Anna Robbins on Designing Costumes for Downton Abbey: A New Era

Designing costumes for film is no easy feat. No matter what genre youre working in sciencefiction, romance, action costumes can make or break a production, being one of the first things audiences notice about an onscreen story. That case is even more true for period pieces, where characters clothes not only need to tell a story, but also evoke a certain point in history, when fashion was vastly different from what it is today. Ticking all those boxes was the challenge for Anna Robbins, the costume designer behind Downton Abbey: A New Era. The second film spinoff from the beloved Masterpiece series, A New Era not only presented Robbins with the task of designing for beloved characters as they enter a new decade, but also for brand new characters, as Hollywood comes to Downton and members of the household travel to the south of France to discover why the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) has inherited a villa from a mysterious stranger. Ahead of the films release on DVD and Bluray on July