Reader Question #9: Pride and Prejudice (2005) Costumes

This question came to me from Miss Elizabeth from The Country Handmaiden. Miss Elizabeth asks:

I had a question about regency fashion. I don't think so, but were sleeveless gowns historically accurate to the times? I saw an example on Miss Bingley in P&P 2005 at the dance and took a second look when I saw that dress. I know that movie definitely had some historically incorrect points about it so I wondered. It doesn't seem like it would be period correct. Also, did you notice that almost all of the ladies were dressed in white for the Bingleys' dance? Was white a particularly fashionable color?

As you all read this post, keep in mind that I've only seen half of Pride and Prejudice (2005) and clips from later parts of the movie. But I believe that this is the dress in question:

The short answer to this question is no, Miss Bingley's dress is not accurate for a lady at a ball during the Regency Era. However, there is a longer answer to explain why it is inaccurate.

From what I've read around, sleeveless Regency dresses did exist, but really only in paintings. Now, I can't cite the source where I read that from, but in everything I looked up about Regency fashion (pictures, sewing patterns, reading materials, etc.), I never found any fashion plates or pictures of sleeveless Regency dresses except this painting above (which you can see is just a portrait and not of a ball or someone receiving guests). And in my viewing of period dramas (which, for the most part, BBC and ITV are accurate when it comes to costumes),  I've never seen a sleeveless Regency dress except for one occurrence (unless a sleeveless jumper with a undershirt with sleeves counts). That one occurrence is Pride and Prejudice (2005), which already had accuracy issues with regards to fashion.

This is the petticoat that I made. 

Now, back to Miss Bingley's dress. From just looking at it, it looks like a Regency Era petticoat instead of a dress. In some ways, it looks similar to the Regency petticoat that I made a couple months back which is pictured at the right; just ignore the fact that my chemise sleeves are coming out the armholes (if you need to see a bigger picture of my petticoat, just click the picture of it). The difference is that my petticoat has wider shoulder straps than Miss Bingley (and probably some differences in constructions too, but we're just focusing on topical issues right now).

Now, if Miss Bingley wore her ball gown as a petticoat under a real Regency ball gown, that would be accurate. If Miss Bingley wore a sheer dress over her petticoat so that it was still visible, but not uncovered, that would be accurate. But there is no way Miss Bingley would be wearing something that would be considered underwear as a gown to a ball. Not one as fashionable, fastidious, and critical about other ladies' dresses as she is. It would be scandalous for her to wear something like that to a ball.

Now onto the subject of white at the ball.

A white Regency dress pictured next to Audrey
Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, which made the
"little black dress" popular.

I read an article quite a while ago at the Jane Austen Center's website called The Importance of Wearing White. In that article, it said that white was the equivalency of modern women's "little black dress": it was always fashionable in every season. In theory, a fashionable lady couldn't go wrong in the Regency era with wearing a white dress.

Of course, there were gowns in other colors besides white -- just like today there are dresses in other colors. But as a fashion staple of the Regency Era, the white Regency dress was the thing to wear, and, we can assume, a lot of women wore white Regency dresses as an everyday outfit.

In a lot of Regency movies, we see a lot of ladies wearing white, whether for day wear or evening wear. Jane Austen even makes a couple of references of ladies wearing white. Here is a segment from Northanger Abbey on wearing white:

"Mrs. Allen," said Catherine the next morning, "will there be any harm in my calling on Miss Tilney today? I shall not be easy till I have explained everything."

"Go, by all means, my dear; only put on a white gown; Miss Tilney always wears white." ~ Northanger Abbey, Chapter 12

Miss Tilney, who is known for being elegant and refined, always wears white. She would definitely be considered fashionable during the Regency Era.

But I'm getting a little off track here. Back to Pride and Prejudice (2005).

For a movie that was pretty inaccurate as far as Regency fashion went, this they were actually accurate on. It wouldn't be impossible that a lot of women dancing at Netherfield to be wearing white gowns. The only thing I question with all the women wearing white is what are the chances that every young woman going to Netherfield ball was wearing white? Like today, it's possible you could walk into a dance and see all the ladies wearing red or orange or green or blue, but what are the chances of that happening? So, while it isn't impossible for the young women to be wearing white, it does seem improbable. Unless Mr. Bingley put a dress code on the invitations ;-P

So, to sum everything up:

• Miss Bingley's Netherfield Ball gown in Pride and Prejudice (2005) is inaccurate and resembles a petticoat more than a Regency ball gown.
• White was a popular color in the Regency Era and the white Regency gown was a fashion staple.

What do you think of this post? Was it helpful to you? Do you have anything to add? Leave a comment!

Thank you, Miss Elizabeth, for sending in your question! If you have a question you would like to submit for me to do a post on, leave a comment. Just follow these guidelines. It can be about anything related to this blog: period dramas, blogging, reviews, etc. 

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 God Bless,