Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Costume designer: Jacqueline Durran

Keira Knightley’s Lizzie Bennet wore earth tones and hardworking linen fabrics, to reflect her tomboy personality. In several scenes you can see the mud along the end of her dress. Rosamund Pike’s Jane is more refined, but there is still a homespun, slapdash quality to her looks, because the Bennets were broke. They were a provincial family, their dresses would have been homemade, or made locally by someone who was trying to interpret the styles seen in London but with more limited resources. The book was first published in 1797, while a lot of film adaptations set it in 1813, when the final revisions were made to the book. The timing is significant, as the late 18th century saw a move from the voluminous, corseted gowns of French revolution times to simpler empire-line dresses.

Emma (1996)

Costume designer: Ruth Myers

Gwyneth Paltrow is radiant in Emma, wearing light pastel and white empire line dresses with pretty detailing like flowers and ribbons. This reflects her privileged life and innocence; she was a pretty socialite, and certainly wasn’t out working on the farm like the Bennet sisters. But rather than focusing on accuracy to the period, Myers has said she deliberately opted for pastel shades to give a watercolour look to the film to reflect the light nature of the script, rather than practical sombre shades that would lead to a more sepia effect and suggest a darkness. The high waistlines, low neckline and short puffy sleeves look beautiful on willowy Gwyneth Paltrow, but Myers admitted it wasn’t a style that would work on most people. She only had five weeks to make 150 costumes for the production.

Love and Friendship (2016)

Costume designer: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh

Love and Friendship is a recent film adaptation of Austen’s novella Lady Susan. Irish costume designer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh played a lot with Lady Susan’s look, to reflect her personality and the plot of the film. Lady Susan was a more mature character than Emma and the Bennets, a well-to-do widow in her mid-30s, who wears opulent fabrics and dramatic accessories. Set in the 1780s, Kate Beckinsale’s character is dressed in voluminous corseted gowns. In the beginning, she had to look the part as a grieving widow, wearing mourning colours of blacks and purples, when she is leaning on her rich country relatives for support. She still remains glamorous at all times, never knowing when an eligible man will appear, and when she starts seeing two men at the same time, she dresses more seductively, wearing daring reds and dressing more ornamentally than she would have in the country.

Becoming Jane (2007)

Costume designer: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh

This is a biography of Jane Austen before she became famous, based on her romance with a young Irishman. Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh styled Anne Hathaway in practical linens and dark shades that are reminiscent of Lizzie Bennet, as Jane Austen would have had to do farm work and wouldn’t have been from well off family. CL