I strongly dislike it when one movie "borrows" costuming ideas from another for the main characters. I am fine with the secondary characters and extras wearing dresses from old productions, but the stars?? Come on. Let's have a little creativity, here.
P&P's costumes are indeed a riddle. It's a well known fact that Joe Wright dislikes the period-correct Empire waistlines, but the presence of both the earlier lower-waistlines and the later high-waistlines in the same film is highly confusing. If you'll notice it's mostly the Bennet family who are out dated, with Mrs. Bennet wearing costumes that are as old as the 1770s or '80s. When they attend the Netherfield ball they "dress up" and wear more current fashions, which is reasonable, since they do live in the country and would probably have to make do and wear older, less trendy clothes. I'm willing to make allowances for things like that, a conscious but careful decision on the part of the costumer to further develop the characters via fashion or the lack of it.
And now I will shut up since that's probably way more than you wanted to hear anyway. ;-)
Re: Stripey Dresses
I strongly dislike it when one movie "borrows" costuming ideas from another for the main characters. I am fine with the secondary characters and extras wearing dresses from old productions, but the stars?? Come on. Let's have a little creativity, here.
P&P's costumes are indeed a riddle. It's a well known fact that Joe Wright dislikes the period-correct Empire waistlines, but the presence of both the earlier lower-waistlines and the later high-waistlines in the same film is highly confusing. If you'll notice it's mostly the Bennet family who are out dated, with Mrs. Bennet wearing costumes that are as old as the 1770s or '80s. When they attend the Netherfield ball they "dress up" and wear more current fashions, which is reasonable, since they do live in the country and would probably have to make do and wear older, less trendy clothes. I'm willing to make allowances for things like that, a conscious but careful decision on the part of the costumer to further develop the characters via fashion or the lack of it.
And now I will shut up since that's probably way more than you wanted to hear anyway. ;-)