MovieChat Forums > Mansfield Park (2008) Discussion > Recycled costumes?

Recycled costumes?

posted 17 years ago by deloresmo
14 replies | jump to latest

Did anyone else notice that the greenish-blue patterned dress Fanny wears during the play rehearsal scene (and which Mrs. Norris wears at the very beginning) seems to look very much like the one Sally Hemings wears in Jefferson in Paris (the one she makes from the fabric Mrs. Cosway helps Jefferson pick out)? Fanny's dress can be seen on You Tube (approximately half an hour into the program) and below is a link to a picture of Sally's dress:

http://film.virtual-history.com/pic.php?id=819

Maria's pink and white dress from the scene where her father asks her if she is certain she wants to marry Rushworth also looks a lot like Kate Winslet's picnic dress from Sense and Sensibility. As already noted on IMDB, Tom wears Sir Walter Elliott's coat from Persuasion (1995). Maybe the costume department was too busy raiding the Cosprop vaults to bother about historical accuracy, since there seems to be an anachronistic mish-mash of styles from the 1780s, 1790s, and early 1800s in any given scene.

[–] weaselfrance 17 years ago

I hadn't noticed that before, but would it be so unusual for Fanny as a poor, dependent relation to wear the cast offs of other fomily members? I could imagine Mrs Norris taking a vindictive pleasure in making her wear old clothes, although there's no reference to this in the book.

I don't think this production had a massive budget (hence no trip to Fanny's home and parents) so it would make sense for the costume department to use what was already available costume wise.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope

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[–] firiffic 17 years ago

I was pretty certain that the white dress with the black lines was the one that that Emma Thompson wore in Sense and Sensibility (when she goes walking with Edward Ferrars and her shawl drops and he picks it up for her).

"True, True on the whole."
"Morningside for Life!"

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[–] theoraclestar 16 years ago

by - firiffic on Thu Jul 19 2007 19:06:57 I was pretty certain that the white dress with the black lines was the one that that Emma Thompson wore in Sense and Sensibility (when she goes walking with Edward Ferrars and her shawl drops and he picks it up for her).

I totally thought so, too! I remember thinking that the print used for Emma Thompson's dress just wasn't flatting to the style. So I remembered that dress vividly. Upon seeing Billie Piper's dress in the same print had to laugh. So I popped in my DVD of Sense And Sensibility to make sure. The print on Emma's dress is a little smaller than Billie's dress, but I still dislike it. It was just too tablecloth for me.

I wonder if research showed that that print was popular for dresses at the time?

[–] redandstuff123 16 years ago

As a Costume Designer myself, I know what it's like to have no money, having to recycle things. How ever a FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS, stick to a time period! It's fine for the older women to stcik to the late 1790's as they might not be comfortable with the new styles, but the younger people SHOULD NOT have been in it, even Fanny. It just was not done.

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[–] terraphim86 17 years ago

You'd be amazed at how many costumes are recycled. The Costumer's Guide <http://www.costumersguide.com/>; has some examples of it. Only the highest-budgeted films can afford a full-time designer and a full range of original costumes.

The new "Sense and Sensibility" that will come out later this year is a prime example of custume recycling. In the promotional picture of the Dashwood sisters, one of them is wearing the EXACT same dress that Keira Knightley wore in last year's "Pride and Prejudice".

A few years ago I went to Bath, where there was an exhibit of dresses worn in all of the different adaptations of Austen novels. It was really incredible to be near all of those gorgeous costumes. There was a whole room dedicated to the muslins talked about in "Northanger Abbey"!

It wasn't the lycans. It was you.

[–] Julie-30 17 years ago

I saw a costume exhibit in Bath back in 1999, so they had the 1990s adaptations covered. It was wonderful.

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[–] Julie-30 17 years ago

You're GOOD!

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