Even though there are dozens of different experts that work on the appearances of characters in movies, they aren’t immune to making mistakes. And in the end, viewers may catch these fails in makeup or costume choices that couldn’t have possibly existed during the time in which the movie was set.
We at Bright Side decided to watch some of our favorite movies and read some fashion history books to find the mistakes makeup artists and costume designers have made in popular films.
Gone with the Wind
No matter how trendy Scarlett O’Hara was, she couldn’t have predicted the clothing trends for decades in advance. Her famous slim-fitting red dress with feathers and rhinestones has nothing to do with Civil War fashion — it was inspired more by styles from the 1930s and 1940s.
Julius Caesar
In the 1953 film, most of the female characters wore extravagant bullet bras. In Ancient Rome, women would wear a strophium, a prototype for the modern bra, but these weren’t bullet bras.
Legends of the Fall
Trying to create a romantic look, costume designers ignored the historical facts. Brad Pitt’s character has beautiful blonde hair and facial hair but these things were unacceptable for the time period. More and more men were choosing to don big mustaches and short hair at this time.
King Arthur
The film, which is set in the fifth century, portrays knights in heavy metal armor. But until the fourteenth century, such armor was made of leather, and only mail armor was made of metal.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The film is about events that happened in the ’90s and the clothes look pretty accurate, however, they’re still not perfect. Dudley Dursley is wearing G-Unit shorts — a brand that was created by 50 Cent in 2003.
Hello, Dolly!
The movie is set in New York at the end of the nineteenth century when such a hairstyle, lip gloss, and eye makeup didn’t exist. But the movie still got 3 Oscars and became one of the most important films of the decade.
Queen Margot
Throughout the entire film, the characters are wearing beautiful dresses with open shoulders. They look great but in the sixteenth century, women never ignored shifts (or chemise in French). These pieces of clothing protected them from the cold, absorbed sweat, and were really easy to wash.
Another mistake costume designers made was the way the main character’s hair was let down. Based on the few portraits we have of Margaret of Valois, she had curly hair that she wore up.
The Danish Girl
The Danish Girl starts in 1926 but in the first half of the film, we see women in slim-fitting clothes that have nothing to do with the fashion of the 1920s.
At the beginning of the film, Gerda has a hairstyle that was actually quite outdated for the setting that favored waved or bobbed hair.
A Dangerous Method
In one scene, Keira Knightley appears only in her corset, which is a contradiction to the original rules that came along with wearing this piece of clothing. A woman would never wear a corset alone.
Bonus: Mary Queen of Scots
In Mary Queen of Scots, Saoirse Ronan is wearing asymmetric earrings, which were non-existent in sixteenth-century Scotland.
In your opinion, do you think such mistakes are serious or no big deal?
Preview photo credit A Dangerous Method / Recorded Picture Company
I Caught My Husband with His Mistress in a Hotel — This Is a Romantic Trip They Will Never Forget
Year after year, he promised that we would go, but life always seemed to get in the way—work obligations, family matters, and an endless parade of excuses.
“I’m sorry, Darling,” he would say. “It’s just that something came up at the office, and I have to attend to it.”
But then, when Tom forgot our 10th wedding anniversary, something inside me snapped.
“I have to leave town for the week,” he said while shaving. “It’s for work. We’re prospecting new clients.”
I had hoped that Tom would have told me to pack my bags and get ready to celebrate our romantic milestone—yet, it slipped his mind entirely.
Enough was enough.
I wasn’t about to be a footnote in my own love story.
So, I called my best friend, Jenny.
“We’re going away for my wedding anniversary!” I said as she answered the call.
“What?” she asked, surprised by my words, I could hear her slurping on her usual smoothie.
“Tom would hate that!”
I explained to her that Tom had to be on a business trip and that I was tired of being alone.
“Pack your bags, Jen,” I told her.
I went straight to my closet and began to pack my bags. I needed this. I needed a moment to myself. I got onto my laptop and booked a hotel. This weekend was going to be a weekend to heal, laugh, and forget the sting of neglect.
The hotel Tom had often raved about was our first stop.
As we stepped into the lobby—a place he described right down to the gilded frames on the walls—my heart raced with anticipation and a twinge of sadness.
I was happy to be here with my best friend, sure. But being with Tom would have made it so much better, with memories that would have lasted a lifetime.
“Let’s check-in and leave our bags,” Jenny said. “And then get some fish and chips from that place you’ve been talking about for the past hour.”
And then I heard it.
Tom’s laugh.
I looked up, across the room, and there he was. My husband, standing across the lobby with his arm wrapped around a woman who was decidedly not me.
The scene was like a punch to the gut. There he was, living our dream with someone else.
My first instinct was to storm across the lobby and confront them. But anger gave way to a colder, sharper strategy.
Ten years of marriage for this? This was Tom’s important business trip?
Sure.
I pulled out my phone and started filming them discreetly, capturing their intimate laughs, their shared glances—all the things that should have been mine.
“Are you okay, Eliza?” Jenny asked me, oblivious to the scene I had just witnessed.
“Look,” I said, pointing at Tom.
Jenny clasped her hands to her mouth and gasped.
Feeling emboldened, I approached the reception desk.
“I’m Mrs. Cooper,” I said. “You’ll see my husband checked in as Tom Cooper? It’s our anniversary weekend, and I wanted to surprise my husband.”
The woman behind the counter bought it. She beamed at me and told me there would be complimentary couple massages if I could prove we were married.
And then, she gave me the key to his room.
I went in and filmed everything—their clothes strewn about, the champagne on ice, the unmistakable aura of a romantic getaway.
With Jenny’s encouragement, I took to the streets of Bellport. We showed the footage to anyone willing to watch it.
“What do you think of a man who promises a romantic weekend to his wife and then takes his mistress instead?” I asked the locals.
Jenny filmed all their reactions while I spoke. People were shocked, and hurt on my behalf; some were even empathetic.
And as I met more people, it turned out that people didn’t just disapprove of Tom—they shared their stories of betrayal, connecting with my own pain.
Jenny and I went back to our room and ordered room service while she whizzed away on her laptop, turning our footage into a short film.
Forgotten Promises: A Bellport Betrayal.
Then, we uploaded it online—tagging Tom on Facebook.
It went viral overnight. And as the support began to pour in, so did the outrage towards Tom.
When Tom saw the video, he called me, furious.
“Eliza!” he barked. “Take it down! This isn’t fair!”
“It’s too late, Tom,” I replied coolly. “It’s out there now, and it’s the truth.”
Tom went on, airing his grievances through the phone.
“Why doesn’t he just come and find you?” Jenny asked. “We’re in the same hotel.”
I didn’t understand that either. But Tom seemed perfectly fine spending time with his mistress. I knew she was there with him—probably comforting him while he was distressed by my actions.
“I don’t know,” I replied to Jenny.
I cut the call, and Jenny and I took to the streets, ready to eat our feelings away in ice cream.
As we were walking, out of the blue, a travel company reached out to me. They had seen our short film and offered me a job in creating “Truthful Travelogues.”
“You’ll just have to do exactly what you did for your short film,” a woman named Natasha told me. “We’ll send you a laptop so that you can edit on there, too.”
Suddenly, I was more than just another scorned wife who had to suffer in silence and wait to be acknowledged by her husband. Now, I was a storyteller, weaving narratives of authenticity in beautiful locales.
And on the other hand—Tom’s life began to crumble. His professional image soured as colleagues and clients questioned his integrity.
That trip he took to Bellport, meant to be hidden away like a secret, became his public undoing.
His car was even egged by some of the kids who lived on our street—something that he deserved.
Shortly after I returned home, I packed all my belongings and moved in with Jenny. She was single and my constant support—there was nobody else I wanted to reinvent myself with.
Looking back, the trip to Bellport was nothing like I had imagined it would be. Initially, I had wanted it to be a romantic escape with my husband, but then it had turned into a girls’ weekend.
Only for it to become an unraveling of my marriage.
Even now, I’m not completely sure that my actions were the greatest, but at the same time—I needed to do it. I needed to expose Tom for the liar that he was.
And in the end, I needed to empower myself again. I couldn’t keep living in the shadow of Tom’s job and deceit.
Now, I have to try and rebuild my life as a newly single woman ready to get what she deserves.
What would you have done?
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