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Grace Snell

@graceesnell

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We wanted to create a wardrobe for the Dashwood women - we love the undone look. Grace is a genius!

Sense and Sensibility out in US cinema today! by @graceesnell

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16 hours ago

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Grace Snell (@graceesnell) who created the costumes for the 2026
Sense and Sensibility @sensesensibilityfilm

There’s been a lot of online dialogue about this film, as there is anytime a new adaptation enters the Austen-verse, yet it was so fantastic to watch Grace’s work online in the lead up to the film.

Then I got invited to see the film myself and then was finally able to ask Grace all the nitty-gritty questions that had been bubbling away in my brain for weeks.

In my full YouTube video Grace and I talk about:
• How it felt to be part of the Austen-verse and her connection to Austen’s work.
• The huge role natural dyeing played in not the costume design but how it spoke to the different characters.
• How hers and Georgia Oakley’s (director) creative approach to costume design and filmmaking is very much about intuition and collaboration.
• How she collaborated with the WONDERFUL John Bright (who was actually the co-costume designer on the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility) on one of Fanny Dashwood’s costumes

And check out the full video (included mine and Grace’s interview + my review of the film) via the link in my bio 🔗

Let me know what you thought of my first ever big interview with a costume designer and whether you’d love more of these :)

It’s out in cinemas today! 🥹🩷👏🏼

@universalpicsau by @graceesnell

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3 days ago

What a surreal thing, talking at the V&A with the brilliant Emily Harris. It is such an important & inspiring museum to me, I’m still pinching myself. Thank you Stefanie & Emily for inviting me to talk. And to all the great questions asked by the audience.
To understand me as a designer is to know my work before Sense & Sensibility so it was really fun to get into that last night.

Outfit @maximilianraynor taken in Victoria & Albert Museum by @graceesnell

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8 days ago

We’re delighted to welcome back Wimbledon College alum Grace Snell (@graceesnell) (BA Theatre Design; Costume Interpretation, 2012), the double British Independent Film Award-winning costume designer behind The Souvenir Parts I & II, The Outrun and Pillion.

As costume designer on the latest film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Grace brings a fresh, quietly modern sensibility to Austen’s world - with spare silhouettes, a muted palette, natural dyes, antique fabrics, hand-sewn frocks, muddy boots and a sense of undone imperfection.

For Mrs Dashwood, Grace looked to an original 1797–1799 mourning gown from the V&A, recreating its remarkable details while allowing the costume to speak to the character’s grief, resourcefulness and relationship with fashion.

“When designing for Mrs Dashwood I wanted to find balance between simplicity and elegance within her grief. Her black costumes reflect the state of mourning she is in for her late husband.”

“What I particularly loved about this gown is the contrast between the front to the back. The back is a diamond shape princess back with stitched down pin tucks whereas the front has a draped shawl collar and is worn softly gathered across body at empire line. On the original garment there is piecing and stitch marks suggesting the gown was made from something else. There was also a panel missing suggesting it was about to be recycled again. A fascinating example of the owner's relationship to expensive fabric and incoming fashions.“

Black taffeta gown cut by Mel Carter, hand stitched by Mel and the workroom

Assistant Designer to Mrs Dashwood: Louise Holsgrove

Costume Illustration: Ruby Entickap by @graceesnell

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11 days ago

Margaret’s Blackberries & Bottegas
One of my favourite costumes in our film. It was highly fashionable for children to wear white and I wanted to show the impracticalities of this with Margaret. The blackberry staining is genuine, with the berries being picked locally and stored in our fridge, we dated the pots as they all made different shades of purple - so that was fun for continuity.
All the elements to this costume: petticoat, dress and drawers were all dyed our ‘antique white’ shade with gallnuts . The drawers with frilled bottoms are a few years ahead of their time here, I like to think that Margaret is always ahead. They were an important garment to show Margaret’s personal & practical choice. After the move to Barton - Margaret starts dressing herself and I wanted to have some expressive choices to show this.
The straw crown was developed with Liz our milliner after we started to deconstruct the bonnet.
Bodhi began the shoot in second hand Bottega flats which we loved for the shape! As her feet grew these were substituted for Toteme flats.
Costume illustrator: Ruby Entickap
Assistant Designer for Margaret: Louise Holsgrove
Stand by for Bodhi Rae Breathnach: Laura Ewers by @graceesnell

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20 days ago

Costume Design for Hara & The Hare
Directed by Julia Jackman featuring Havana Rose Liu
for Ffern’s Autumn fragrance

Costume made by Cosprop
Stand by for Havana - Sarah Deans Talbot
Illustration - Ruby Entickap
Photographer Tami Aftab

Thank you Nina, Jess & Arwen for tag teaming the prep 💙 by @graceesnell

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24 days ago

Elinor’s logwood dress illustrated in collaboration with Ruby Entickap.
Dye from logwood was used to get this most beautiful lavender colour. A colour that is acceptable in mourning. Logwood is native to Central America and the West Indies and was exported by the Spanish from the 16th Century where it headed to Europe and the highly profitable dye industry.
Elinor wears her jacquard bombazine mourning jacket which is made from the same pattern as Marianne’s. It has been lengthened to suit her taste. This fabric gave us the most wonderful texture as the jacquard shrank in the dye vat. I loved it so much that I ask for this garment to only ever be lightly pressed.
The shape of this dress was my early obsession in prep. Depending on fabric width you could expect to have 3.5-4 ‘drops’ (widths) in each dress. I pushed for 5 with this dress, like Marianne’s it is made of fine cotton mousse which gathers up and creases in such a beautiful way.
I wanted this silhouette to be unique to our film and is inspired by the unusual shapes happening in the late 1790s, where the waistline is starting to rise to empire but the fullness in the front is still there.
When Elinor moves to Barton she repurposes the fabric from the dress to make a more slimmer and practical shape also shortening the sleeves to three quarters. This up-cycled dress is based on the ‘round gown’ silhouette.
Daisy and I had lots of fun in our first fittings together playing around with length and proportions. Both dresses were cut by the meticulous Mel Carter and hand sewn by her workroom. Fabric dyed by magician Karla.
Assistant Designer for Elinor - Louise Holsgrove by @graceesnell

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a month ago

Marianne’s elderflower dress & dyed bombazine mourning jacket. Here beautiful illustrated in collaboration with Ruby.
Our film is set towards the end of the 1790s. A transition period in fashion history. I wanted the waistline to be rising to empire line but the fullness in the front of the skirt to not slim down just yet. A transition period both emotionally and historically.
Mourning jacket is based from a garment held in Lore Archive and inspired by the 18th century Caraco with a view that it has been adapted to personal taste. Pattern & jacket made by Hannah Brown.
Dress made from fine cotton mousse allowing the peach petticoat and gathered waist overlap to be visible. Dyed from elderflowers gathered by our trainee May Sutton who would go on to cut and make this dress for Esmé.
Slide 8: hand embroidered stockings by Sara Darling. Elderflower was used to dye the stockings also. We then had them aged and dirtied within the team.
Slide 9: the drying room. Elderflowers dried and then stored in calico bags before being used.
Slide 11: Bombazine (original colour is the green piece) was a traditional fabric used in mourning dress. Our amazing fabric buyer Lorraine hunted it down. Seen here with the colour it was dyed to for our jacket.
Slide 12: our genius head dyer and alchemist Karla who I could not have made this film without.
Assistant Designer for Marianne: Anna Cavaliere by @graceesnell

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a month ago

The Sense & Sensibility premiere and THE DRESS. My first Leicester Square carpet joined by assistant costume designer Louise. We are so proud of the film.
This incredible dress by my dear friend Maximilian Raynor, thank you for making time for me 2 days before your show at Fashion Week!!
You can watch my red carpet interview with HeyUGuys on YouTube. I can’t wait for you to see the film! by @graceesnell

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a month ago

Our beautiful ‘mourning cap’ on Daisy for British Vogue. The cap was styled for the Vogue shoot with a camellia Chanel brooch. You can see these caps in the trailer for Sense & Sensibility. Worn by Mrs Dashwood and sisters Elinor & Marianne to receive guests. The caps signify a nod of respect for their mourning period early on in the film. The caps design was informed by research carried out by the brilliant Eleanor Houghton into this period of grief. This organza was first dyed in our dye bath with gallnuts to the shade of ‘antique white’. This was a shade that we developed for all our lighter pieces and is throughout the film.
The delicate black braid was lifted off a worn out fichu we’d purchased. The pleats were achieved on a tiny mini pleat board with lots of starch & heat.

made by Liz Crossman. by @graceesnell

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2 months ago

Thank you so much to Daisy, Chioma & Estée Lauder for the wonderful dinner celebrating August’s cover story for British Vogue. So much joy in one room!

Beautiful shirt dress @maximilianraynor
Breeches & corset @cosproplondonuk

@britishvogue
@esteelauder

Photographer credits:
@moeez
@davebenett
@gettyimages by @graceesnell

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3 months ago

I was invited to Vogue House to meet with Tabitha Simmons, who wanted to work the costumes from Sense & Sensibility into her styling for an upcoming shoot with Daisy and photographer Szilveszter Makó.

It was one of the highlights of my career, suggesting and helping pair our pieces with the current fashion collections. As well as watching Szilveszter work. These are the kind of shoots I would obsess over in my teens, when costume & fashion find a way to coexist.

Szilveszter was just as fascinated by the inside of Elinor’s dress as we were whilst making it. He asked us to style it undone, exactly as I had designed it to work for our film. The dress is naturally dyed with logwood by Karla Savage (the colour in these photos is spot on to real life, extremely hard to photograph!) It is made from a fine, lightweight cotton, stitched by hand. It was cut by Mel Carter and made by her team. Edward’s costume was designed by me & my team and made by the legendary @cosproplondonuk with some help from John!

Our mourning cap, bonnet, chemisette, stockings, petticoats, corsets, pinnies, ribbons feature in the fashion story in August’s Vogue. Here is my favourite photograph of our costumes in their entirety for Elinor and Edward.

Assisted on the shoot by Alison Lyons by @graceesnell

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3 months ago