Best Dressed: ‘Outlander’s 10 Most Iconic Fashion Moments (So Far)
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s Outlander Forever Special Collector’s Issue, which is available for international pre-order online at OutlanderForever.com and available nationwide on newsstands now.
From the windy Scottish Highlands and avant-garde courts of France in the 18th century to the postwar 1940s and groovy ’60s, Outlander’s fashion spans many eras. And within those decades, there’s no shortage of envy-worthy outfits, particularly for leading couple Jamie and Claire Fraser (Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe).
Here, we highlight our favorite fits from costume designer Terry Dresbach (who helmed the wardrobe department for the series’ first four seasons) and her successor, native Scot Trisha Biggar (Seasons 5 and 6).
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A Dior-Inspired Errand Run
Just your average day. For Claire’s early Season 2 outing to an apothecary in 1744 Paris, Dresbach drew up this sleek black and white design based on Christian Dior’s “New Look” from the mid-to-late 1940s. “Claire is not an 18th-century woman,” Dresbach notes. “She’s a woman of the 1940s reinterpreting 18th-century fashion to fit her tastes. And with Dior, you see that he was reaching back in history to the 18th and 19th centuries.”
Roger & Bree’s Nuptials
Setting up Season 5, the North Carolina wedding of Claire and Jamie’s daughter, Brianna (Sophie Skelton), to her love, Roger (Richard Rankin), is filled with colorful ensembles. But Bree’s dress, which was blue in the books, is a buttermilk cream here (with Scottish thistle embroidering!), pairing perfectly with Roger’s navy suit. And, bonus: “[Bree] made it!” exclaims Biggar. “Claire did the needlework.”
Timeless Tartan
It’s hard to pinpoint which of Jamie’s moments in his various kilts is most memorable. (The first time we see him? When he bids a pregnant Claire farewell at Craigh na Dun? We could go on.) Tartan is just a part of what makes Outlander the show it is. And to make things even spicier, many of the drama’s actors have admitted they go “fully traditional,” aka no undergarments, while donning their kilts! Yes, that goes for Heughan too.
Hand-Me-Downs
When Bree travels through the stones in Season 4 from the 20th century, she’s ill-equipped on the clothing front. Thankfully, her uncle Ian Murray (Steven Cree), whom she quickly encounters, has a solution for the wandering student. He lends her a trunk of Claire’s old clothes left at Lallybroch, and Bree snatches up her mother’s fur-trimmed riding coat (first seen in Season 1) for her journey to find her parents in America, creating a warm full-circle moment for fans.
The Batsuit
“Of all my fan interactions,” Dresbach told TV Guide Magazine in 2018, “the reaction to the bat dress [is strongest]. Some people love it. A lot of people really hate it because they watched Season 2, which was a phantasmagoria of costumes, and then you get to Season 3 and go, ‘She’s wearing that again?’” But the transformable homemade ensemble, which Claire wears during her epic reunion with Jamie, is endlessly practical: warm, waterproof — and it’s got pockets!
Wilmington Wears
In Season 4, Jamie and Claire get all gussied up for the theater, where they meet Col. George Washing- ton and his wife, Martha (Simon Harrison and Elizabeth Appleby). Claire’s flower-adorned choker and lace-trimmed dress and Jamie’s patterned vest from his Paris trip help the fiery couple fit in. Dresbach consulted Colonial Williamsburg experts and the Smithsonian for the season’s attire. “It’s American color: cotton and fresh,” she says. “A lot of flowers, checks, and mismatched fabrics.”
Dream Dress
In Season 5’s traumatic finale, Claire endures extreme abuse at the hands of misogynistic Brownsville resident Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy) and his gang of bandits. In her mind, she escapes to a dream world where Jamie and their 18th-century pals are melded into the 1960s. Along with featuring a slew of Easter eggs for the eagle-eyed fan, the sequences deliver some strong fashion moments, like Claire wearing her signature red.
Claire’s Wedding Dress
This Season 1 stunner was no small feat for the wardrobe department. “We wanted to get glimmer and shimmer on the dress, but they didn’t have sequins as we know them,” notes Dresbach. “So we ended up buying mica, a mineral formation. It comes in blocks, and we sat around for hours shaving off bits of mica that now are on an underskirt that shimmers through the fabric…it’s like looking at the inside of a crystal.”
Radiant in Red
Sure, everything that Claire wears in Season 2’s Paris scenes is remarkable, but this infamous red dress remains a fan favorite due to its context. Partially designed by Claire, the gown’s plunging neckline is met with some blowback from her hubby when he first sees her wearing it as they leave for court. “Are you mad, woman?” he asks. “You can see every inch of you — right down to your third rib!” Don’t worry, Jamie, she has a fan for coverage!
French Garden Attire
Even at times of stress in Paris, Claire’s fashion never suffers. She wears this painted floral gown (above with Margaux Chatelier’s Annalise de Marillac) during a garden gathering in which she and Jamie come face-to-face with Capt. Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall (Tobias Menzies) for the first time since leaving him for dead at the end of Season 1. And though Black Jack baits Claire into using foul language before the King, she looks fabulous enough to be forgiven.
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