'Downton' Chicago: A Sneak Peek
(CBS) -- Some of the costumes from the popular PBS drama "Downtown Abbey" have crossed the pond and will soon be on public display at a Chicago mansion.
Three dozen gowns and uniforms are making extended appearances at the Driehaus Museum. The show takes place in an English country manor in the years surrounding World War I and beyond.
"They absolutely got it right and they did a great deal of research," Curator Ruta Saliklas tells CBS 2's Vince Gerasole.
To bring the Earl of Grantham and his staff to life, costume designers consult the collections at London's Victoria and Albert Museum and often incorporate actual vintage pieces into their works.
"It's pretty darn close to what they really were," Saliklas says.
The Gold Coast museum is a perfectly preserved mansion from America's Gilded Age. The costumes, scattered throughout its parlors and music rooms and hallways, couldn't be more at home.
The exhibit opens to the public on Monday.