Dress used by Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia in <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i>
date: label: date made
content: around 2016
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This brown wool dress is part of an aunt's uniform worn by Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia throughout season one of the Hulu streaming television series <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i>. The costume was designed by Ane Crabtree for the 2017 series, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 best-selling novel by the same name. The show is set in the near future following a Second American Civil War. The Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian nation, rises to power during the war’s aftermath and implements a strict code of laws based on Christian theology, relegating all women to subservient, second-class citizenship. Worldwide infertitlity led to Gilead’s conscription of fertile women like Offred to lives as child-bearing handmaids for the dominant elite. Aunts like Lydia oversee the handmaids and maintain order within the female ranks. Atwood’s dystopian world in The Handmaid’s Tale was inspired by the political climate of 1980s America – an age of Reagan conservatism, the rise of Christian fundamentalism, and heated debates over women’s reproductive rights and the environment. <p>
label: Description (Brief)
content: Hulu’s <i>Handmaid’s Tale</i> series won critical acclaim, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards in 2018, and it became the first series on a streaming service to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama. Star Elisabeth Moss also won a Golden Globe for Best Actress. Since the series’ debut, handmaid costumes have been worn by activists in several high-profile demonstrations, including protests against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and demonstrations for women’s reproductive rights.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Canada
label: Associated Place
content: Canada
topic: label: Subject
content: Television
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2018.0100.02.01
label: accession number
content: 2018.0100
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0100.02.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Costume
label: Object Name
content: Dress
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wool (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 53 in x 18 1/2 in; 134.62 cm x 46.99 cm