Editor’s Note: Costume shop owners are creative people, and often that extends to their vacations! We got this email from Exquisite Costumes in Riverside, Connecticut and are sharing it here with their permission.
Summer Vacation Recap: Exquisite Costumes Goes to Green Gables
Hello Theatre Makers!
What better way to visit the world of Anne of Green Gables than dressed as Anne and Marilla?
Exquisite Costumes owner Caroline Oliver and her daughter, Elizabeth, recently spent a full day exploring the Anne and L. M. Montgomery sites of Prince Edward Island. The weather was stormy, but fortunately, the rain held off—and the skies only added to the atmosphere.
Elizabeth dressed as Anne in a pink calico dress, white muslin pinafore, and straw boater trimmed with artificial flowers. We only wished we could have decorated it with real flowers, just as Anne does in the book. Caroline dressed as Marilla in a long blue calico skirt, vintage Laura Ashley shirtwaist, petticoat, waistband, and flower-trimmed blue hat.
Our first stop was Green Gables Heritage Place, where we toured the farmhouse and visited Anne’s bedroom. There, we saw a reproduction of the brown silk puffed-sleeve dress that Matthew bought for Anne and Rachel Lynde made for her. From the house, we followed the paths through the Haunted Wood and Lover’s Lane.
From Green Gables, we visited L. M. Montgomery’s grave and the recreated Cavendish post office, commemorating the years Montgomery spent assisting her grandmother, who was the local postmistress.
Our next stop was the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Silver Bush, the Campbell family home where Montgomery frequently visited and where she was married in 1911. We explored the grounds, including the Lake of Shining Waters and the setting associated with the wedding in Anne’s House of Dreams.
At the museum, we met a Japanese visitor who shared some fascinating insight into Anne’s extraordinary popularity in Japan. Hanako Muraoka’s Japanese translation became widely read after the Second World War, and the beloved 50-episode animated television adaptation that premiered in 1979 introduced Anne to another generation of Japanese children.
We ended our literary tour at the Cape Tryon Lighthouse, which is associated with the Four Winds Lighthouse in Anne’s House of Dreams. The surrounding coastal farmland is now protected in part through the work of the L. M. Montgomery Land Trust.
But our day was not over.
We returned to our bed-and-breakfast, changed into late-1880s evening gowns, and headed to Charlottetown to see Anne & Gilbert: The Musical. Our gowns attracted quite a few admiring glances, and several audience members wondered if we were part of the cast.
After the performance, we headed to a fashionable, very modern restaurant for cocktails—still wearing our 1880s gowns.
It was the perfect Exquisite Costumes day: literature, history, theater, period clothing, beautiful scenery, and a thoroughly modern drink at the end of it all.
Just the sort of day Anne Shirley would have appreciated.
Michele and Caroline
