The Life and Works of Jane Austen

Luxury, Fashion, and Labor in the Regency (1x17)

Air date: Jan 29, 2021

The Regency may now be as notable for its fashions as for its political upheavals and wars. Take a tour of the finer points of Regency clothing and luxury items, and see how Austen uses descriptions of dress and accessories to make subtle (and not-so-subtle) observations on both the social status and the moral values of her characters. Better understand how “frivolous” distinctions about what one wears take on significant meanings in Austen’s fiction.