100-Year-Old Costumes Were Used, A Specific Moisturizer Kept Actors' Skin Hydrated, And 8 Other Insider Beauty And Fashion Facts About "Downton Abbey: A New Era"

The beauty and fashion looks differ vastly from past seasons and the first film.

The world was first introduced to the British aristocratic Crawley family and their staff in the beloved period drama Downton Abbey 12 years ago. The show is set in the 1910s and 1920s, which meant that the makeup and fashion teams had to stay accurate to the time period — which meant minimal makeup for women, dresses that hid their shape, and plenty of uptight suits for the men.

Masterpiece PBS / Via giphy.com

Downton Abbey: A New Era — the sequel to the show's 2019 film — premiered in theaters last month. Being set in the late 1920s, the film portrays a time when women's beauty routines and both men's and women's styles started to evolve.

Ben Blackall /© Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

The film showed some of the female characters wearing silk pajamas, trouser pants, and costumes that accentuated their waistlines — a stark contrast in fashion compared to the earlier seasons of the show.

On that note, there are a lot of notable beauty and style changes that were seen in the new film. Here are some fascinating behind-the-scenes Downton Abbey: A New Era fashion and beauty facts straight from the film's makeup artist, Anne "Nosh" Oldham, and costume designer, Anna Robbins.

1. The makeup looks were much more glam in A New Era compared to the "no-makeup makeup" looks often seen throughout the franchise.

Nick Briggs/PBS / Via Everett Collection

Anne "Nosh" Oldham has been the hair designer and makeup artist on Downton Abbey since the show first aired on PBS back in 2011. Staying true to the show's time period, the makeup used on the female characters was always kept very minimal. 

Luckily for her and fans of the show, Anne explained in an interview last month with Town & Country that in the recent film, she got to take the makeup looks up a notch. "Now that we're knocking on 1930's door, you've got a much stronger makeup look," she said. "So stronger eyebrows, stronger colors on the mouth, that sort of thing."

Ben Blackall / © Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

2. Brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Bobbi Brown, and Japanese beauty brand Sensai were often used on set.

@charlottetilbury / Via Instagram

Some specific products Anne said she used on set, according to Town & Country, were Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream Moisturizer with Hyaluronic Acid, Charlotte Tilbury Magic Serum Crystal Elixir, Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge for Lips & Cheeks, Giorgio Armani Fluid Master Primer, Suqqu Framing Eyebrow Liquid Pen, and Bobbi Brown Lip Color Lipstick in Roseberry. 

3. Even though the makeup looks were more dramatic in A New Era, Anne was strategic about how she went about creating them.

@downtonabbey_official / Via Instagram: @steppingthroughfilm

The makeup pro explained her thought process to Town & Country behind creating the film's 1930s glam looks. "It was an interesting thing really because from the first film to the second film was only nine months to a year," she said. 

"So what we wanted to do is just make small changes to everybody so that you could see a passage of time." That meant keeping the looks to a minimum for day scenes in Highclere Castle, upping the ante for formal dinners and events at night, and warming up the faces for the scenes filmed in the South of France. "We wouldn't necessarily go full-on 1930s," Anne said. "We tried to still echo the period but keep it really natural, and then push the period more in the evenings."

4. Anne asked the cast about their skincare preferences and favorite products so she didn't steer too far off their routines. That means that some of the products listed are actually IRL Downton Abbey approved.

Ben Blackall /© Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

 "At the beginning of every film, we always find out what they've been using and if there's anything that they're completely addicted to at any given time," she told Town & Country. "Then we try and incorporate that in, especially skincare. We used pretty much every different sort of brand of foundation across the board because we have so many people."

5. More waist- and figure-hugging looks were seen in A New Era compared to past seasons of the show.

Ben Blackall /© Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

In a recent interview with W Magazine, Downton Abbey's costume designer, Anna Robbins, explained how the female characters' style evolved in A New Era compared to past seasons of the show.  

"When you start at the beginning of the '20s, clothing becomes very straight up and down and the waistline is dropped, and you've got this really linear look, quite androgynous. That waistline moves up and down throughout the decade, and the hemlines rise and fall throughout the decade as well, so there are little markers where you can see that happening," she said. 

"As you get towards the end of the '20s and into the '30s, the waist is found again, so the waist comes up to its natural point and we start seeing belted looks and bias cuts, and things that are just a bit more figure-hugging and quite feminine in that way," Anna said. 

"We definitely explored that with Lady Mary, so finding form again, looking at those proportions, like little waisted waspies on fuller skirted dresses alongside the low-backed linear look that suits Lady Mary so well."

6. Lucy's wedding dress in the film was inspired by fashion seen in a 1920s copy of Vogue magazine.

Ben Blackall /© Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

“When it came to designing Lucy’s wedding dress, I found a photograph in a ’20s copy of Vogue that I nearly exactly re-created,” Anna said in a recent Vogue UK interview. 

"With her wedding dress, I definitely wanted to get the sense that she could have gathered up her skirt and had a proper dance. She's still one foot in one world and one foot in the other. I wanted it to hit so many notes and it needed to do so much as one costume, which makes it challenging," Anna told W Magazine. 

7. Some liberated fashion looks in A New Era included Lady Edith wearing trousers.

Ben Blackall /© Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

"There were also huge sartorial steps forward, like putting Edith into trousers for the first time," Anna said in a W Magazine interview. "We embraced this pajama set look from the French Riviera, and it was a very conscious decision that Lady Edith would've been on board with and would've taken the earliest opportunity to embrace that really liberated, fashion forward look." 

"I always feel like I need to have the two of them very much head-to-head when it comes to cutting-edge fashion. So with Lady Mary, we had her in pajamas, which is the first time we've seen that," Anna said. 

8. The men's style in A New Era also evolved. They were seen wearing things like sportswear and linen clothes for the first time in the franchise.

Ben Blackall /© Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

"We were able to look at leisure and sportswear in this film, so we've got tennis, we've got swimwear. We brought in more double-breasted suiting across our gentleman as well that was in linen daywear or in the black-tie jacket, and that was a kind of lovely move forward," Anna said in the W Magazine interview. 

9. Most of the costumes in A New Era are nearly 100 years old.

Ben Blackall /© Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

"I'd say overall the challenge on Downton is very much the fact that I like to use as many vintage and authentic 1920s garments as I can, and they're becoming rarer to find, so the challenge of finding them is greater," Anna told W Magazine.

"We're looking at pieces that are almost 100 years old, so they're increasingly fragile. Our workroom is incredibly talented at restoring and reinforcing and reworking vintage pieces, but it does make for a slightly nerve-wracking shoot because the clothing is so delicate that the rigors of filming really tests the durability of these pieces," she said.

"That is a challenge, but one that pays dividends because you're adding to the authenticity of the piece by using textiles that have come from that period. Lucy's wedding look was a wonderful challenge, but it always feels like there's a slightly higher pressure on something bridal, maybe just because it's a wedding dress and there's a certain amount of focus on that," Anna said.

10. The style in A New Era was inspired by old Hollywood glamour.

Ben Blackall /© Focus Features / Via Everett Collection

"[Silent film actress] Myrna [Dalgleish] was inspired by the likes of Clara Bow and Louise Brooks, but I also looked at Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson, and Lillian Gish’s wardrobes when sourcing pieces for her,” Anna said in a Vogue UK interview. 

Did you see Downton Abbey: A New Era yet? What are your thoughts on it? Tell me in the comments below!