Hilary Davidson is an expert on Regency dress and textiles.
After beginning her research while living in the Jane Austen heartland of Hampshire, Hilary has developed her expertise through extensive archival and object based research. Her innovative and critically acclaimed books Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion and Jane Austen’s Wardrobe have emerged from this work.
Hilary has consulted on analysing textiles and dress for Jane Austen’s House Museum, and Chawton House.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Jane Austen’s jewellery. Courtesy of Jane Austen’s House, photograph by Peter Smith
Hilary’s current research into Regency dress and textiles encompasses
the use of fashion plates as sources of information about clothing
the history of wool flannel underwear
sewing and dressmaking as embodied knowledge practices
working and labouring dress
PAST PROJECTS
Detail of the neck of Jane Austen’s pelisse. (C) Hilary Davidson
JANE AUSTEN’S PELISSE
In 2007 Hilary began to reconstruct the only known body garment with the provenance of having been worn by Jane Austen. Her meticulous patterning and remaking gave new insights into Austen’s physical presence. The full article discussing the process is open access and free to download:
PRIDE & PREJUDICE: HAVING A BALL
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: HAVING A BALL
In 2013, the BBC recreated a Regency ball, the social event at the heart of Pride and Prejudice, to mark the 200th anniversary of the novel's release. Hilary Davidson was the costume expert, presenting on the documentary and handstitching a white muslin gown in the style of the novel’s 1812 timeline.
Buy the DVD (Amazon)
Detail of cutwork embroidered muslin dress, c. 1810-15
PUBLICATIONS ON REGENCY DRESS
2022 ‘Looking Back Through Fashion: Regency Romances and ‘A Jumble of styles’’ in Maureen McCue and Sophie Thomas (eds), The Edinburgh Companion to Romanticism and the Arts (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), pp. 502-22
2022 ‘The Talking Page: Dress Dissemination in the Writings of Jane Austen’ in Serena Dyer, Jade Halbert and Sophie Littlewood (eds), Disseminating Dress: Britain’s Fashion Networks, 1600-1970 (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts)
2020 ‘Dress & Dressmaking: Material Innovation in Regency Dress Construction’, in Chloe Wigston-Smith and Serena Dyer (eds), Material Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain: A Nation of Makers (London: Bloomsbury Academic), 173-194.
2017 ‘Jane Austen’s Pelisse Coat’ in Kathryn Sutherland (ed.) Jane Austen, Writer in the World (Oxford: Bodleian Library Press)
CONFERENCE PAPERS
2021 ‘Looking Back Through Fashion: Regency Romanticisms’, Sartorial Series Salon, 24 June (online)
2017 ‘Jane Austen’s Pelisse; Or, the Dreadful Epoch of Mantuamaking’, Jane Austen in Chawton, Chawton House Library, July 7
‘The dreadful epoch of Mantua-making’: Research and Reproduction in Regency Dress Construction’, Fashioning Dress, University of Warwick, Coventry, 19 May 2017
2016 ‘The Excesses of Minimalism: Vulgarity, Bulk and Extravagance in Regency Dress’, Excess and Restraint: Costume Colloquium VI, Florence, 17-20 November
2015 ‘The Talking Page: Dress Transmission in Jane Austen’s Writing’, Disseminating Dress: Britain and the Fashion World, University of York, 28-30 May 2015
2012 ‘Recreating Jane Austen’s Pelisse-Coat', Desiring Fashion: The Consumption and Dissemination of Dress 1750-1850, Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies, University of York, 23 June
2008 ‘Recreating Jane Austen’s Pelisse-Coat’, Something Old Something New, Textile Society Conference, Winchester, 5-7 September
MEDIA
‘Costume in the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice’, Jane Austen’s House Museum online exhibition The Making of Pride and Prejudice’, 31 March 2023- 31 March 2024, 2 June 2023
‘Jane Austen’s Wardrobe by Hilary Davidson – 50 years in 50 books’, Yale University Press Blog, 18 July 2023
‘Bridgerton Keeps Perpetuating One of Hollywood’s Most Stubborn Myths’, Slate, 24 March 2022,
‘Pelisse please’, Jane Austen’s Regency World, Jan/Feb 2017, pp. 36-40
‘Jane Austen’s Muslin Shawl’, Jane Austen in 41 Objects: 6, Jane Austen’s House Museum, 2017, https://www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/6-muslin-shawl
‘Rise of an Empire: How the Little White Dress Changed Fashion’, sisterMAG, 31-1, September 2017, pp. 25-31
‘The Unknown Lady’s Account Book; or, Mrs. Topham’s Treasure, Being a Tale of Historical Deduction, True in All Particulars’, The Female Spectator, Chawton House Library, June 2015, pp 5-8.
Costume expert, Pride & Prejudice: Having A Ball, BBC Two, (Optomen TV, 9 May 2013)
Expert on Jane Austen: The Unseen Portrait?, BBC Two (Seneca Productions, 26 December 2011)
Costumed Supervisor, Pride & Prejudice, Working Title Films/National Trust, 2005
OTHER TALKS
2022 ‘Global Fashion In The Age Of Jane Austen: Communities & Colonies’, Heritage Days History Symposium (Toronto), online, 17 December
‘Regency Underwear’, Period Drama! Online event, Jane Austen’s House Museum and the Vagina Museum, 24 September
2021 ‘Kicking Off Their Heels: The Revolution in Regency Footwear’, Salon Series, BATA Shoe Museum, Toronto, 20 January (online)
‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, Regency Fiction Writers meeting, 23 January (online)
2020 ‘Austen’s Global Fashion Industry: Communities, Crimes & Colonies’, Austencon, Melbourne, 7 November (online)
‘Frock Flicks & the Bill and Ted Test’, Pride & Prejudice & Zoom: A Free Jane Austen Mini-Fest, Glendale Public Library, Arizona, 8 November (online)
‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, Goucher Library, Baltimore / Jane Austen Society of North America, 10 March
‘“Coloured silks of her performance”: The arts of needlework in Jane Austen’s work’, NSW Needlework Tools Society, Epping, 8 February
‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Week, The Johnston Collection, Melbourne, 4 March
‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, JASNA North Carolina, Raleigh, 9 March
‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, DAR Museum, Washington DC, 10 March
‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, Macquarie University English Department Seminar, 23 May (online)
‘Dressing With Jane Austen’, Staying at Home with Jane Austen, Jane Austen & Co Summer Series, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 10 July (online)
‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, Wrench Speaker Programme, English Speaking Union, 18 November (online)
2019 ‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, Jane Austen Society of Australia Christmas Event, 14 December
‘Coloured silks of her performance’: The arts of needlework’ and ‘The Ton in Dress: Fashion and Fashion Plates’, Jane Austen Society of Australia Annual Conference, Epping, 29 June
‘‘An Air of Elegance and Fashion’: Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, Jane Austen Society of Australia, Brisbane, 25 May
‘Fashion and Literature: Jane Austen and her pelisse’, Fashion Hub, Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas, Sydney, 6 April
2018 ‘Recreating Jane Austen’s Pelisse-Coat’, Blue Mountains Regency Weekend, Mount Vic Flicks, Mount Victoria, 23 September
‘‘An Air of Elegance and Fashion’: Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’, Jane Austen Society of Australia, Sydney, 18 August
‘The Fashion and Strength of Any Old Pelisse’: Reconstructing Jane Austen through a Garment’, Jane Austen Society of Melbourne, 28 April
‘The Dress of Dempsey’s People’, The Johnston Collection, Melbourne, 18 March
‘Dress and Dressmaking: Regency Ribbons and Replicas’, Eighteenth Century Literature Seminar, University of Oxford and Queen Mary, University of London, 19-20 February
‘The Fashion and Strength of Any Old Pelisse’: Reconstructing Jane Austen through a Garment’, Twilight Talk, Fashion Museum, Bath, 15 February
2017 ‘Dress in the Age of Jane Austen’ The Johnston Collection, Melbourne, 22 March
‘Recreating Jane Austen’s Pelisse-Coat’, Fairfax House, York, June 30
‘Recreating Jane Austen’s Pelisse-Coat’, The Johnston Collection, Melbourne, 26 July
The Dress of Dempsey’s People’, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 22 October
2014 ‘Jane Austen’s Pelisse-Coat’ & ‘Regency construction & stitching’, Jane Austen Festival of Australia, Canberra, 10-12 April
2013 ‘’An air of elegance and fashion’: Dress in the Age of Austen’, Mount Vic Flicks Pride & Prejudice 200th Anniversary event (organiser), 3 March, 130 people
2011 ‘’An air of elegance and fashion’: Dress in the Age of Austen’, talk at Fairfax House, York, Friday 7 October
2006 ‘’An air of elegance and fashion’: Dress in the Age of Austen’, Alton Library, Hampshire, July