looks so heavy and gloomy as does the fact that the top is fur trim and covered in sharp lines. In the second scene she is wearing the black veil (and walking towards Henry in such a funny way) because she feels like she has just cheated death. She feels like she is being reborn somehow which is probably why in the second scene we see more of the light skirt than just the black bodice.


Season 1, Episode 8

Anne asks if there is any threat to them losing the case and Henry says that Woseley has assured him that the divorce is as good as done and the trial is just for appearances. Then he tells her that he will have to share Catherine's table and bed until then because it would look suspicious if he didn't. Anne is not happy about this and he pretty much thinks she's being silly.

This outfit is a difficult one. It hasn't shown up before now but it will appear many times before the season is over and once in season two. I think I believe that this might be the first actual dress that Henry has given her because of the frequency it appears and because it appears when he is around. It doesn't look too much fancier than her usual clothes in terms of adornment but the fabric seems richer somehow, like some of Catherine of Aragon's dresses. In fact, this kind of looks like a Catherine of Aragon dress with a slightly bolder pattern on the skirt. Shopping for his mistress the same way he shops for his wife? In this scene though, she kind of fades into her surroundings. Her feelings are not being considered by Henry. The divorce is treated more like an assignment than anything here.

I would also like to point out that Anne wears this dress in the opening sequence when she is standing by his side, furthering my point of its meaning.

Thomas Cromwell comes in with a book, "The Obedience of the Christian Man", that gives important information that could help in the case of Henry's divorce but warns her that possessing it could be considered heresy. As a side note, Anne gives Cromwell something she made for Henry.

Appropriately, she is in red, the color of her family gaining power. This is a huge leap forward for her case and subsequently her family's rise in society and plans to take down Woseley. In her own way, she is also doing her part by giving the king a gift.

Anne is in the same dress as earlier in this episode, the one I suspect Henry gave her. Again Woseley gives the king news that he is not fully pleased with as he did the last time she was in this dress, this time saying that whether he is married or not any kids he and Anne have would be legitimized. Then Margaret calls Anne a "cheap nothing" (kind of an opposite of Catherine's "expensive whore" comment) and Henry and Anne finally meet in the room. They are wearing the same color; no matter what people tell them, they are in agreement with how everything must go.

Anne implants the idea in Henry's mind that Woseley is deliberately stalling things while she plays a game with him involving a hidden ribbon on her body ("Barry Lyndon" much?).

She's in red because she is furthering her family's goals of taking down Woseley. Although red is the color of passion, she manages to keep her head on straight during the game enough to put her family's goals ahead of any passion she has personally.


Season 1, Episode 9

After the top scene with them entering court, Anne's father and uncle talk about how Woseley is almost off his throne. Red = Family success. Also, return of the crazy headpiece from Henry to make her look more like a queen. They are the closest they've been to winning yet or at least they believe they are closest since the last time she wore this piece.

Also, I must ask you to ignore the dress somewhat because another wife ends up wearing it at a far more important moment in the future while Anne doesn't wear it again. I could speculate why but I think it's just a costuming department issue. There's another even more prominent, "Two queens wear the same dress" moment towards the end of the show that I will be screaming about when I get there.

Anne is pissed with how long she has had to wait for the divorce and insists that she could have been married off to someone else and bore sons which is, "a woman's greatest consolation in life." She really knows just what to say to hit him where he can understand. She then insists that it's hopeless because Catherine will never let him go and returns home.

They're both in black and annoyed with how things are going. Her dress, of course, last came up when she was sick with the sweat. That situation looked pretty damn hopeless too if you'll recall.

Henry tells Anne that he has been summoned to Rome and is annoyed that he has to answer to someone else. Anne tells him about the book Cromwell showed her that says the king is pope in his kingdom and he is intrigued.

They're still in black and impatient.

Cardinal Woseley appears to Henry to apologize and he insists that he has nothing to worry about. Woseley is ignored by the king right after this.

The only real thing this dress is doing is tying her to her father in shades of blue. They are of the same opinion regarding Woseley. In fact, the three characters in this scene are kind of a color gradient of hatred towards Woseley with Charles Brandon being the strongest. This is also the introduction of puffed sleeves which only get bigger as her position (and to a degree, power hunger) rise.


Season 1, Episode 10

In the opening scene, Anne sews while Henry masturbates. Then he goes to her room and they read the book she has together. He is very pleased with it.

Puffed sleeves again. This is a more casual dress from her in a pink. The goal of getting Woseley has been almost acheieved but there is still the goal of her marriage. She's still doing her family's work but she is halfway there, hence why she's in pink instead of red. When she wears red in season two it is more about protecting her marriage than anything else.

The significance of this outfit is outright stated by the side characters as she walks in and says some rude things about Spaniards. Anne is in purple and purple is the color of royalty. She is considering herself to be royalty now even though the divorce is still not final. She even has prominent gold detail and a little crown. From this point on, purple is one of her main colors.

Henry and Anne have dinner with her father and Henry tells him that he wants to give him and George noble ranks. After, Henry gives Anne a palace.

Anne is wearing her Henry dress with another ludicrous headpiece, an appropriate choice for a conversation about her family becoming nobility.

Anne's uncle says the king is considering pardoning Woseley and that he agreed with him to stay in his good graces. Anne is suitably pissed that all her work is slipping. Hence, dark pink. They are still in favor but might be slipping backwards if he pardons Woseley.

Anne convinces Henry that he must stick to his original decision to arrest Woseley and tells him that he's higher than the Pope and he should take crap from no one.

This outfit has nothing really to do with this conversation. It's her card playing outfit that she has worn once before. You could look at it as her trying to appear as casual as possible when telling him this so he really thinks about it.

This ending scene of the season is a really odd scene where Anne and Henry meet in the woods and sort of have sex. I say sort of because neither of them finish.

I'm pretty damn sure this scene is either symbolic or a dream sequence and not actually happening. This outfit is never seen before and never again and is also weirdly easy to remove. I wish I could get a shot of the weird vest thing she has on under the coat. Although it is good to note that it seems to be purple. None of these things alone are really strong enough evidence that this scene is not real but I would like to point out the strange filter on the scene and, well, this:

Those are definitely fetish boots. Maybe they are men's boots or something but there is no doubt that this is an anachronism. I vote, not real.

Anne Boleyn's Fetish Boots is going to be the name of my band.

Tune in next week for "Anne Boleyn, Season Two".