Preliminary Thoughts on Costuming in Renegade Nell and Gender and Class as a Performance
When Nell Jackson is just being herself, she's got her signature messy mishmash of signifiers. She's wearing mostly masculine clothes and is seen as a woman just about as often as she is seen as a man. She's just Nell.
When she dresses in all the signifiers of a specific gender or class, it's always a performance. She's "Nelly, Sam's long lost daughter, back from the grave." She's "Lady Somebody travelling with her husband, attending a card game with local toffs." She's "the Duchess of Argyll, seeking urgent medical assistance." She's "a doctor, willing to treat a typhus out break in a prison."
People believe her in the role until she says something that gives her away. But it's not really her. It's not Nell Jackson.
And it's the same with Charles. I can't draw much on his performance of gender because the 1705 impression of masculine gender expression is wildly different from 2024. But his performance of class is still very notable.
Isambard Tulley isn't him. It's a performance of a rough, dangerous highwayman. The clothes he wears, his hair, even his voice, everything is different except for his laugh.
Charles Devereux isn't really him either. He doesn't have the money or really fit in those spaces. But he wears the wig, pastel outfits, the frills and bows. He plays the part of the toff just as well as he does the highwayman.
Even when he's the Queen, people only realise he isn't when he shows them he isn't.
The scenes where the performance slips and Charles is just himself are all scenes with Nell and her sisters. When he meets Nell after she's been thrown out of the enlistment office and she calls him out on being Isambard Tulley, his mask slips. Then again, when he offers her his horse, that's not the toff Devereux voice.
We see him most himself when they're in hiding in the Inn and he's doing card tricks for George while telling them why he became a highwayman. He's essentially in a state of undress, no wig or makeup, the remnants of finery, which perfectly fits the topic at hand. I need to do a rewatch but I think also when he and George are sat under the tree like a Baroque painting. He's dressed partly in the leftovers of his Queen costume and partly in what looks like the shirt and trousers of his Tulley costume. (A shot comparison to certain Baroque paintings would be a good analysis to do too)
I think that little moment in the prison with Nell, when he's talking about not escaping but staying to clear his name fits this too. He's himself with her, dressed in his finery and leg shackles, but he's also been fundamentally changed by being around Nell and her family. He did the crimes he's been charged with, but at the same time he's right. Charles Devereux didn't do those things. Charles Devereux is just another character he plays.
For both Nell and Charles (maybe even Roxy and George too but I need to rewatch with this in mind), when they are most themselves, their costumes are mixed bag of signifiers for different genders and social classes and they're in a state of undress. No jackets or waistcoats done up, no wigs or hair do's.
I think, at the end, when Nell is presented to the Queen in full uniform, but curtsies, and Charles is wearing the same blue colour that accents Nells sleeves. That's neither of them pretending to be someone their not, but there is still an element of performativity. They are performing the role of themselves, the highway robbers who saved the Queen.
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