“Sense and Sensibility” costume designer Grace Snell thought in chapters for Georgia Oakley’s new take on Jane Austen’s 1811 novel, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles as Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, respectively.
The most distinct chapters, from Snell’s costuming perspective, are the country and the city. First, the Barton Cottage chapter, shaped by the Devonshire landscape. There, behind closed doors, the relationship between the Dashwood sisters is at its most intimate. Then, the London chapter, where Elinor and Marianne’s presentation to society takes on a different palette. Snell says the sets, weather and changing seasons inspired her work in the different phases.
Austen’s debut novel begins with the Dashwood family — sisters Elinor, Marianne, Margaret and their mother — settled at Norland Park, their Sussex estate. It’s set between the Georgian and Regency eras, in what Snell calls an “unusual transition period” as fashion began to “massively revolutionize” into the simpler style associated with Austen. Snell’s costuming inspiration, however, pulls from an array of eras, from period-accurate paintings and archival costume pieces to family portraits from the 2000s.
In those photographs, “I really homed in on the intimacy that is within a family,” Snell says. “Particularly with sisters, and how relaxed and how comfortable they are with each other, and what that looks like in clothing.”
One of Snell’s favorite details, and one she hopes fans pick up on, is that the sisters share clothing — emphasized by the Dashwood girls’ age gap. At the onset, Marianne is 19, Elinor is 16 and Margaret is 13.
“There’s moments of borrowing because that’s what sisters do. They’re stealing clothes from each other. There’s being inspired by each other and reimagining clothing,” Snell says. “The dynamic of those sisters and how they share clothes and how they’re inspired by each other was important. We do rework some of the fabrics so that the garments look that they have a life themselves and how garments are loved and shared and borrowed within a family.”
Inspired by those family photographs from the early aughts, as well as some runway looks from the ‘80s and ‘90s, Snell styled the film with a more modern take. Part of that was based on a desire to make the period piece feel more accessible.
“What I wanted to do was design a film that I could see myself in, my friends in, my family in, try and knock down the wall that often is associated with period dramas,” Snell explains. “There’s sometimes this level of separation that you feel you’re looking at them on a pedestal, and I really wanted to open that up.”
Still, “Sense and Sensibility” is not a modern film. Snell, who studied historical dress at university, brought a dress historian on board for three weeks of research. “I wanted how we made the costumes to be historically accurate with the fabrics we used, and the techniques we used, and the hand sewing,” she says. “For me as a designer, it was an amazing experience to try and fight those two sides, making historic accuracy marry up with how I wanted to give us a more modern take in the film.”
The film’s colors were also chosen with care: “Sense and Sensibility” begins in a period of mourning, which formed “this idea of ‘shades of black.’” When the Dashwood sisters are in London, Elinor and Edward are both in shades of blue to reflect the disappointment of their situation. Snell used brighter colors in controlled ways, mainly for the supporting characters.
“Sense and Sensibility” was Snell’s first period film, and she says part of the challenge was simply the volume of pieces. At the same time, she had to manage the entire costume team. There’s a lot to juggle, so the first challenge “is within yourself and your own head,” she says. “The biggest challenge is overcoming self-doubt.”
Snell is a self-proclaimed Austen fan, so she understood how much of an undertaking this adaptation was. “I tried to not be intimidated by the fact that we were making a Jane Austen and how big a deal that was,” she says.
This film looks different from Ang Lee’s 1995 adaptation, which Snell notes is a touchstone for many Austen fans. “I love that film. I have massive respect for [costume designers] Jenny Beavan and John Bright,” she says. But “it was not a reference point for the design. They were two separate things, but the weight of how much it’s a beloved film, obviously we have to acknowledge that there are going to be people that that is a film that has meant so much to them.”
Rather than referring back to Lee and Emma Thompson, Snell brings it back to Austen herself. “We want to do Jane Austen justice,” she says. “I think it’s time to have our version of a human story, and see this level of intimacy between the sisters and have a new take on it. It’s important to keep reworking these stories. Jane Austen’s books are so timeless and so relevant today, and hopefully we reach a new audience as well with our film.”