Michelle Dockery
LADY MARY. COME ON. I know You Know Who ran into You Know What and now he's all YOU KNOW, but is there ever EVERY ANY EXCUSE FOR KHAKI SHORTS that doesn't include the words "camp counselor," "hiking excursion," "bumming around the house," or "cute delivery professional"? Probably, but "drumming up press for my romantic period piece soap opera" IS NOT ONE OF THEM.
Laura Carmichael
This is both kinda dumb and also secretly sort of whimsically cute. Much like Lady Edith herself, actually! I'll give her the points.
Apparently at this event, Carmichael said she thinks of Lady Edith, with the stuff she's been doing at the newspaper now, as "the Carrie Bradshaw of the '20s." I really want to see Edith sitting at her desk and soliloquying, "and as I left the ball alone, I couldn't help but wonder...have we all been out-foxtrotted?" or "and I had to ask, could I really be a flapper if I wasn't at all unflappable?" or musing about a former quasi-paramour she'd refer to as "Mr Giant Veneers" (I think, also, it's obvious that Lady Mary is Samantha and Sybil (R.I.YOU KNOW WHAT) was Charlotte. The Dowager Countess is Miranda.)
Phyllis Logan, Joanne Froggatt and Sophie McShera
All this being said, I LOVE seeing the Downton ladies out of costume. And bless them all for embracing pattern and color. Mrs Hughes always seems delightful, Anna's skirt is adorable, and while I want to take Daisy's shoes off her and throw them down a well (presumably with Thomas, whom I always want to throw down a well, despite his hotness), her dress is really really charming. Yay, Downton! Come back to me soon!