It is a truth universally acknowledged that any truly greatJane Austenadaptation also needs fantastic Regency fashion.
“The first film I designed back in ‘96 wasPersuasionby Jane Austen,” she tells EW.
“When I was designingPersuasion, I absolutely didn’t know what I was doing,” she quips.
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“So I was firing on that energy of naivety and ignorance and trusting my instincts.
How much did that factor into your design approach?
ALEXANDRA BYRNE:That was quite a challenge because quite often I feel that period films are over costumed.
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Because people get carried away.
But then again, with Emma, she is the queen bee.
She’s very indulged, and she has everything she wants.
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She can dress entirely at her whim for the statement she wants to make.
So, I developed a seasonal palette for her clothes, which then dictates the world around her.
How did you hit on that?
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I think a lot of people think that Regency is just a a muslin dress and walk away.
But actually, there are so many layers involved.
Then, you’d have boots and gloves and jewelry, a bonnet, a short jacket or coat.
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We combine all these pieces in different ways.
She is following the fashion of the time, and she has everything she wants.
Even though it is an extensive wardrobe, she is actually dressing for the moment.
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And what she wanted to play into or against.
No, she’s not.
But it was more the sense of the spirit of the novel really.
There is a huge sense of humor in there.
As I said, it was the beginning of women’s fashion magazines.
It’s that sense of individuality and spontaneity about the clothes.
Speaking of which, Emma is so colorful with these bright yellows and blues.
And she’s always the center of a tableau, matching her surroundings.
How did you devise her color palette and collaborate with the production designer to accomplish that?
The sense of color started with trying to define the seasons.
Emma dictated the color palette for the season.
And then, I love color.
It was like choreographing a dance with the colors and how they worked together.
Howintegral was Anyato your process?
Because this was quite a low budget film, and the prep was quite short.
She was having piano lesson; she was having dancing lessons.
So, she brought all those areas of the character work that she was doing into the fitting.
What prompted that choice?
Autumn loves clothes and fabrics.
Quite often, directors panic when they hear the word “bonnet.”
But Autumn loved the bonnets.
They have very different shapes.
They’re a bit like wearing horse blinkers, so they change how a woman would move her head.
There are far more extreme fashions within the period.
The film sitsso wonderfully in Austen’s satire.
Was there anything you did to help sell that via the wardrobe?
No, I think it comes back to working instinctively.
I like to really research a period to completely understand what it should be.
And I can work quite freely.
It was such a great collaboration.
