Anna Mary Scott Robbins, the costume designer for “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” said there was an immediate agreement when the production team met to discuss the third and final movie in the long-running franchise: “Let’s go out with a bang.”
That resolve led her to 55 Piccadilly in London, through the doors of the antique and bespoke jewelry store Bentley & Skinner, where she selected 13 jewels valued at more than $1.4 million. Ms. Robbins said it was the largest number of authentic pieces used in any one of the TV series’s six seasons or either of the two previous movies.
Trailers for the movie, scheduled to open Sept. 12 in the United States and Britain, have hinted at some plot points. But Ilias Kapsalis, the manager of Bentley & Skinner, said the store had been asked to find an appropriate box from the early 1900s for an oval brooch that features a large pink topaz framed by four round-cut diamonds in a floral motif, so there is speculation it could make a significant appearance.
“Jewelry was always going to be important in a period drama portraying the aristocratic way of life in its heyday,” said Ms. Robbins, who worked on seasons five and six and the two previous movies. “It holds sentimental value for the characters, but we wanted to mark the final installment with some really special pieces.”
Bentley & Skinner has lent jewelry to the production since the first TV season, which debuted in Britain in 2010 and in the United States the next year. For this film, Ms. Robbins provided dress sketches, fabric swatches and lists of fictional occasions to help the store make selections from its stock, then some choices were changed after consideration of a character’s back story or personality.
“Lady Cora, the mother, would still wear a belle époque tiara from an earlier period — it would not make sense for her to wear an Art Deco one,” Mr. Kapsalis said. Presuming that a woman of a certain age would likely wear a piece from her youth rather than a new style, the store lent a diamond band tiara with a floral motif for Cora, Countess of Grantham, played by Elizabeth McGovern.
And in some cases, the jewelry influenced the rest of the costume. One example was an Art Deco brooch featuring two aquamarines with a combined weight of almost 80 carats. Ms. Robbins had selected it for a halter-neck gown in turquoise lamé worn by the Marchioness of Hexham, known for most of the series as Lady Edith Crawley and played by Laura Carmichael.
“It jumped out straight away,” Ms. Robbins said, “because the color just connected so beautifully with that dress, and I decided to style the rest of the look around it.”
Another example is an Art Deco diamond brooch featured on the movie’s promotional poster, which shows Lady Mary Talbot (née Crawley), played by Michelle Dockery, walking from the shadowy hallway into Downton’s great hall. She is wearing a diamond tiara and a cherry-red gown with a plunging back, adorned with the brooch at its lowest point.
“I had a very clear idea about the general shape — the neckline, the color and the proportion — and I wanted to have two dress clips on the front neckline of the dress,” Ms. Robbins said.
But when she saw a diamond pavé brooch in the shape of a shield with an openwork center and topped with twin cylindrical motifs, “then the idea formed to drop the back a little further and place it at the center back in a kind of unusual twist,” she said.
“Sometimes you go knowing exactly what you want, but quite often you find something you didn’t know you wanted, and that becomes a lovely feature.”
The Bentley & Skinner pieces were worn by the principal actors only; the hundreds of extras who mill about at social gatherings and sports events in the film wore costume jewelry.
Why did Ms. Robbins decide to use real jewelry? “Diamonds do funny things to people, and actors are no exception,” she said. “I think it makes you feel really special and elevated.”
And nothing would set the stage for a grand finale quite like diamonds. “We are bidding farewell,” she added. “So why not do it in full finery?”
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