Grace Snell gives Sense and Sensibility a lived-in Regency wardrobe

The Dashwood sisters will share a wardrobe as well as a heartbreak in Georgia Oakley's new take on Sense and Sensibility.

Costume designer Grace Snell dressed Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne Dashwood for the film, Variety reported on 17 October. Oakley directs the new screen version of Jane Austen's 1811 novel about two sisters forced to rebuild their lives. The production comes from Focus Features and Working Title, according to Focus Features.

It is the first adaptation of the novel directed by a woman, the Hartford Courant reported. That makes the clothes part of a larger reset. Every collar and coat helps place these sisters in their moment.

Snell built the costumes in chapters. Country life at Barton Cottage looks and feels different from the city. That split drives the whole design. Looser shapes and quieter textures belong to the country. London is sharper, tighter and more performative.

The story opens in mourning. Snell answered with what she calls shades of black. Dark tones carry those early scenes after the Dashwood family loss. Later, in London, Elinor and Edward both wear shades of blue. The colour marks disappointment. Brighter colours appear in small, controlled doses, mostly on supporting characters.

Clothes get worn hard. The sisters borrow from each other across the film. Fabrics are reworked to suggest a garment has had a past life. Nothing looks fresh off the peg.

The research ran deep. Snell studied historical dress at university and brought a dress historian on board for three weeks, Variety reported. The team chased historically accurate fabrics, period techniques and hand sewing. Inspiration ranged from period-accurate paintings and surviving archival pieces to family portraits from the 2000s.

There is a modern edge too. Snell looked to early-2000s family photographs and to 1980s and 1990s runway shapes for styling cues. The Regency era, Britain in the early 1800s, gives the silhouette. The styling keeps it human. The aim is dress that feels lived in rather than locked behind glass.

The job was a first. Sense and Sensibility is Snell's first period film. She is a Jane Austen fan and was named by Variety in its "10 Artisans to Watch".

For fans, this means a version where character shows in a hem or a borrowed coat. Watch who wears what twice. The detail does the talking.

A behind-the-scenes video on Regency fashion from the official film account offers a closer look, with Snell talking through the work alongside Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles.