Downton Abbey Is Back and Everything's Coming Up Edith

With one sister in mourning and the other in the grave, Lady Edith is finally the fun Crawley sister.

Her family still can’t stand her, though. Her father rolled his eyes at her mention of her new boyfriend, and Lady Mary threw her serious shade about her going to see him for Valentine’s Day. But Edith is living it up, as a modern woman—even kissing a man in public! Her independence is something that’s being reflected in her wardrobe this season, according to Downton Abbey costume designer Caroline McCall.

[I]t’s really the arc of her story. When you come back in series four, Matthew has been dead for six months, and it feels like the house hasn’t moved on. The whole house has been in darkness since his death, and Edith is desperate to get out. And when she returns to London, boy does she go for it. She’s decided that she’s a new, independent woman of the early twenties, so her wardrobe has changed to reflect all that.