I admit: it took me a while to dress for this particular costume party. When everyone in England discovered Downton Abbey and started bragging about how it was the most successful drama in more than 30 years, I shrugged and went on a TV vacation. When the New York Times wrote about Downton Abbey dinner parties, I convinced myself that it was a social, not a fashion, phenomenon for sad Sex and the City types who had been bereft of TV-obsessions after that show’s demise. When it swept the Golden Globes, I thought: of course, the voters want to prove their cultural credentials. Truth is, period dramas have never been my thing; give me a medical show with rare diseases and blue scrubs over petticoats and corsetry any day. Read more