Emma 2009 Costumes

As a lover of Jane Austen's works, once I have read one of her books, I always feel the need to have more. The best way to fill that need? Watch a screen adaptation of course!

My favourite of Austen's main 6 novels is "Emma". As far as I know, there are 4 screen adaptations of it: 2 BBC series, a made-for-TV film by ITV, and the Miramax film (I'll probably make a post about all of them and what I like about each one some day). And since watching it when it was aired back in 2009, I've grown to really love it. Romola Garai (who has also starred as Amelia Sedley in the 2004 "Vanity Fair" and is currently in the BBC series "The Hour" as Bel Rowley) is my favourite Emma by far. However, I didn't make this blog post to talk about why I love that particular series so much, but to show one of the reasons - the costumes!

Emma was published in December 1815. Fashion in 1815 looked like this: 

Compare the above plates to these costumes of the 2009 Emma:

Ball dress

Evening dress

Walking dress

In this adaptation of Emma, there's very few white dresses, as the Ackermann's plates show above. In the costume feature on the DVD (I recommend you buy the DVDs not only for the series but also for the 4 special features on location, costume, music and Mr Woodhouse), the costume designer, Rosalind Ebbutt, says:
"...I started off with the idea that this was a Georgian oil painting using really strong Georgian colours."

When talking about the coat I've put a picture of above, she says:
"This coat was copied from one in the museum in Kyoto." I think the coat she's talking about might be this one:

This coat is the most similar from the Kytoto Institute Online Archives, however the 'skirt' bit is different. Click the picture to see more information about this particular coat.
This coat is labelled as being circa 1810, so I think the costumes weren't designed to be particularly 1815, but just to give a look of the Regency era in general. Personally I think this works well, as it means more freedom in the design, so they can do what they wanted to in making it look like a Georgian oil painting using strong colours.






The ball dress I have put a picture of above is also an interesting piece of costume to learn about. In the special feature, Rosalind Ebbutt says that it was "layers... of different coloured fabric to get this sort of shimmery effect, because one of the things we didn't want to do was to have sort of plain, flat pastels, so, and by doing layers of fabric over one another you get a much more interesting effect when it's lit." I not only find that quote interesting to learn how they made the dress (it really is a beautiful ball gown), but also interesting to show that it also very much matters about how it will look when on film with the lighting changing how it looks slightly, and how they've used this to their advantage to make a beautiful dress look even better.

The last quote I found particularly interesting was: "The idea was that it should look just like real people, set very much in their society, with all different echelons of society, wearing clothes that were interesting and attractive, but that could still be appreciated by the modern eye, whilst remaining true to early 19th century." I think it's a perfect description of the costumes. Emma's are elegant but not necessarily fashionable, and quite simple too, which I think reflects her country life really well. If you watch this series, you'll also see that Harriet's are quite earthy and then start to be almost like copies of what Emma wears. My favourite costumes have to be Mrs Elton's though, as they are so ridiculously extravagant!

First impressions

I have the greatest dislike to the idea of being over-trimmed -- quite a horror of finery...

Dusty country life

I believe a lot of her dresses were actually "recycled" costumes from other costume dramas set in the Regency, however I think that they were picked remarkably well to match the overall look they were going for whilst also representing Mrs Elton's personality and background well. My favourite piece of costume of Mrs Elton's is the above-pictured yellow and pink spencer. Nevermind that it matches Mrs Elton so well - I think it's quite pretty!

I would highly recommend watching this series of Emma. Obviously I have a deep love of the costumes and in my opinion the actors and actresses are very, VERY well chosen for the parts. I know a few people have problems with the script but that's the only complaints about this series I've ever heard. And the costuming feature on the DVD is really interesting to watch and quite useful for any beginner aspiring costumers like myself!