1816 Inside A Dining Room By Martin Drolling. Bridgerton and Jane Austen household. Via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org (PD-ART)


Spencers Or Regency Jackets By Suzi Love. History Notes Book 4. What was fashionable for outer wear in past centuries? Call them what you like: Spencers, short jackets, or Regency jackets were very popular. Take a look at the jackets being worn by women in the early 1800s or the times of Jane Austen. books2read.com/suziloveSpencers


1816 October. Pelisse, English. White walking dress with wide lace hem trim worn under an aqua blue pelisse lined with spotted fur, aqua slippers, yellow slippers, white bonnet with high white plumes and aqua blue bows. Fashion Plate via Lady’s Magazine.
During the early 1800s, dress fabrics and dresses were thin, sometimes almost transparent. These lightweight white cotton dresses were fashionable in Jane Austen’s times, but they were certainly not warm when a lady was out walking or when riding in a carriage. Numerous outer layers could be added for warmth and to brighten and personalize an outfit. These might be an overdress, pelisse or redingote, hat, shawl, gloves, or large fur muff.
A typical outdoor outfit worn by the Bridgerton family, or Jane Austen and her contemporaries, when going outside consisted of an Empire style, or high-waisted, white cotton dress worn under a Pelisse, or Redingote, or coat, for warmth and with an added layer with the pretty shawl. Hats were made to match gowns and cloaks and fashionable women spent an extraordinary amount of time coordinating complete ensembles which included reticules or bags, shoes, shawls, gloves, hats, parasols, and fans. Typical Empire style dresses had low necklines and with skirts that started directly under the bust and flowed into the classical relaxed wide styles of Greece and Rome. These were worn most days and cotton, silk or taffeta were the popular fabrics.
Definition Redingote Or Pelisse Or Walking Dress Or Coat: French word developed from English words, riding coat. Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. Originally made with several capes and trimmed with large buttons. For women, the coat was often cut away in the front or left open to show off the dress underneath. French fashion plates call these coats Redingotes and they were worn by men, women, and children. English fashion plates call the coats a Pelisse, a walking dress, Promenade dress, or Carriage dress.

1816 October Aqua blue Pelisse and matching hat from Jane Austen and Bridgerton years. #janeausten #bridgerton #regencyfashion https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1815-1819

This book shows how body wraps, stays, and corsets were worn to create a variety of fashionable silhouettes through past centuries. Corsets flattened breasts and accentuated rounded hips or pushed up breasts and showed off the bust line depending on the fashions of the time and the desired silhouette. Overview of corsets through history, including the Georgian, Regency, Victorian and Edwardian Eras, and the Bridgerton and Jane Austen’ years. History Notes Book 14.
https://books2read.com/SuziLoveCorsetBook14
The name stays probably comes from the French estayer meaning to support. The word corset, which comes from the French word corps for body, had been in use centuries earlier, though often with not quite the same meaning. By the beginning of the 19th century when these undergarments took on more shape and form, the word corset was generally used instead of stays.
During the 1820s, fashions changed from the loose and flowing Regency Era or Empire style gowns and the waistline lowered back to almost the natural position. Towards the mid 1800s, breast cups were added to corsets to give more support and breast comfort. Corsets were lengthened to the hip and gussets added in both the bust area and over the hips. Therefore corsets had more shaping but with less boning.
From the 1820s onwards, menbegan to wear corsets and this continued through the Romantic Era, though the men who wore corsets usually claimed they needed them for back pain.
Queen Victoria ruled England from 1837 to 1901 and at the beginning of her reign, dress waists were around their natural line. But as the years of her reign progressed, fashionable waists became thinner and corsets were redesigned to give more of an hourglass figure.
Early Victorian Era corsets were cotton, boned with mainly whale bone, laced at the back and with tiny hooks and eyes up the front for front fastening. By the middle of the century, corsets were beginning to be more decorative with embroidery and ribbons and then later made of colorful silks and satins.



1816 July Opera Dress, English. Dress of white lace worn over a rich soft white satin slip. Skirt trimmed in a style of peculiar elegance, with lace festooned at regular distances, festoons edged by plain band of byas satin and finished by pearl ornaments of a very novel and pretty shape. Lace body is cut byas and richly ornamented round the bosom with pointed lace. Plain long sleeve, very full, except towards the wrist, which is nearly tight to the arm, and elegantly finished with lace. Hair ornamented with a wreath of French roses, parted in front, and simply dressed in loose curls, which fall very low on each side. Hind hair forms a tuft at the back of the head. Necklace, ear-rings, and bracelets of pearl. White satin slippers, and white kid gloves and a blush colored French silk scarf. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1815-1819
Gorgeous Regency Era clothing came in a wide range of styles to suit every season and occasion. Ladies in the Bridgerton series and in Jane Austen’s times wore Empire style dresses which were usually made of light fabric and floaty in style. By the later 1810s, stripes were very popular and lace and frills were added to make the dress more individual.

Reader or writer of the Regency Era? Love Jane Austen and Bridgerton fashions? This book covers corsets from late 1700s to early 1800s. #JaneAusten #Georgian #Regency #Corsets Corsets 1790-1810 History Notes Book 16
Corsets or stays transitioning from 1700s into 1800s and worn during Jane Austen’s lifetime. This book shows how supporting underclothing moved away from stomachers and tightly laced stays worn during the 1700s and transitioned into corsets that were less formed and far more comfortable. Wearing the correct underclothing was essential for keeping garments in place and giving the best fashion display. Corsets worn during Jane Austen’s lifetime.


In Jane Austen’s times craftsmen created boxes and containers of precious metals, leather, silks, and decorated them with jewels. Boxes, Cases, Etui, Necessaire and everything else that was used to carry essential items for travel, sewing, medicine, writing, and toiletries. Containers were engraved to make exquisite and expensive items as well as practical carrying cases. books2read.com/suziloveBoxesCases


Fascinated with historical fashion? Treat yourself to a nonfiction Box Set on corsets, including Bridgerton and Jane Austen years. Corsets Box Set History Notes Book 22. This Box Set combines corset books 14-21 to give a complete picture of the progression of corset styles from 1700 through to the 1900s, including Jane Austen’s lifetime. These books show how body wraps, stays, and corsets were worn through the centuries to create a variety of fashionable silhouettes through various historical eras. Corsets flattened breasts and accentuated rounded hips or pushed up breasts and showed off the bust line depending on the fashions of the time and the desired silhouette. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveCorsetBook22


Love the Bridgerton family and Jane Austen? Reader Or Writer of Regency Era stories? Mourning and riding fashion, dresses, hats, shoes, reticules or bags, underclothing and fashion accessories.
books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1815-1819
History Notes 28 Fashion Women 1815-1819: This book looks at what was fashionable for women in the Georgian Era and at the end of the Regency Era in Britain and the reconstruction in Europe after the wars. Lifestyles were freer and fashions expressed this by becoming the focus of most women’s lives. A wardrobe full of opulent accessories was requisite. Includes mourning and riding fashion, dresses, hats, shoes, reticules or bags, underclothing, and fashion accessories.
Ladies clothing in the early 1800’s featured a high waist line called an Empire Line, or Empire style dress, with a waist line just under the natural bust line and much higher than the natural waist. High-waisted Empire Line styles dominated fashions for at least three decades from the 1790s until the 1820s. The high-waisted, or short-bodied, Regency styles shifted focus away from the natural waist and so left the natural waist unconstricted, in direct contrast to previous and future styles.
Britain took these simple European styles and progressively made them more elaborate by adding more and more complicated embroidery onto white fabrics to create the white on white look popular for many years. The empire look of fine muslin dresses left women more exposed than in the Georgian Era when fabrics had been thicker and styles bulkier. Women, especially in England, preserved their modesty by adding lace, frills, flounces, ruches, and fabric plaits to dresses to adequately cover any parts that might inadvertently be exposed. Outer layers, such as Spencers, coats and shawls, were also added.


1819 White Dress With Short Sleeves, English. Styled after the Court of France. Yellow skirt with long train decorated with flowers. Flowered headdress, long white gloves, necklace.Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London.

