Jane Austen: Fashion & Sensibility at the Taft Museum of Art

The Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio has been hosting an exhibit of costumes worn in various adaptations of Jane Austen’s works. The costumes are from the collection of British costume house Cosprop Ltd. and include costumes worn in adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Emma. And, yes, the costumes above are those worn by Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy to the ball at Netherfield Park.

The Taft Museum of Art was built around 1820 as a private home and, according to its website, is now one of the finest small art museums in the U.S. and holds National Historic Landmark status. It displays everything from Chinese porcelains to Federal-period American furniture. The museum also has a garden, café, and small gift shop. My husband bought me a sweatshirt with a Jane Austen quote on it from the gift shop.

All of that is very nice and the museum is quite impressive in itself but I was there for the Jane Austen exhibit. My husband had read about it online and immediately suggested we take a few days to ourselves and drive down to Cincinnati. He isn’t a Jane Austen fan himself but he is a fan of making me happy and he definitely succeeded. He has seen a number of the movies because he has gone to the theater with me and he found the exhibit much more interesting than he expected. Or, at least, that is what he told me. He is a kind man.

The exhibit was set up with many of the costumes in one exhibition hall. However, once we left that room there were more costumes placed around the house so we would round a corner and encounter another grouping of figures.

I loved every bit of this exhibit and went through the whole thing twice. The costumes are amazing and seeing them blurs reality a bit. It is easy to forget they are costumes and I kept finding myself thinking “this is what Elizabeth wore” or “here is Mr. Bingley’s outfit. It is exactly what I would expect him to wear.” I found the information provided near the costumes very interesting. I didn’t realize quite how much went into the way the costumes are used to inform the viewer.

On the left is the riding costume Fanny Price wore; outdated,a bit worn looking, in muted colors. On the right is the one belonging to Mary Crawford. It is much more stylish and elegant. Those two costumes really sum up the two characters. I know our clothes say a lot about us but it was very interesting to see this deliberately used to tell about the characters. There were a lot of little details I would never have picked up on by myself.

I highly recommend this exhibit. It runs through September 4. If you happen to live near Cincinnati and decide to go I will just mention that I found a lovely bookshop within walking distance of the museum but that is another post for another day.