Saturday 23 June 2007

Costumes of 'Becoming Jane' in Chawton House

Rachel has found these beautiful pictures of costumes worn by characters in Becoming Jane, currently displayed in Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton. We lost the link, apologize for that, but will acknowledge the sources once we found it. Or, if possible, I would be glad to have the owner of the images to email us (Icha and Rachel), as finding the link was rather hard (we've tried to locate it several times). Again, sorry for our mistake.




Anyway, the costumes above were worn by Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy) and Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway), respectively, during the ball in Lady Gresham's manor. I particularly love Jane's Regency pale green dress and Tom's deep green velvet coat; the costumes matched their chemistry. Simple, but lovely.

This blue dress is the Regency costume Jane usually wore for house work. I love the blue fabric and the grey sash; it helped bring out a sense of simplicity in Jane (while her red dresses promoted her wittiness!).








This one is a lovely white cotton Regency dress Jane also wore, but I could not remember any scenes where she wore it. I don't think it was the white dress she wore beneath the red Belle-ish cricket dress.


The above is a very lovely red Rococo/Georgian dress worn by Eliza (Lucy Cohu) as she arrived in London. She was extra gorgeous in it.















This is the Rococo/Georgian dress Eliza wore during her wedding with Henry Austen. A nice one, but I was rather expecting her to wear the silver Rococo dress she had during the ball in Lady Gresham's manor. Now that was what I call a wedding dress for Paris; but maybe too extravagant for Hampshire. I hope we can find a nice pic of Henry's red uniform in Chawton later.
















This gorgeous purple dress was worn by Lady Gresham (Maggie Smith) during the dinner when Cassandra found out that Thomas Fowle had died in India. I have to say Lady Gresham looked truly menacing in this dress, in a good way! Pair her with Judi Dench, and no couples will escape them! Jane/Tom and Elizabeth/Darcy had to fight for their lives!
















Tom Lefroy donned this brown overcoat during his elopement with Jane Austen. The overcoat has a historical value, for it was the very coat Jane held dear with her life as she read the faithful letter from Tom's mother. Poor girl, she must have missed the coat so much, for I bet Tom's scent was everywhere on the coat. Sob-sob!


Pictures of costumes with the characters: www.annie-hathaway.com, except for Tom & Jane dancing (www.james-mcavoy.net) and the wedding of Eliza & Henry (Jane Austen's Regency World Magazine March/April 2007)


2 comments:

Rachel said...

I love this post Icha! It is just fantastic. Placing the cosumes next to the pictures from the film brings them alive! Thank you very much.

Vic said...

Yes, beautiful costumes. And I love the comparisons. Again, I can't wait for the movie to make its appearance here.