Masterpiece Theater

Set your Tivos! Starting today, Masterpiece Theater kicks off their new four-month series, The Complete Jane Austen with Persuasion. The best part: no Hollywood hotshots to upstage the source material, unless you count Colin Firth in the BBC's superior version of Pride and Prejudice (airing February 10th). I knew 2008 was going to be great!

The Regency

As a rabid Janeite, I had to be first to see the fictionalized biography "Becoming Jane" this week. I found the film to be beautiful and romantic and everything else for which we see Jane Austen movie adaptaions. I must admit my obsession with this Hollywood genre is not because of a great love for 18th century literature, but rather for the Regency era costumes and decor.

Sandwiched between the time of Marie Antoinette's powdered wigs and the high-buttoned Victorians came the English Regency. It was an interesting, albeit short-lived period in which dresses were inspired by the garments depicted in Napoleon's newly acquired collection of ancient Greek and Roman statues. The Empire dress was a free-flowing departure from the cinched-waists that had, and would continue to dominate the female form for decades.

Along with this new interest in ancient fashion, came the desire to design similarly classic interiors. Rooms became more intimately scaled and furnished with simple lines and sleek surfaces inspired by Greeks and Romans, like the Regency bed shown above.