Five Times Anne of Green Gables Looked Better Than Us

Let's face it. Anne of Green Gables was the queen of early 20th century literature. But with her bookworm interests and small-town upbringing, Anne wasn't exactly into fashion.

Or was she?

Here are five looks that reveal Anne's stylish ways, as described by L.M. Montgomery.

Anne of the Island

1. This book is all about Anne's adventures in college. Here, we see her hopping from party to party with her two outgoing housemates, Phillipa and Prissy. In one such scene, Anne prepares for a party and decides to wear "a little slip of cream silk chiffon dress" that has been overlaid with rosebuds, courtesy of Phillipa's good craftsmanship (166). Anne completes the wispy look by slipping wild "white orchids" into her auburn hair.

Donna Karen, 2011

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2. In another scene, Anne is busy hemming a dress while talking to Gilbert, her future husband and doctor emeritus. She tells him she's going to wear the "pale, frilly green dress" in her lap, with starflowers in her hair, which Gilbert imagines with a thrill (239).

Abed Mafouz

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3. Anne is fortunate enough to not only hop from party to party, but to live in a fully furnished, four bedroom house, surrounded by pine trees. Sometimes she just lays around on the sofa in a "flannel blouse and serge skirt" (212).

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Anne of Avonlea

4. In this earlier book, Anne is a harried schoolteacher with little time for primping. She lives a low-key life in backwoods Avonlea with Marilla and the kids; yet, even on an off-day, she manages to dress impressively, coming downstairs one afternoon "in a new dress of pale muslin...it became her perfectly, bringing out all the delicate, flower-like tints of her face and the gloss and burnish of her hair" (239).

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Anne of Green Gables

5. Remember that time when Anne owned only four dresses?  Well, this fueled her sense of style -- in Anne of Green Gables, she routinely imagines herself in gowns of "trailing white lace, with a pearl cross" and pearls in her hair, and in "snow white muslin with lovely lace frills and three-puffed sleeves" (88). She also makes roseberry necklaces with bff, Diana, in the backyard. Puff-sleeves notwithstanding, Anne has a natural knack for looking good, even in her youngest years. When she has the chance to start dressing how she wants, she wears organdy fabric and braids gathered onto her head for a grown-up outing to the White Sands Hotel.

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So that proves it - Anne of Green Gables was not only a literary icon, but a bit of a fashion one too.

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I really just wanted to show off my collection, to be honest