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Jane Austen is getting a style upgrade just in time for the latest trip to the Dashwood family estate.
Designer Sarah Flint has teamed with Focus Features on a new capsule collection inspired by the upcoming “Sense and Sensibility” adaptation, translating the contrasting personalities of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood into shoes, scarves and Georgian-era floral details.
The limited collection, available beginning Sept. 30 exclusively on Sarah Flint’s website, centers on two of the designer’s signature shoe silhouettes. The more understated “Emma” is fashioned after the sensible, reserved Elinor, while the “Natalie” takes its cues from Marianne’s more romantic and free-spirited personality. Both styles are made from linen and hand-embroidered with Japanese anemones, nodding to the needlework and textile traditions of the period.
Sarah Flint Capsule Collection
The capsule also includes two hand-painted scarves: an Anemones Scarf painted by Flint herself and the Dashwood Scarf, created by longtime collaborator Katarzyna Strozynska-Goraj. Colors and motifs throughout the collection were pulled from the visual world of the film.
“Anemones are one of the classic English garden flowers, and in the old language of flowers, they mean anticipation,” Flint said. “We hand-embroidered it onto linen, the same slow, careful way women of that era would have worked, one stitch at a time, because printing it would have missed the point.”
For Flint, the collaboration was also something of an Austen fan project. “I’ve wanted to do something with this book for years, so when this collaboration came together, it felt like the equivalent of a superfan getting asked to plan a reunion tour,” she said. “I didn’t want a shoe with a movie logo slapped on it. I spent real time on where Elinor ends and Marianne begins, down to which thread color went on which shoe.”
The collection arrives just weeks before Focus Features and Working Title’s new “Sense and Sensibility” hits U.S. theaters on Oct. 16. Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Elinor opposite Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne, with Caitríona Balfe as Mrs. Dashwood, Frank Dillane as John Willoughby, George MacKay as Edward Ferrars and Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings.
Directed by Georgia Oakley (“Blue Jean”) from a screenplay by bestselling author Diana Reid, the film follows the Dashwood sisters after the death of their father forces the family to leave its estate and adjust to more modest circumstances, all while navigating romance, heartbreak and the rigid expectations of Georgian society. Oakley’s debut feature, “Blue Jean,” earned her a BAFTA nomination, while Reid is best known for novels including “Love & Virtue.”
The film also marks another Austen adaptation from Focus and Working Title, whose previous literary outings include Joe Wright’s 2005 “Pride & Prejudice,” starring Keira Knightley, and Autumn de Wilde’s 2020 “Emma,” starring Anya Taylor-Joy.
Of course, “Sense and Sensibility” has particularly formidable cinematic shoes to fill. Ang Lee’s acclaimed 1995 adaptation starred Emma Thompson as Elinor and Kate Winslet as Marianne, with Thompson winning the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.
The Sarah Flint x “Sense and Sensibility” capsule is available beginning Sept. 30 at SarahFlint.com, ahead of the film’s theatrical release on Oct. 16.
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