I remember this series from the early 90's as a child; your family would watch it together and it would even get discussed at school the next day. So sure, from a Generation-X perspective the nostalgia is abundant and it's easy to love it for that very reason. BUT, watching it as an adult, it's clear that the moral values and socio-cultural optimism and sincerity were falsely portrayed.
The plot is basically about 2 upper-middle-class sisters - the Eliotts, whose doctor father dies and leaves them in heaps of debt. After selling the family house and moving to a flat in London, they decide to put their lifelong embroidery/dressmaking/design skills to use by opening a fashion house, and subsequently enjoying the bohemian 20's London life, as well as becoming successful.
As a drama, it was good. The plot was quite straight-forward and you didn't get confused as to who was who and subsequently lose the plot. The characters were likeable and charming, and there was plenty of drama, both intense and light-hearted.
However, this show bared a lavish, falsely optimistic and fantasized depiction of the 20's. Based as little as 2 years after the carnage of WW1, when the popluation was elusive from all the soldiers' deaths and debt was abundant, the show focuses on the privileged gentry and middle-class, triumphing their lavish, decadent lifestyles, while the extremely hard working seamstresses don't have such a central presence beyond a few scenes depicting their slum-like homes and squalor-like lifestyles.
While the story in series 1 was very good, depicting the rise to fortune between the Eliott sisters, series 2 focused excessively, if not predominantly on the sordid affair between one of the Eliott Sisters and a government treasurer, practically condoning such an affair with false emotional depth and integrity.
The other problem is how the production came to a spontaneous and inconclusive end that revolved around feud and deceit. Prime seamstress Tilly and her husband have their new jobs as chauffer and housekeeper turned down when their future employer goes bankrupt, and the Eliott sisters fall out over whether to persist with exclusive couture or move onto shop-sold ready-mades for the mass market:-
"I will fight you, every step of the way"
...and that was the end of the last ever episode !
So I'll give it 5/10 for a good 1st serioes, followed by a sentimental promiscuity-condoning 2nd series and a very inconclusive 3rd series !
The plot is basically about 2 upper-middle-class sisters - the Eliotts, whose doctor father dies and leaves them in heaps of debt. After selling the family house and moving to a flat in London, they decide to put their lifelong embroidery/dressmaking/design skills to use by opening a fashion house, and subsequently enjoying the bohemian 20's London life, as well as becoming successful.
As a drama, it was good. The plot was quite straight-forward and you didn't get confused as to who was who and subsequently lose the plot. The characters were likeable and charming, and there was plenty of drama, both intense and light-hearted.
However, this show bared a lavish, falsely optimistic and fantasized depiction of the 20's. Based as little as 2 years after the carnage of WW1, when the popluation was elusive from all the soldiers' deaths and debt was abundant, the show focuses on the privileged gentry and middle-class, triumphing their lavish, decadent lifestyles, while the extremely hard working seamstresses don't have such a central presence beyond a few scenes depicting their slum-like homes and squalor-like lifestyles.
While the story in series 1 was very good, depicting the rise to fortune between the Eliott sisters, series 2 focused excessively, if not predominantly on the sordid affair between one of the Eliott Sisters and a government treasurer, practically condoning such an affair with false emotional depth and integrity.
The other problem is how the production came to a spontaneous and inconclusive end that revolved around feud and deceit. Prime seamstress Tilly and her husband have their new jobs as chauffer and housekeeper turned down when their future employer goes bankrupt, and the Eliott sisters fall out over whether to persist with exclusive couture or move onto shop-sold ready-mades for the mass market:-
"I will fight you, every step of the way"
...and that was the end of the last ever episode !
So I'll give it 5/10 for a good 1st serioes, followed by a sentimental promiscuity-condoning 2nd series and a very inconclusive 3rd series !