{"id":889488,"date":"2026-10-21T01:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/889488\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T01:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:38:28","slug":"sense-and-sensibility-2026-frock-flicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/889488\/","title":{"rendered":"Sense and Sensibility (2026) \u2013 Frock Flicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

We previewed<\/a> it, and we actually went to the theater to watch the new Sense and Sensibility (2026). Our collective opinion is that this isn\u2019t the worst<\/a> Jane Austen adaption, but it\u2019s clearly not the best<\/a> either. We have a podcast with our raw impressions right after seeing the flick (link below), and here\u2019s the highlights of our observations\u2026<\/p>\n

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The Costumes in Sense and Sensibility (2026)<\/p>\n

This film is set between between 1795 to 1799, according to costume designer Grace Snell<\/a>, and the gowns really nail that silhouette.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Edgar & Elinor. Photo by Szilveszter Mako \/ Vogue.
\n\"Sense<\/a>Margaret. Photo by Alex Bailey\/Focus Features.<\/p>\n

Note that because this film is still in theaters<\/a>, we can\u2019t get a lot of screencaps. But promo images show the high waist, fullness gathered to the back, trademarks of this period, it\u2019s all there, like these extant examples:<\/p>\n

\"Gown,<\/a>1797-1805 \u2013 Gown, Great Britain, Victoria & Albert Museum.
\n\"Robe<\/a>c. 1787 \u2013 Robe en chemise worn by Madame Oberkampf, Mus\u00e9e de la Toile de Jouy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a few gowns that appear to be in the chemise \u00e0 la reine<\/a>\u00a0style:<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Marianne.<\/p>\n

Compare with these iconic gowns:<\/p>\n

\"Dress<\/a>1783-90 \u2013 Dress (Chemise \u00e0 la Reine), Manchester Galleries.
\n\"Marie<\/a>1783 \u2013 Marie Antoinette by \u00c9lisabeth Louise Vig\u00e9e Le Brun, Hessian House Foundation.<\/p>\n

We particularly loved Mrs. Jennings\u2019 wardrobe, which featured many of the Turkish-inspired robes\/overrobes popular in the period. Sadly the only still we have so far of these is further down, so I\u2019ll include Marianne\u2019s one short-sleeved, cut away overrobe that SCREAMS Turkish (check out Kendra\u2019s book\u00a0Dressing \u00e0 la Turque to learn more!):<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Screenshotted from this video featurette on the costumes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Compare with one from a contemporary fashion plate:<\/p>\n

\"Robe<\/a>1794 \u2013 Robe \u00e0 la turque, Gallery of Fashion, Bunka Gakuen Library.<\/p>\n

We also spotted several extant garment reproductions, like Willoughby\u2019s amazing spangle-embroidered waistcoat:<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>From that same video.<\/p>\n

The original is in the John Bright collection, which makes sense because he assisted in the costume design\/making:<\/p>\n

\"Waistcoat<\/a>1790s \u2013 Waistcoat<\/a>, John Bright Collection.<\/p>\n

There were even some hats, which the costume designer noted in an interview with Vogue<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that she [director Georgia Oakley] didn\u2019t like bonnets \u2014 it was that there had to be more than bonnets in this world. So then our milliner, the dress historian and I tried to find alternatives. We came up with mourning caps, and the cap hood that Elinor has.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kendra derided these caps in her preview<\/a>, hat-obsessive<\/a> Trystan found them to be well-made and fitting the period.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Mrs. Dashwood | Margaret.<\/p>\n

It is a bit odd that both Mrs. Dashwood and Mrs. Jennings wear calashes \u2014 this type of structured hood was created in the 1760s to protect high hairstyles (and came back in fashion during the 19th century when hair got big again). Neither women have big hair at all, so the calashes seem like a waste.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Mrs. Dashwood.<\/p>\n

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The Color Palette of\u00a0Sense and Sensibility (2026)<\/p>\n

While we generally liked the costumes, we were NOT thrilled by the drab colors used for the Dashwoods and really the entire movie. In Vogue<\/a>, Grace Snell said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clothes were designed in chapters. The Norland chapter is our grief chapter \u2014 that\u2019s where we had shades of black, which we achieved with our natural dyeing processes. I didn\u2019t ever want to have true black \u2014 I wanted a varied palette. Then, our Barton chapter is a bit warmer in tone, there\u2019s more colour coming in. And then our London chapter is more monochromatic \u2013 navies, browns, greys, and for the ball in particular, all whites, so that it does feel quite sparse and has a contrast to Barton, which has a bit more life to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in a livestream interview at the V&A Museum, Snell talked about using natural dyes as much as possible for the costumes.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>The costume designer\u2019s natural-dye color samples.<\/p>\n

But as we\u2019ve pointed out before<\/a>, \u201cnatural\u201d dyes doesn\u2019t mean drab, muddy colors only! All dyes before the 1850s were made from natural ingredients, and plenty of pre-1850s clothes were in bright, clear tones.<\/p>\n

\"Sally<\/a>Sally Pointer\u2019s yarn samples dyed with woad, weld, & madder.<\/p>\n

Bright colors show up still in extant garments:<\/p>\n

\"Jacket,<\/a>1790-1815- Jacket, Centre de Documentacio i Museu Textil.<\/p>\n

And in period imagery:<\/p>\n

\"1790<\/a>1790 \u2013 The Squire\u2019s Door by George Morland at the Yale Center for British Art.<\/p>\n

What this movie shows is just dull.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Mrs. Dashwood, Margaret, & Elinor. Photo via Focus Features.<\/p>\n

In the Vogue<\/a> interview, the costume designer said:<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of her [director Georgia Oakley] references were from working-class Victorian and Regency England. When we saw the set for Barton Cottage \u2026 it\u2019s gorgeous but it\u2019s small and falling down. And that helped in thinking about money \u2014 how much money could they live on and what could they afford clothing-wise? There was a focus on practical clothing and not being too clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Except there are plenty of scenes of the Dashwoods doing laundry\/hanging up laundry, and getting whites very white was a priority in this (and most!) eras, so the dingy quality of their clothes is inaccurate and unattractive.<\/p>\n

The one exception is Mrs. Jennings, who gets to wear a little bit of color in her wardrobe. Sure, she\u2019s an extremely chatty, extroverted character and has a more wealth than the Dashwoods, but they\u2019re of the same social class.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Mrs. Jennings. Photo by Alex Bailey\/Focus Features.<\/p>\n

Of course, the costume designer\u2019s \u201cvision\u201d for this movie was to make the characters \u201crelatable\u201d \u2014 and drab colors without much detail<\/a> have been in popular modern fashion for decades now. Grace Snell told Country and Town House<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to break down some of the laws that we associate with Austen\u2019s work \u2014 that we have already seen onscreen \u2014 and try to give our audience a new angle to shape the material. I also wanted us to be able to see ourselves or our friends in these characters quite plainly. You know, things are more open and garments are put together in not the most coherent way. It\u2019s almost self-styled, which I think is much more natural. I wanted to bring an audience into Austen\u2019s world, approach it in a different way, and make us all fall in love with her work again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Hair in Sense and Sensibility (2026)<\/p>\n

Some on the internets are claiming that long, unstyled hair worn by the Dashwood sisters, especially Marianne, is an accurate representation of the romantic ideals espoused by Jean-Jacques Rousseau at this time period. Well maybe, but even that \u201cromantic\u201d hairstyle was still curled and arranged in this era, not just hanging wild and unkempt.<\/p>\n

\"Sense<\/a>Marianne. Photo by Alex Bailey\/Focus Features.<\/p>\n

Yes, hairstyles of this time period could be loose, soft, and curly with some of it hanging down. But these images all show styled hair:<\/p>\n

\"English<\/a>1786-1800 \u2013 English women\u2019s hairstyles (all culled from Wikimedia Commons).<\/p>\n

What the movie may have tried for does not look like what was worn by \u201cromantic\u201d ladies in the 1790s:<\/p>\n

\"Georgiana,<\/a>c. 1791 \u2013 Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, with Lady Elizabeth Foster by Jean-Urbain Gu\u00e9rin, The Wallace Collection.
\n\"Portrait<\/a>1795 \u2013 Portrait of the Frankland Sisters by John Hoppner, National Gallery of Art.<\/p>\n

And even though YOUNG girls<\/a> (which, yes, the two elder sisters ARE teenagers and Margaret is pre-teen or just barely a teen) could and did wear their hair entirely \u201cdown,\u201d there was generally an attempt at some kind of curl.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/a>c. 1790 \u2013 Portrait of a girl by William Beechey, Yale Center for British Art.<\/p>\n

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These are just the highlights of our thoughts about the movie\u00a0\u2014 check out our podcast for more!<\/p>\n

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Sense and Sensibility (2026) Podcast<\/p>\n

Listen to our podcast recap of the episode here or on\u00a0iTunes<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a> (Duration: 35:38 \u2014 32.6MB)<\/p>\n

Subscribe: RSS<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tMore Frock Flicks\n<\/p>\n

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