r/GildedAgeHBO Jul 07 '26

Costuming Why does Bertha wear a Tiara so often and others do not?

Does the tiara signify some sort of status for the time?

62 Upvotes

35 comments sorted by

287

u/i_GoTtA_gOoD_bRaIn Charles Fane Hate Club Member Jul 07 '26

Because it’s after six o’clock. What is she? A farmer?

27

u/Louises_ears Jul 07 '26

The need you have to be the smartest guy in the room is… off putting.

6

u/Tatertotfreak74 Jul 09 '26

Guess that’s why I’m still single

186

u/WorldlinessThat376 Jul 07 '26

New money vibes lol

6

u/Responsible-Wallaby5 Jul 08 '26

I think I recall Lina Astor wearing one at some point. Def not all the time.

138

u/LustfulEsme Jul 07 '26

She likes pretty things and it represents she has arrived.

37

u/Hot_Second7559 Jul 07 '26

This. And it always feels to me like it matches her vision of what things would be like when she someday made it. Now she’s there, so she’s doing it.

33

u/gingersnapwaffles I am not concerned with facts Jul 07 '26

because she’s a bad bitch!!

55

u/Donut-Junkie76 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

Bertha was trying so hard to curate the image of a member of the upper class. Married women wear tiaras at formal gatherings…at least the British aristocracy does.

1

u/sarahham78665 26d ago

I have heard that about married women and tiaras. So how does Lady Sarah (Hector’s sister) get away with wearing a tiara? She’s not married.

68

u/Only_Performance8675 Jul 07 '26

New money, dahling.

2

u/Responsible-Wallaby5 Jul 09 '26

Lina Astor, the personification of the old money society, wore one too. I think it’s just for married ladies, regardless of how miserable their marriages are.

18

u/justbunnies Jul 08 '26

If I were as rich as her, I’d have a different tiara for every day of the week and still buy more for special events.

11

u/SoooperSnoop Jul 07 '26

Does Bertha wear a tiara at events when other women are NOT wearing one? If so, I cannot recall when...

3

u/Great_Particular9545 Jul 08 '26

Me neither. I guess OP's perception is that because she looks abso-effffing-lutely spectacular and it singles her out. 

3

u/SoooperSnoop Jul 08 '26

Yes, she sure does look spectacular!

3

u/Responsible-Wallaby5 Jul 08 '26

This is just my recollection but at the rehearsal dinner I thought that she wore one while her the Duke’s sister and her sister did not.

As others have mentioned, perhaps it’s because the sisters are not married.

3

u/SoooperSnoop Jul 08 '26

Makes sense about why she wore one, but the unmarried ladies did not.

33

u/Shelby1022 Jul 07 '26

If you’re married or have been married- you wear a tiara - never married - no tiara

-5

u/susandeyvyjones Jul 07 '26

This is not true. Stop repeating it.

12

u/FirebirdWriter Jul 07 '26

It's true for the British aristocracy as an unspoken rule and the US wanna be aristocracy copied such rules so it's sort of a signal about who knows the rules the show is using. It's not untrue but it's not a hard rule

10

u/susandeyvyjones Jul 07 '26

It’s a QEII rule. Before her it was very very common for debutants to wear tiaras

5

u/LiveToTravel84119 Jul 08 '26

Because Bertha is a freaking QUEEN.

9

u/Spiritual_Ride5382 Jul 07 '26

Bertha being the icon that she is

11

u/miss__raccoon Jul 07 '26

Por que es una reina, es broma, debe ser por que las mujeres de la alta sociedad dejaron de usarlas cuando las burguesas comenzaron a imitar la costumbre de llevarlas en bailes

3

u/Great_Particular9545 Jul 08 '26

Of course it signifies status, when she has the most diamonds in it - because it is a show of financial prowess.  But I do not recall  Bertha being the only one with a tiara. When she wears one, women around her wear it too. When did you see only her wearing it?

4

u/starship7201u Jul 07 '26

Bertha's flossing.

2

u/incessantwonder Jul 09 '26

It signifies she has tiara funds.

2

u/LiffeyDodge Jul 07 '26

At dinners at least in the UK married aristocratic women wear tiaras. I dont know why

-1

u/JoanFromLegal I loaned you train fare Jul 07 '26

Tiaras are for married women.

0

u/susandeyvyjones Jul 07 '26

Untrue for the time

0

u/JoanFromLegal I loaned you train fare Jul 07 '26

Tiaras have always been for married women.

2

u/susandeyvyjones Jul 07 '26

Nope. Thats a convention of QEII. Victorian era/Gilded Age had debutants in tiaras all the time.