An Insider Look At The Regency Costumes Created For Sense And Sensibility

The period drama is back in a big way this year. From the BBC’s Austen spin-off The Other Bennet Sister and Netflix’s newly adapted Pride and Prejudice to guilty pleasure shows like Regency romp Bridgerton, Austenmania is all over our screens. But the only Jane Austen adaptation to land a cinematic release in 2026 is Sense and Sensibility, the author’s first published novel. Naturally, we’re all counting down the days until its release (25 September). But beyond the romances, scandals and star-studded cast, we’re eagerly waiting on one key area of storytelling: the costumes.

Ahead of the film’s release, Chelsea Arts Festival welcomed the cast and crew of Sense and Sensibility to the Cadogan Hall stage. Hosted by film critic and Girls On Film podcast host Anna Smith, the event gave audiences a sneak peek at the new adaptation and behind the scenes tidbits from screenwriter Diana Reid, costume designer Grace Snell, actress Fiona Shaw (Mrs Jennings) and rising star Bodhi Rae Breathnach (Margaret Dashwood). For your first look at some of the costumes from Sense and Sensibility, read on.

Grace Snell On Designing Costumes For Sense And Sensibility

(L to R) Anna Smith, Diana Reid, Fiona Shaw, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Grace Snell at Chelsea Arts Festival

Anna Smith: For those who might not know exactly how costume design works, can you break down the process for us? When did you get on board with the film? 

Grace Snell: I got a phone call that I was interviewing, and immediately asked for a Zoom with [director] Georgia [Oakley] before I produced any mood boards for her. And once I read Diana [Reid]’s script. I realised that we were definitely going to be taking this a pretty new, exciting way. And the early chat with Georgia was great, she was really encouraging of me to have my take on it and bring an array of references through. 

I presented a 30-page document to Georgia and our producer India [Flint], and then the next day got a phone call offer for the job. I started about a week later. It was very very fast.

AS: And how did you feel seeing everything come together at the premiere? 

GS: I felt really, really proud. It was the second time I’d seen the film, which was good because the first time you’re kind of watching through your fingers because you’re just so nervous. You put so much of yourself into a project. But watching it at the premiere with everybody and with all the creative people around us and our cast – yeah, I was really proud. 

Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor in Sense and Sensibility (c) Alex Bailey / 2026 Focus Features LLC

AS: How did you ground the costuming in the time period?

GS: We decided to set our film slightly earlier than in other productions we’ve seen for Austen. So we were designing around the time that she was writing her first draft, around the late 1790s, which opened up this really exciting period in costume history. It was a transition period, where you’ve got the late Georgian fashions and you’ve got the newer Regency fashions all coming in – so it was a really exciting point. It also gave us a bit of artistic licence, definitely for me, because it’s quite an ambiguous time period.

AS: And how did you make it feel relevant for today’s audiences?

I was trying to break down some of the laws that we associate with Austen’s work – that we have already seen onscreen – 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’s almost self-styled, which I think is much more natural. I wanted to bring an audience into Austen’s world, approach it in a different way, and make us all fall in love with her work again.

Fiona Shaw as Mrs Jennings in Sense and Sensibility (c) Alex Bailey / 2026 Focus Features LLC

AS: Were there any specific looks from the film you loved creating?

GS: While not a specific look, I’d like the audience to look out for shared clothing. I put a lot of emphasis on clothing that would be shared and loved by the sisters in the family. So you can see things repeating, which is a nice remark to what families are like and how sisters do steal each others’ clothing. 

Fiona Shaw: As actors, we get to see a bit more behind the scenes – and I especially loved the processes Grace would use to create these costumes. She used a lot of natural dyes to colour the fabrics. So I would go for a fitting, and she would always be dipping some cloth into blackberry juice or something. And because the sisters were getting poorer and poorer, you could see those costumes being handed on to the next sister and re-adapted. It was thrilling to watch. 

AS: The clothes do feel much more lived in than your typical period drama. Was this the goal? 

GS: That was what we were trying to do, yes. I sometimes think period dramas can fall into a sense of being slightly removed – and I’m a massive fan of period dramas, they’ve influenced my career, and that’s why I’m a costume designer. But I really wanted to bring our audience into the room with this family, rather than see it through a telescope. With Sense and Sensibility, I really wanted to portray intimacy within the family, so that’s what we’ve done. 

Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and George MacKay as Edward in Sense and Sensibility (c) Alex Bailey / 2026 Focus Features LLC

AS: And for the boys – would you say there’s a formula for dressing a dashing Austen hero?

GS: For me, the formula is to make the actors feel comfortable, so that they just slip straight into character. They really need to try the clothing, walk the walk, and be able to act in them. My job is to facilitate that, really. But I must say, I’m a big fan of coats on men. There’s just something about them. We even called George [MacKay]’s coat ‘The Great Coat’. 

AS: Do you have a big team for a film like this?

GS: I did have a really big team. I couldn’t have done this without them. It was a very big challenge to deliver so many costumes – a lot of them from scratch – and have them ready first thing in the morning each day of filming. So yeah, I had some amazing people around me.

AS: Were there any other challenges you came across while filming? 

Something to point out is that we do shoot a lot with candlelight in this film, and as a costume designer, you have to be thinking about how the clothing is going to be worn and how it’s going to be lit. There’s a particular candlelit dinner scene, with Mrs Jennings. We designed this amazing overdress, which is like a mesh metal net that’s worn on top of her dress. And with the candlelight, it just glimmered. You do need to always bear in mind how your costumes are going to be seen and filmed, because you can get isolated in your studio working, making and designing them. It’s important to remember how they will be seen. 

Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne in Sense and Sensibility (c) Alex Bailey / 2026 Focus Features LLC

AS: Can we dive a bit deeper into some of the other details we see onscreen?

GS: Something that is important to me as a designer is the undergarments, and particularly with characters that have seen a lot of fashions in their life. I just looked at what my mum and what I do, particularly with our bras: we keep going back to the same place for our bras, the same styles. I have done that for 30 years. So for me, it’s just thinking about a character’s shape and how they like to keep it. I imagined that Mrs Jennings has corsets that she’s worn for a long time – obviously not a 21-year-old corset, but the shape and style of the corset. I like that combination of having sort of older undergarments with more modern fashions because I think that feels a bit more realistic to me.

FS: Mrs Jennings has a lot of leftover fashions in her wardrobe. Not too long before the period, there was a real fashion for panniers, which really widens the hips. Mrs Jennings has some clothing that harks back to that time. I felt like a certified rhinoceros. 

Bodhi Rae Breathnach as Margaret, Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and George MacKay as Edward in Sense and Sensibility (c) Alex Bailey / 2026 Focus Features LLC

AS: Fiona and Bodhi, did you have any highlights from the costuming process? 

FS: It was a great joy really to work on the costumes with Grace. I went to see her on day one and said, ‘Obviously, Grace, you’ll need to put me in a fat suit.’ And she said, ‘No, we won’t. No need.’ But there are layers to these costumes, which somehow matches the layers of society, the layers of someone’s life. So I really enjoyed that.

Bodhi Rae Breathnach: I wore this really nice coral coloured ribbon around my dresses, which, like Grace mentioned, was a shared accessory. Marianne also wore it. I thought that was cute, how the sisters shared clothes throughout the film. I also wore this cool sun hat/shader thing. It didn’t have any top part, so it just shaded your face. It was interesting, very useful for hot days. I couldn’t really imagine wearing that now though. I also had some pieces that were dyed yellow with elderflower. That was so cool. It’s amazing how it just brings you back into the time period that you’re playing with. You can feel like you’re actually there.

Sense and Sensibility: Cast & Creators in Conversation was held at the 2026 Chelsea Arts Festival. Catch the film in cinemas on 25 September.

Discover the full programme of Chelsea Arts Festival events at chelseaartsfestival.com