Two productions of Emma are featured in the exhibition,
the 1997 Granada television production starring Kate Beckinsale and
the 1997 Miramax film starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
1997 Granada Television
The Emma of the novel is an energetic young woman, who spends a lot
of time outside: walking, shopping, visiting neighbours and
picnicking. This posed a challenge to the costume designer, Jenny
Beavan: the last thing you want is to swamp your heroine in a big
coat.
Jenny solved this problem by cutting her outdoor garments short,
and giving them open necklines, to reveal the pretty dresses
underneath. She came up with her own design for a pelisse – a
fashionable early nineteenth century coat.
Emma was completed in 1815. At this date the pelisse
was one of the most fashionable outdoor coats. It was close
fitting, cut on the same lines as a dress, and was often made of a
soft, twilled silk called sarcenet. Usually, by this date, pelisses
would have been full-length; so Jenny’s choice to make Kate’s
pelisse three-quarter length was a conscious design decision.
Pelisses were sometimes trimmed with fur, or worn with separate fur
or swansdown accessories.
1997 Miramax Films
In 1997, the same year as the Granada television production, a
feature film of Emma was produced by Miramax Films,
starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The costume designer, Ruth Myers, was
nominated for an Oscar for this production.
These costumes bear a Hollywood hallmark when considered alongside
other designs in the exhibition. Gwyneth Paltrow’s green and white
dress, with its large, chocolate box bow on the bodice, has none of
the subtlety of the fabrics that other designers have
used.
Pelisse of plum coloured velvet worn by Kate
Beckinsale as Emma Woodhouse
.jpg "Image: Emma display case, with figures dressed in pale coloured cotton dresses in front of an image of Gwyneth Paltrow from the film")
Cotton dresses worn by Gwyneth Paltrow and Toni
Collette as Emma Woodhouse and Harriet Smith