The upcoming film adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, due in cinemas in October and directed by Georgia Oakley, has drawn criticism after its June trailer showed characters wearing historically inaccurate hairstyles and fashions. The film stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and Esme Creed-Miles as Marianne, and the backlash has reignited a long-running debate about how faithfully period dramas should recreate the eras they depict, and how far filmmakers can stray before audiences lose immersion.

Critics note that in the late 18th-century Georgian setting of Austen's novel, women's hair was almost always pinned up as a mark of respectability, yet the new trailer shows the Dashwood sisters wearing their hair loose in public, unlike the 1995 adaptation, which observed the convention. The article points out that Sense and Sensibility is far from alone in taking such liberties, citing Little Women (2019), Marie Antoinette (2005) and Gladiator (2000) as other historical films with notable inaccuracies, and suggests such choices often reflect deliberate creative vision or modern fashion influences rather than carelessness by costume and set designers.