Fashion

Sisters and Spritzes: Inside the Vogue Book Club ‘Sense and Sensibility’ Screening With Daisy Edgar-Jones

Chloe Malle and Estée Lauder welcomed a crowd of ‘Austen heads’ to Metrograph for the latest Vogue Book Club rendezvous.Chloe Malle and Estée Lauder welcomed a crowd of ‘Austen heads’ to Metrograph for the latest Vogue Book Club rendezvous.

Photographed by Quadir Moore

Presented by Estée Lauder

“I am so excited to be in a room full of Austen heads,” said Chloe Malle, speaking to a buzzing crowd at Metrograph on Wednesday night. Designers, editors, writers, models, and Vogue readers—including Stella Hanan, Batsheva Hay, Coco Mellors, and Zoe Dubno—gathered for a special Vogue Book Club screening of the new Georgia Oakley adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, followed by a live interview with Daisy Edgar-Jones for The Run-Through With Vogue.

At cocktail hour before the screening, guests snacked on sliders and sipped signature cocktails—the Dashwood Sisters Spritz and the Barton Cottage Brew—plus the appropriately named mocktail, Margaret’s Sensible Sip. They wore embroidered dresses and velvet blouses, silky skirts and bosom-bearing corset tops, doing their best approximation of the Jane Austen novel’s late Georgian/Regency era setting (though no one was brave enough to wear a bonnet). Like the Dashwood sisters in the film, many wore their hair down in flowing tresses, though the attendees’ looks were more polished, thanks to beauty touch-ups by Estée Lauder, who co-hosted the event.

“I am wearing a nightgown under my dress, which feels appropriate,” said Leigh Batnick Plessner, creative director of the jewelry brand Catbird, which is known for its collaborations with the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Jenny Slate, and Sofia Coppola. Batnick Plessner, who is a big Austen fan, also wore some of the brand’s Georgian-inspired jewelry for the evening.

After the film, Malle and Edgar-Jones spoke about the chemistry between the Dashwood sisters (the director had the actors do activities together, like drawing and ring-making, plus sleepovers to help cultivate a real sisterly intimacy); the no phones and no makeup rule on set; and Edgar-Jones’s early experiences with Jane Austen.

“I’m such a huge fan of romance and rom coms,” Edgar-Jones said. “My first introduction to Austen, before I read all the books, was Clueless. I remember watching Clueless and loving that film, and then my mom was like, ‘This is based on Emma. You should read all of the Austens.’” She read every one of them, and fell in love. What caught her eye about this adaptation, when she first spoke with Oakley, was the filmmaker’s focus on the sisters. “For me the love story of this film is Marianne and Elinor,” she recalled Oakley saying.

Fittingly, there was the somewhat mischievous sheen of sisterhood in the air at Metrograph (and in a moment of Vogue sisterhood, we celebrated the birthday of our very own Marley Marius). Which sister did everyone identify with the most? Malle and Edgar-Jones both said they present as Mariannes, but feel like Elinors. Meanwhile, model Stella Hanan told Malle that she feels like a combination of all of the sisters.

For the event, which capped off her press tour, Edgar-Jones wore an archival Rodarte dress from the spring 2017 collection selected by her stylist, Dani Michelle. Sheer with a big heart motif on the chest, the goal was to end the tour with a “big heart for the Dashwoods,” Edgar-Jones said.

As everyone left the theater, they ate Victoria sponge cake (“Ooh, sponge!” Edgar-Jones exclaimed when she saw the treats), picked up a few Vogue Book Club and Estée Lauder goodies, and walked off into the night. A big heart, indeed.