19th Century Early Brown Trousers, American. Button waist, drop down front flap, or fall, and extra fabric in the back for easy movement. via Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819




19th Century Early Brown Trousers, American. Button waist, drop down front flap, or fall, and extra fabric in the back for easy movement. via Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819




19th cent. Early. Reticule, or Bag, of silk, metal and glass, French, as carried in Jane Austen’s times. Silk ribbon work, with rosy glass beads, and silver purl flowers and backgrounding to the wreath motif. via Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.C., U.S.A. metmuseum.org
Definition Reticule: Bag or purse, often with a drawstring to pull closed and usually made of cloth or covered cardboard and often decorated with beading or embroidery. A reticule, or purse, or handbag, was usually carried by a woman during the Regency period to carry all their daily necessities. Earlier, women used pockets that tied at the waistline and were hidden in the folds of their skirts. Empire style, or early 1800s, high-waisted dresses made it impossible to either sewn in a pocket or to tie on a pocket. So women began carrying small, decorated bags called Reticules, or ridicules, which generally pulled close at the top with a drawstring.


1816 August Walking Costume, or Pelisse, or Coat, English. Round dress, composed of cambric and trimmed with lace. The body is let in with a profusion of lace. Plain long sleeves, very full, except at the wrist where the fulness is confined by small plaits, sleeve finished by double frill of lace. Over the dress is a Pelisse of blue and white shot sarcenet, lined with white sarcenet and trimmed with white satin. Pelisse sleeve is very full and finished at the wrist by a cuff and bows of ribbon. Pelisse is made half high and finished at neck with a triple fall of rich lace but the neck is bare. White satin hat is turned up in front and ornamented with flowers. Kid gloves, blue kid shoes and a parasol. We are indebted for this tasteful dress to Mrs. Gill of Cork Street, Burlington Garden, London. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Definition: Pelisse Or Redingote: Woman’s long, fitted coat often worn open in front to show off the dress underneath. Sometimes cut away in front. Originally made with several capes and trimmed with large buttons. French word developed from English words, riding coat. reefer. Single- or double-breasted, fitted, tailored, over-all coat usually made from sturdy fabric. Jane Austen and her contemporaries wore long coats like these to keep warm when out and about, visiting, shopping etc. The thin muslin dresses worn in the early 1800s were little protection against European winters. #Regency #Fashion #History


1800 Elegant Young French Gentleman. Pulling on his top coat over a long tan coat. Tan gloves, brown hat, brown boots, cane. Fashion Plate via suzilove.com and Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Overcoats: Called many names: Greatcoat, or Carrick, or Garrick, or Coachman’s, or Driving. Or Box Coat. Overcoats were voluminous and covered the other clothing. Usually with many capes, or collars, or pelerines covering the shoulders and with buttons down the front. Popular in the 19th century for riding, driving and travel as they kept the wearer warm and snow and rain off the body. Greatcoat: Overcoat with capes around the shoulders for men. Carrick or Garrick Coat: Other names for a gentleman’s inclement weather coat and worn for driving or travel.


1700s Late Pair of Pattens, English. Iron supports underneath leather and wood. Pattens: Under shoes that strapped onto shoes and worn outdoors and to lift shoes and dresses out the mud. People in Jane Austen’s lifetime would have used these to protect the hems of dresses and legs of men’s pants, plus protect delicate shoes. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. collections.vam.ac.uk.


1800-1815 ca. Sprigged Mull Dress. Typical of the white cotton high-waisted dresses in vogue in the early 1800s. They replaced the more formal gowns from the end of the 18th Century and moved away from heavier and more decorative fabrics. This is the type of dress Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have worn on a daily basis. via Whitaker Auctions.


1816. June Blue Merino wool riding dress with high waist and embroidered and ornamented round the bust and cuffs and fastens on the back of the shoulder. Double ruff of fine Vandyke lace is separated from shirt collar by a Chinese silk handkerchief of blue and white. Small round hat made of fine beaver or moss silk, the half boots are of blue kid with Limerick gloves worked and seamed with blue and she is carrying a riding whip. These riding habits were usually designed by men and were in two pieces, a jacket and a skirt, worn over a shirt but this is in one piece and the full skirt falls from directly under the bust. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1815-1819
Typical of the riding costumes worn by Jane Austen’s female contemporaries. The style is still in the Empire fashion of a high-waist with the full skirt falling from just under the bust and with a frill and small decorations on the wrists and shoulders to make it look unique.


Top Hat Styles Chart. Most popular style was cone shaped and tall in height. Originally made of beaver and very short but later from silk and taller. Tall crown, widens at top, narrow brim turns up slightly at sides.


19th Century First Half Gentleman’s Black Tailcoat. Wool broadcloth, triple notch collar, narrow waistband, sleeve tops gathered and uniformly wide to single scallop edge at bottom sleeve, inner tail pockets, death head embroidered buttons, elaborate hand quilted lining with floral patterns in concentric square frames and a “F.M.W.” monogram embroidered at the centre back top in red. Via Augusta Auctions – augusta-auction.com
Tailcoat: A Regency Era, or early 1800s, gentleman was outfitted in more practical fabrics, such as wool, cotton and buckskin rather than the fussy brocades and silks of the late 1700s. The men in Jane Austen’s life would have worn a black tailcoat like this for everyday wear. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819







What Sort Of Pianoforte or Piano Was Played By Jane Austen and Contemporaries? Pianos, pianofortes and more. History Notes Book 7 Music Pianos books2read.com/suziloveMusicPiano
Definition Pianoforte or Piano: ‘Stringed keyboard instrument with a hammer action, as opposed to the jack and quill action of the harpsichord. Capable of gradations of soft and loud, the piano became the central instrument of music pedagogy and amateur study. By the end of the nineteenth century, no middle-class household of any stature in Europe or North America was without one.’ Definition via the Metropolitan Museum, NYC.
Around 1700, the Pianoforte, or Piano, was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who created a hammer action keyboard instrument on which a musician could make changes in loudness by changing the force with which the keys were struck. He called his instrument “gravicembalo col piano e forte”, or, (harpsichord with soft and loud). Cristofori’s long name was later shortened to fortepiano or pianoforte, and finally just piano.
Musical Instruments were so important in most of the more affluent households in history that large industries grew all around the world to manufacture instruments, musical accessories, and to print sheet music. Pianos, pianofortes, harpsichords, and organs were found everywhere and were often the focus of a family gathering. By the end of the 18th Century, the pianoforte, or piano, was the leading instrument of Western music.

