On a cold Sunday night in Canberra, Miriam and I found ourselves embracing our inner nerds and attending the Jane Austen Festival. We were met with some skepticism from our friends but stood our ground. Surely anyone with a love for Austen could understand our desire to dress up as a Bennet, Dashwood or Woodhouse? That’s what we told ourselves anyway as we donned our Regency finest to attend our first ball.
As we did not have an appropriate gown stashed away in the back of our cupboards and we are quite poor, we had to improvise an appropriate outfit. We surmised (correctly I might add) that as long as we had a dress with an empire line, we could style ourselves up with ribbons and gloves. We had an amazing time people watching and feeling refined in our lady-like attire.
If you love Austen as much as we do, we heartily recommend embracing your feelings through costume. Yes it is a bit nerdy, but hey its a whole lot of fun too. And after all, a love of fashion and a love of literature really can go together.
