The House of Eliott

Although I soon found this Wiki-linked Human Science website to be poorly written, the notion inspired me to look deeper into what was already apparent to me.

So much is set up in the first moments of the drama which runs all through the first 12 episode series. An angry, intolerant father has curtailed his daughter's lives - but his attitude brings about his own end. And the women are set free - and the story set in motion. The father had a mistress, a possible love child and embroilment in a dubious club. He has left the sisters, Evangeline and Beatrice Eliott, with an ill legacy, it seems: little money and not even a home, and having deprived them of a social life and education they have only two bossy posh relations to help them.

But what has this given them?

The ability to make dresses. And their father's expensive clothes for his affair provide further opportunity to experiment there. Bea has been a mother (theirs died when Evie was born) and housekeeper, allowing her to develop organisational skills, which helps her in her first job with Jack who becomes so significant to both sisters, personally and professionally.

I have a book (the best 49p I ever spent) called What God Wants To Know, and it's got a chapter called What is That in Your Hand? It is about the question God asked Moses at the burning bush. The chapter expanded that the staff Moses held showed he had lots of skill in leading sheep across difficult terrain - and it was a skill that would enable him to do likewise to the children of Israel. Moses had also been brought up in the Egyptian court, thanks to his mother's basket weaving skills and her clever talk with the Egyptian princess. I've found it a helpful question to ask myself if I feel stuck or inadequate - because often what you have, though it might seem a hard old piece of tree, is actually something that equips you for your bigger destiny.

Interfering cousin Arthur and Aunt Lydia prevent Evie's first job but this means that both sisters obtain seamstress work. Already with an aptitude and interest in fashion, their two bad jobs give them skill, experience and clients to begin on their own. Bea and Evie don't start out to set up a business but are both sacked when it becomes viable for them to start on their own. So as Bea says at the New year's party - losing their jobs was the best thing that happened that year.

Having to find a new home means that they live and work above Jack, in a more convenient area than their father's Highgate home, in the building which will become their business premises.

But it is Bea's incredible courage and her strong principles which convey both sisters out of poverty and family men's control toward a life of freedom and franchise.

Could life really work like fiction? If we set ourselves up as characters can we write our own stories as writers would?

There's a big school of thinking which says yes. The opportunities that come to Jack, Evie and Bea are not just because the writers wanted to make it a good show for us to watch, and because a writer has the magic to create whatever world they wish for their stories. They are possible for us too.

Doing a kindness to a woman who collapses on the street means that Evie meets Penelope, a charity worker. This friendship leads to their loyal employee Tilly, and Jack, who provides Bea with her first post - and husband. Although disorganised, a bit arrogant and irresponsible at first, Jack and the Eliotts prove good for each other. He becomes a huge support in all aspects, often sharing clients. The whole story is a networking success, with not only the House of Eliott rising but Jack's varying careers too. There is a thread running through all Jack's jobs As a photographer, her is compromising is visions and he is lying to his clients because they are often older women wanting to be made look younger and better than they are. But with film, journalism and politics, Jack cuts a path of showing uncomfortable realities in order to change them. He is changing the method but not his impetus.

Negative things also a set up by character. Arthur's dishonesty leads to his own demise, although I am glad that he starts afresh in Boston rather than languishing in a an English jail, and I wish the Eliott sisters had parted more graciously with him.

Agnes is naive and careless, leading to two near dismissals and a beating. I was angry to read in the Wiki/human science site that 'Life gave her a beating' (Life being like the Universe or almost, God). She wasn't punished by god but she did allow herself into a dalliance with a reporter and not question what an invitation to a walk in the park could lead to. I would like to have seen that man brought to justice for that act.

You could argue this point about negativity with lord Montford. This is part of the story which makes me angry. I never support affairs. One should break off the affair, the original relationship - or radically - be polymamorous. But to take a lover without the knowledge and certainly not the consent of your partner is despicable, and this selfish plea of 'we couldn't help it. We're in love' is pathetic and no form of excuse. Evie doesn't turn Alexander, lord Treasurer, away from her cottage when he comes to consummate their attraction. She shows no remorse for Lady Elizabeth, her client and her sister's friend, who loses her position in the Royal Household because of Evie and her husband's affair. When Bea points out the detriment to their business the affair causes, Evie berates her for being obsessed with their fashion house over affairs of the heart - and dares to bring in Bea's struggling marriage. Bea and Jack protect Evie's interests, but this is not to me unselfishness as the Wiki site says. Bea and Jack are loyal, unjudging and discreet, but Evie attracts her own pain through her selfishness. I agree that scandal is unfair but it is deserved- not because public figures ought not to be allowed to divorce but because this is a morally despicable act and Evie nor Lord Alexander are willing to recognise that.

If Evie had not curtailed ambitious but frustrated Grace, the rip off would not have happened. As Grace says, the only difference between her and Evie is accent and contacts. Evie bullies her way into Grace's home out of hours when something upsets Evie, but is also prepared to go round socially when it suits her - and then dump Grace again when Evie's seeing Grace's housemate. Although similar age, Evie patronises Grace and develops a professional coldness. What Grace does to the house of Eliott is a refraction of what they were doing to her - taking her designs and hard work and passing them off as theirs. But the dishonesty of Grace and Larry and the treatment of the seamstresses is despicable.

The sisters do a kind of seesaw in the sympathy of their characters. There are times Bea can seem short and bossy. When a client comes to apologise, Bea is harsh, as she is when Arthur departs. But post her scandalous affair, the still rather junior in years Evie starts getting snooty and snappy as power goes to her head, whereas Bea is open to new suggestions and deals with staff much better. By the end, Bea is a model employer and I really rally for her marriage, business and happiness. But I found myself thinking that the best man that had been attracted to Evie the whole show (Miles) is in fact too good for her now. The series ends abruptly and unfinished with Evie at odds with her sister and all the directors of the house. Evie has become an unpleasant persona and perhaps that is what made that unforeseen end to the show so dissatisfying.

Rewatching the start, I was struck by the contrast between early and later Evie. Bea changes too - but nearly all for the better, retaining the characteristics that made her so watchable from the outset. Evie begins without the style and confidence of her later character, but with an innocent, unbeguiled warmth. She's fresh faced and giving, openhearted. I wanted Penelope to return and remind Evie of the woman who stopped to help a stranger in the street, who was moved by the women's mission, who was more akin to Tilly and Miles in her goodness. And to wonder why through makeup and success that that person has died inside... or is she set to return?

I have to believe that she was meant to, but I can only imagine for myself how this would have come about.
See also - Is a Fashion House Immoral? on this series