The costumes in this movie are just the height of historical accuracy plus characterization and a bit of artistic liberty thrown in. Sexy as hell. I wish the latest Little Women had even tried to do as well.
Augh same. I loved Jo's costumes and the beach costumes as well as Amy's costumes and Beth's costumes because they were gorgeous, and if they weren't necessarily pretty, they fit the characters well, but AUGH THEY DID MEG SO DIRTY AND despite how pretty the beach costumes and stuff were, they just didn't make sense after analyzation
I just realized how many times they repeated Emma's clothes and only added pieces during certain times of the day. It makes it a bit realistic to me, rather than having over the top designs period dramas often have.
Fashion historians say that this continuing to add or subtract accessories, + various decorations like lace, embroidery, etc. over some years til basic dress designs became obsolete. perhaps every decade?
Yes, adding pieces to older dresses, “editing” older dresses, reusing details in newer creations, etc - all of this is *very* realistic, and in an era in which every bit of clothing was hand crafted- and in Emma’s case handmade/handsewn by expensive dressmakers just for her - reusing expensive details makes perfect sense.
The gold chain and fob is what is known as a , Chatelaine and was wore by the lady of an estate as a sign of her standing in society, at this time. Most are hand downs from medieval manors and would include the keys to the manor, it's spice boxes, salt cellars, tea chests, etc which were all the under the auspices and control of the lady of the house. Emma is showing that she is the mistress and head of her household.
Thank you for this post! This makes perfect sense, and given Emma’s situation as the “lady of the house” since her mother passed when Emma was still a child and her older sister is married with her own household to care for, it is another important piece of characterization brilliantly done with the careful costuming. Love these details.
I had no idea that she reused so many of the outfits they showed her wearing int he movie, I just assumed each was different, I was so overwhelmed by how gorgeous they were. Great catch! And a nice nod to historical accuracy of women reusing their clothes through the seasons as dresses were so expensive!
Honestly it is amazing because every scene, it DOES look she is wearing completely different dresses, but it's amazing to see how everything is mixed and matched to give completely new outfits.
The headcanon with the Christmas dress made me cry! I love that idea for the dress as it makes perfect sense that Emma would save that dress for the family Christmas event. And the detail is so subtle and such a beautiful bit of characterization - Emma quietly maintains her mother’s gorgeous dress, updates it appropriately, and Emma wears it at the most important family event of the year to honor her mother. Wonderful!
I love the Christmas dress headcanon! The slightly older style is a good observation. This is a great breakdown, and really helps me think about what I can do with my own Regency wardrobe.
Ugh...this makes me so angry that Little Women won best costume design instead of Emma. I much prefer the novel Little Women to Emma, but the movie costumes were trash and did nothing to enhance the story. In both eras, dress was so important to how one moved through society, and the costuming in Emma captured that perfectly.
The costumes were simply stunning. Unless it's pronounced differently in AmE, the sheer jacket she wore over her dress in the opening scene as she walked to the greenhouse, is pronounced can-e-zoo (not can-e-zow). The chain mentioned at around 7.25 holds a key to the tea-chest/tea caddy. Tea was such a precious commodity in that era that the tea chest was always locked and the lady of the house would wear the key to the chest on a chain.
This movie felt like it was made with the costume fans in mind, because almost every outfit was shot back, front and sides, with good lighting and details :3
I loved the movie, especially the costumes but I was not aware that Emma was wearing the same things from scene to scene, just re-accessorizing, which was brilliant. Your idea behind the Christmas dress is charming.
What an amazing and fun video. And the idea that she wore her mother's gown reworking the sleeves ...for sentimental value on the holidays with family. Wow.
It completely slipped my mind for a minute that Emma is an Austen novel so when you mentioned the cross I just thought "oh! How fun!" and completely forgot why they would've made the reference😂 what a great video! I thought the costumes were beautiful, and I always appreciate the touch of realism in re-wearing some of the pieces for follow-up scenes.
Warns audience that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Me: woohoo let’s go!!! *grabs a cup* Starts talking about earrings and riff raff trim Me: wow you weren’t kidding.... *drinks the tea furiously*
I think the item on her chain necklace is a wax seal- having bought one for personal use as a necklace, it looks rather like mine, and would have been flat on one side and have a pattern either embossed or carved (most likely carved) into the other side.
I agree, it must be a wax seal fob. It would also communicate Emma's sense of self-importance to others. Of course she would showcase how she has her own signature seal to use on important documents and letters... Those fancy seals were mostly for men after all and signaled wealth and independence. ;)
I think these chains the women are wearing are the regency version of chatelaines. Wax seal fobs were often hung from them, as well as other handy items. Before the regency and afterwards, chatelaines were worn at the waist but with the elevated waist it made more sense to wear a chain around your neck. The chatelaine signals who the lady of the house is.
And the key is probably the key to the tea caddy. Tea was more expensive than gold at that time(£45 per ounce in regency currency,not in todays money),and the lady of the house would issue a small amount to the housekeeper when required.
the dress at 30:03 makes my heart go pitter-patter. i love it so much. who dares me to learn to sew with the sole intention of one day being able to recreate it for myself
This is insanely detailed and I am amazed at how attentive you are. I also really like your headcanon about her Christmas dress being her mother’s. The moment you started going into detail about it I immediately came to the same conclusion, and I think that just adds validity to the idea.
This is the best video on Emma’s costuming I’ve found. If you made more breakdowns like this for other characters in Emma I would not mind at all. Thank you for this and for taking all those screenshots! So fun!
Fabulous video; I thoroughly enjoyed that. I'm wondering if the reason Emma had a lot of hats is because they were easier to trim - and more fun - and possibly were less expensive because dresses used a lot more material, so it was one of the ways to make outfits different. I think many ladies, even wealthy ones, did at least some of their own sewing, as they were often shown sitting and sewing together in Jane Austin's novels. I should imagine that designing and trimming hats was a lot of fun to do. I'm tempted to give that a go! :)
I was a little annoyed that we couldn’t see her stays as well. Why is Harriet wearing them in that scene but she isn’t? This was a terrific, exhaustive (and probably exhausting!) catalog of her costumes. They really did a fabulous job. The yellow collar in the scene with the blue dress when the Knightlys come for Christmas is a knit lace - maybe she was branching out into knitting and wanted to exhibit?! :-)
lynn lamy What if, since she didn’t wear the yellow collar in any other scene, it was one that her sister had made? And she’s wearing it as a nice gesture? Just a thought... :)
Is it just me or was anyone fanning themselves when Emma and Mr.Knightley were touching without gloves during the ball from the pure heat of the scene?
Why oh why can we not see these dresses come back in style? I absolutely love the detailing... Just beautiful lines throughout-I would so rock some of these dresses (if I do say so myself LOL).
My biggest gripe is that there exist a set parameter of what style is acceptable to fit in. I’d rather people wear any style and any silhouette they fancy. It would certainly make it more interesting walking down the street. As it is now, people look like clones of each other. It’s so boooooring! I wish I could walk down the street and see Greek, Byzantine, Regency, Victorian, flapper dresses, and punk goth within a span of a few minutes. Just imagine how great life would be visually. People would put thought and research into their own outfits before employing creative liberties. There would be so much interesting styles to visually enjoy when you’re out and about.
I just stumbled on this video and really enjoyed the thought you put into it! I did want to add that, along with pulling Jane's cross necklace, I believe Emma's gold ring is based on the turquoise ring that belonged to Jane Austen and is also available in replica form from her store. The color change from a turquoise stone is, in my assumption, simply so it fits the color story seen in the rest of her costumes.
I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one who takes screen shots from period movies! Though, I have to say your attention to detail has gone WAY beyond mine. BRAVO! I found the mixing & matching that went into Emma's costume fascinating. Thanks for covering it so throughly. Now I'm curious to go back and remwatch other Austin adaptations to see how much they employed this everyday Regency practice as well. EDIT: the costuming continuity gold star comment made me laugh out loud!
This is absolutely fantastic! I'm so glad you included the tidbit about Jane Austen's topaz cross. I love that it ended up playing the role of Emma's favorite necklace!
I watched a deleted scene today that shows Emma using that skeleton key (attached to the long chain on her dress) for a small wooden tea leaf cabinet. She is shown going into the box and measuring out a small amount of leaves for the tea pot used during her visit with Harriet.
Thank you for the time and effort you spent making this video! Even as a non-expert of historical garments nor sewing in general, these impeccable costumes really add to my experience of the story and my impression of the characters wearing them.
I love videos like this because they really point out all of the incredible detail that went into the costuming. These outfits are exquisite! Such beautiful material, colors, and accessories! It's so evident that the designer spent so much time, thought, and care into dressing the character.
This video is a masterpiece! lol Thanks for your dedication in breaking all these outfits down! This isn't my favorite adaptation of Emma but my goodness the costuming was delicious.
this, and your other emma video as well, is so wonderful and informative! i absolutely love your christmas dress headcanon. and how you mentioned all the details like harriet borrowing pieces of emma's clothing. i've read somewhere that it seems like harriet's style becomes more and more like emma's as their relationship progresses, so her borrowing things only makes sense.
My darling, that was the MOST FUN! I'm gonna watch it again. I was surprised by the versatile wardrobe...Emma's frugal. I totally get the hat situation. She changes hats like some young women change wigs. Are you aware of the cost of a fine wig? I've seen wigs for almost $1,000. My question is, would that have been a common trend for a young lady of her station or, is Emma addicted to hats? I know ladies with a closet full of shoes. They have though, in comparison just a few versatile clothing items.
I can see hats and gloves and hair ribbons being a popular buy back then... I am not an expert at all! But you know they had to be like that back then just like we are with our shoes and other accessories. Just beautiful pieces...
Not "ric rac", but "wavy braid". Wavy braid is what it is called at this time. And, I believe the word "canezou" is French, for the sake of pronounciation.
The word "canezou" is mispronounced here. It derives from "quinze aout" (August 15, implying pretty weather), and would be pronounced not CAN-uh-zow, as here, but more like can-ZOO. In the south of France, where E's are more likely to be pronounced, it would be can-uh-ZOO.
Beautifully done. I'm glad you pointed out the re-use of a lot of the pieces. It's one of the things I enjoyed most about this movie, that the costume designers stuck to the historical accuracy of women doing so at that time. I think I read somewhere that her character only has 3 muslin dresses in the movie. I did a lot of historical home tour leading in my younger years, mostly Regency and Revolutionary Era (in US...mid to late 1700s). I always focused on explaining to groups details of actual life, dress and diet of the time period, putting groups in the shoes of the people from those eras in a way...so I truly enjoyed your attention to detail and accuracy. I am so glad I found your channel. 😊
Id love to see something like this for the 1995 version of pride and prejudice! The continuity of the costumes in that series have al2ays impressed me, this movie even more so!
I would love to see your take on other Austen adaptations. Don't have to as detailed, maybe an overview or a comparison? There are so many adaptations, even of Pride & Prejudice alone.
About 3:30 I've recently re-watched P&P from 1995 (for a hundereth time :) and realized, that a lot of ladies wore fur muffs to church. You can see a couple of them when Mr. Collins' letter is read. One is worn by Lady Catherine, as well as by one of the parrisioners standing in front of the church. The reason: Churches are cold, because they're made of stone. In the old days, when I was attending, I was surprised at how much colder they can appear in the Summer than in the Winter, because in Winter people put an effort to make churches warm. And so they did in Regency era. I read that people kept foot warmers (those who could afford one) around their feet, which they would bring in the carriage with them.
Did anybody else notice the costume choice to have both Emma and Mr. Knightley wear colours of yellow? Making the statement they are unconsciously thinking about each other in their choices of clothing. Thought that a nice visual storytelling detail.
Ok my headcanon for all the crochet is that her sister makes them for her. This would also explain the crocheted chemisette thing. When relatives visit you wear stuff they gave you.
Just watched this again for probably the fifth time, I love how detailed you get. Would you ever consider doing a similar video for non-Emma characters?
Great video....thoroughly enjoyed your breakdown/analysis of Emma's wardrobe and the tidbit about Jane Austen's necklace, and Emma wearing a similar one in the movie. Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet also wore a cross pendant necklace in 1995 Pride and Prejudice.
I believe the 'chain necklace' is a take on a chatelaine belt, which nicely denotes Emma's position as lady of the house. I hadn't noticed it til you pointed it out.
Great work! I mean, I HATE the juvenile silhouette, I'm not even into costuming! - but your emphasis on the principles behind the fashion made it really interesting! I really like how your narration shows that you genuinely love the subject. I'd love to see something like this on Marie Antoinette and its basically candy colored costume porn. Or Dangerous Liasons, my favourite (costume) drama... One suggestion: invest in a pop filter for your (otherwise great quality) mic, and keep those videos coming!
Thank you! Yes, it is the principles which are absolutely fascinating! I don't know, other breakdowns might be a thing in the future, but this video took soooo long
I don't know anything about clothes but I loved all the different looks in this film! Glad I can now find out more about it. Learned so many new terms from your video
I suspect that the "tiara comb" would have been made of tortoiseshell. Thank you for this video. I enjoyed it immensely and learned a few new things!!!
Thank you for a wonderful video, I loved this! I really liked the costumes anyway, but seeing a break-down of all the different combinations especially was great. I have extra appreciation for how they thought about re-use and combining things in particular. And apparently Emma has a hat addiction...? (Also, this was a lovely thing to watch while working on a regency dress ;) ).
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed! So many hats, I don't know why it frustrated me so much. Probably because there were so many similar straw bonnets. I was like JUST SWAP OUT THE RIBBON AND YOU'RE DONE
when Harriats father is revealed she says that he make galoshes - the overshoes emma is often seen wearing- not to sure if you actually could make a parallel to when she is wearing or not wearing them and their relationship
i just watched the movie and felt like some wardrobe was reused and restyled and your video has confirmed that and gone beyond, thank u so much, awesome breakdown!
This is such an AWESOME video! The time you've put into research, the countless screen shots, the video editing, pluuuus all the historical info, so so great! I have learnt a lot from your video, thank you!! I shall revisit it whenever I have free time.
You've done so much work for this video, thank you! I'm an amateur cosplayer and Regency enthusiast, so I'm nowhere near being able to use this information, but it was just enjoyable seeing all of the work and care that was put into this Emma. Thank you for sharing!
If you buy the movie, Emma. 2020, the pinkish stays she wore are shown in an outtake on the dvd extras. Emma is shown being dressed by a maid, a film cut episode that matched Mr. Knightly’s dressing scene.
That was an incredible breakdown, and it must have taken you ages to get all those detailed screenshots. Thank you so much for sharing - it was super helpful!
I had to come back to this because I just saw a deleted scene with the chain necklace @7:16! It has its shining moment, and the key opens a tea box. The scene is quite amusing (the servants arrive with the tea, she rises, unlocks the box, scoops the tea out, closes the box, and they get on with serving it). I thought it was a great tidbit of character.
Hi Mariah, I have just seen a Bloopers reel for the movie which shows Emma getting dressed in her yellow petticoat. The petticoat has a triangle of lace at the neckline (similar to her red petticoat) so that may be the lace edge that you can see. It also shows her wearing her puffed sleeve shift underneath.
this is so helpful thank you! I love the level of obsessiveness here, and I would cheerfully watch a similar video for each and every jane austen adaptation (or any other movie you like)
Mariah, loved your video, you mention not seeing Emma's stays, if you watch the Deleted scenes from the movie - available on youtube, you get a shift to petticoat view of emma being dressed. It clears up that mystery, and being the scenes were deleted, you also get some new outfits and hats that weren't in the movie. Maybe you can do another video !!!!!
I did a quick search for the history of rick-rack because curiosity. The machine-made kind popped up somewhere in the 1850s/1860s, and its predecessor would have been flat straight braid adjusted with folding to create a wavy shape for trim. So that version on her blue-striped dress wouldn't have been historically accurate, but braid tweaked by hand might have been.
This is a fantastic video. I have always had a special place in my heart for empire waist dresses. I have made a few Italian Renaissance dresses and am about to jump into Regency! Im thinking about making items that I can wear on a daily, never have I done History Bounding before and I'm excited to do so! This video has helped a lot.
I remember this movie coming out, but with the quarantine and work I somehow forgot about it. Thank you for reminding me! Too bad I'm now itching to recreate that pink spencer or green embroidery dress for my doll and it simply won't work in her scale. Oh well, fabric stores are still mostly closed...
Thanks for this. I know it was a lot of work. The headpiece tiara was probably tortoise shell. I was pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of these costumes though I think making direct copies of portraits for some of the costumes is kinda cheating.
27:56 LOL! Good- I thought I was the only one who thought that. 'ahem' . . . . . Anyway . . Wow! This was a great video. I hope there are more like this for period flicks in the future. :D
Omg, she wears corals and mother of pearls because she's never been to the sea! And Mr. Knightley wears a matching coral ring that he twists when he visited the Woodhouse in the evening at the beginning of the movie! That might have been a present from him from one of his earlier trips! They have been matching -- wearing couple rings - - all these years, but they didn't think too much of it. Mr. Knightley might have given it as a present to a friend or so he thought, and he kept one for himself as possibly a souvenir of a good time by the seaside. And Emma wore it as a symbol of her hopes to see the sea someday.
It's also possible that Mr. Knightley 's ring was a present from his brother, and he wears his everyday as a symbol to us of their closeness. Emma's coral ring might have been a gift from her sister Isabella. Maybe Isabella told Emma good stories about the sea that made her little sister want to go see it. So she wears it because she misses her sister and to remind herself of her hope to go to the beach someday, if not for her concerns for her father's health and happiness.
