It’s a big year for Jane Austen who was born 250 years ago in 1775. One of the ways she is being celebrated is with the re-release of Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of the novelist’s Pride & Prejudice. Its return to theaters sent me into the Vogue Runway archive to see how contemporary designers are borrowing from Austen’s era. In her day, neo-classical forms of dress were distilled into light, straightlined garments featuring empire (a reference to Napoleon) waists. Though these high-waisted dresses with open necklines emphasized the décolleté or “Regency” shelf, this silhouette is largely out of sync with the bustier beauty ideals of today. What’s appealing about Regency style now is that it accommodates the natural body. Austen’s Bennett sisters might have worn corsets, but they weren’t tight laced, and no crinolines or panniers prevented them from getting through doors or walking on heaths. The author’s interest was not body modification, but transformations of  the mind and heart, especially ones that make them open to love.

White Neoclassical Dresses