Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen

Editorial

When: 22 May-8 Nov '09
Where: NGV International

Any lover of Austen's novels and the period of English history they explore (1775-1817) will tell you fashion and its relationship to society is paramount to the outcomes of many of literature's most adored, admired and detested characters.

So important was Austen's interest in the changing fashion styles of the day that the subject occupied numerous pages in her novels and personal letters (which numbered over 3000). Austen's perceptions of people and society often drew influence from fashion, including the complex relationships between French and English fashions - and the intriguing characters that dresses in a particular style or behaved in a certain 'fashionable' manner. Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen surveys the dramatic changes in dress and social customs that took place at the end of the 18th century and informed the style of fashionable dress in England during the time of Jane Austen's life and writings.

The exhibition includes about 50 works including garments and accessories, dresses, bonnets, shoes, Kashmir and Paisley shawls. Selected examples of paintings, hand-coloured etchings and engravings and a small number of decorative arts and jewellery are also be on display, drawing from the NGV Collection and a small number of private and institutional loans. Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen provides visitors with a wonderful window into the times Jane Austen lived and the society she delighted in writing about. After all, Austen knew the power of fashion better than most, wryly observing, “To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.” And that's the power of fashion!

Cath Pope, Citysearch