Reports on Jane Austen Day at Winterthur
The Editrix attended Jane Austen Day at the Winterthur Museum yesterday and enjoyed the Austen-related activities as well as the beautiful grounds of the estate. Of special notice is the Fashion in Film Exhibition, which contained costumes not only from several Jane Austen film adaptations but beautiful costumes from other films as well. (Boy, Alan Rickman is TALL! And HUNKY! At least judging from his regimentals…ah-MMMM!)
Delaware Online has an article about the event, which from what we could tell was quite well-attended.
Alert Janeite Erin wrote in with her own report.
I stood next to Colin Firth’s costume from P&P2!!!! With no glass in between us!! Mom was worried that I was going to steal it and bring it home with me. It was a nice sunny day to do the letterbox hunt through the gardens. Elizabeth Steele’s lecture on Jane’s Irony was more like a picking of her favorite quotes from her favorite books. And it really made me mad when she called my Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, “Austen’s OTHER books”. HELLO!! Captain Wentworth’s letter is the most precious thing to my heart! I didn’t catch the dancing, but the readings were nice, and Mom and I caught ourselves crying with Elinor when Edward announced that his brother was married. Anna Chancellor’s red/orange dress from P&P was there as well, she looks like she would be a lot taller than she really is. I also heard some ladies calling P&P2…a “TV show”…such ignorance! I just thought you ladies would like to know how it was. The Jane Austen impersonator looked nothing like her…there was no sparkle to her eye, no witty smile, and she was way too flowery for my taste!
The Editrix enjoyed attempted to explain “Web sites” to Miss Austen. We fear we only succeeded in confusing her.
And in defense of Elizabeth Steele, a longtime Friend of AustenBlog, we know that she did not mean to dismiss Persuasion and Northanger Abbey…and knows better than to do so in front of the Editrix! 
She was under strict time constraints as the room was needed for another event, and just ran out of time.
If you attended, post your own report in the comments!
October 17th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
What a delightful day, the events sounded like great fun as does the fashion exhibition and the location itself (how COULD Chawton cottage exhibit the ghastly burlap sack costumes of the new P&P on Jane’s exalted floorboards? Mr Darcy’s breeches with PLASTIC buttons. Oh, it made me weep).
October 21st, 2006 at 10:17 am
[...] For those who are disappointed that they missed Jane Austen Day at the Winterthur Museum, there is another Austen-related event coming up. [...]
October 21st, 2006 at 10:38 am
I had a great time last Sunday at the Jane Austen Day celebrations at Winterthur, and my husband, the chauffeur for the day, won a couple of hundred bucks at Delaware Park Racetrack, where he spent the afternoon as we wandered the grounds and gardens of Winterthur.
The costumes were beautiful. Marianne Dashwood’s wedding gown was my favorite, and as much as I love Colin Firth’s Darcy (Colin! What big feet you have!), his costume was disappointing in person, and not only because Colin wasn’t in it. It lacked the richness in person that it projected on film, the fabric reminding me of the $6-a-yard felt I used to buy to make my kids’ Halloween costumes.
And the buttons were, indeed, plastic as mentioned above, AND sewn crookedly on the back of the coat.
(When you click on the link Mags posted above, be sure to click on the link on the left of the webpage entitled “List of Objects” to see individual pictures of all the costumes.)
Our merry group of 6 did watch the English country dancing, and although the costumes were rather hodge-podge, the dancers were enthusiastic and lively. Made me want to learn the dances myself. I did get my husband to attend ballroom dancing classes a few years ago, so maybe if I can find an English country dancing class…