What was fashionable for women in Jane Austen’s times? Mourning, riding, daytime, evening clothing, plus underclothing, corsets and accessories. Wars were being fought so women adopted military looks in support of soldiers. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashion1810-1814 History Notes Book 27 Women’s Fashions 1810-1814.
What did Jane Austen and friends wear? Early 1800s fashions were elegant and pretty with high waists and fabrics that were almost transparent. These Empire style gowns, named after Napoleon’s first Empress, became popular throughout Europe, and were then copied around the world. Colorful outwear was added to make an ensemble more attractive and warmer. History Notes Book 26 Fashion Women 1805-1809.
https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1805-1809
The Empire waist gown defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given in France to the period when Napoleon built his French Empire. High-waisted, loose gowns were adopted by the aristocracy as a symbol of turning away from the fussy, elaborate and expensive clothing worn in the 1700s. Jean-Jaques Rousseau advocated copying peasants and returning to a simpler life and more natural fashions. Unrestricting clothing was part of the new Democracy in France and these simpler and flowing fashions were adopted all over Europe, including Britain and despite the continual wars being fought against France during the early 1800s. Not even war stopped fashions from being copied everywhere.
1808 Two ladies in high-waisted dresses, French. White dress with blue paisley shawl, blue shoes and red and white bonnet, blue dress with elaborate yellow trims, yellow shoes and bonnet to match.Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
These are the types of general morning dress worn by Jane Austen and contemporaries in England, as French fashion plates were obsessively copied despite the two countries being at war for many years. English fashion magazines frequently published plates copied from French fashion magazines and both French and English magazines published the same design for both single women’s fashion and for two ladies together.
Ladies clothing in the early 1800’s featured a high waist line called an Empire Line, or Empire style dress, with a waistline just under the natural bust line and much higher than the natural waist. 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 complicated embroidery and colorful accessories.
1806 Jane Austen Style Short Sleeved White Muslin Dress With Train, French. Bodice and sleeves have ribbon decoration, evening flowered headdress, half parure of necklace and ear bobs, and gorgeous Indian hand loomed green shawl. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Definition Jewelry – Parure: Matched set of jewelry, including a necklace, bracelet, earrings, pin etc. Half Parure had no headpiece.
Definition Shawls: The shawl started off in India as a fine wool garment for men that could be worn as a scarf, turban or as a mantle: the word comes from the Persian shäl. Originally imported from the East, European Kashmir shawls were made first in Norwich and Edinburgh in Britain in the late 18th century. Shawls were an essential item in the early 1800s to cover the thin gowns women wore. They were made of muslin, gauze, silk, wool, and velvet, though cashmere shawls were the softest and most prized.
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1806 Two Ladies In Empire style White Dresses, French. Costumes Anglais et Française, or English and French Costumes. Both with brown gloves and straw hats, one with blue shawl and other with blue Spencer and interesting blue trim. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Definition Empire Style Dress: Named after the First Empire in France. Empire dresses had a low neckline and skirts started directly under the bust and flowed into the classical relaxed wide styles of Greece and Rome. This style of dress is associated with Jane Austen and her contemporaries as a high-waisted dress was worn most days. Cotton, silk or taffeta were the popular fabrics.
Definition Spencer: Short jacket, cropped at the waist, worn over a dress, or gown. These close-fitting, tight sleeved, waist length jackets were modeled on a gentleman’s riding coat, but without tails. Delicate and regency dresses provided so little protection from the cold, so over garments were essential for warmth, modesty and good health.
1805 White Fur Coat, or Redingote, French. Black fur and lavender lattice to decorate, white shawl with paisley patterned ends, lavender hat to match and long white gloves. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have wore long coats like this one 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 so coats of some sort were added, plus colorful accessories like this shawl and the hat to add color and another layer of warmth.
Definition Shawls: The shawl started off in India as a fine wool garment for men that could be worn as a scarf, turban or as a mantle: the word comes from the Persian shäl. Originally imported from the East, European Kashmir shawls were made first in Norwich and Edinburgh in Britain in the late 18th century. Shawls were an essential item in the early 1800s to cover the thin gowns women wore. They were made of muslin, gauze, silk, wool, and velvet, though cashmere shawls were the softest and most prized.
Fashion Women 1805-1809 History Notes Book 26 What did Jane Austen and friends wear? This book looks at early 1800s fashions, which were elegant and pretty with high waists and fabrics that were almost transparent. These Empire style gowns, named after Napoleon’s first Empress, became popular throughout Europe, and were then copied around the world. Colorful outwear was added to make an ensemble more attractive and warmer. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1805-1809
What was fashionable in the late 1700s? Extravagant colors and fabrics and outrageous styles were all seen in these flamboyant fashions. Take a look at their dresses, suits, hats, shoes and bedroom fashions. books2read.com/suziloveFashWomen1700s
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18th Century Late Women’s Fashions. A conical body shape was still fashionable while the shape of the skirts changed. The wide panniers which held the skirts out at the sides mostly disappeared by 1780 for all but the most formal court functions and false rumps, or bum-pads or hip-pads were worn for a time. A low-necked gown, usually called in French a robe, was worn over a petticoat and most gowns had skirts that opened in front to show the petticoat worn beneath. As part of the general simplification of dress, the open bodice with a separate stomacher was replaced by a bodice with edges that met center front. Strapless stays which still were cut high at the armpit, to encourage a woman to stand with her shoulders slightly back, a fashionable posture. The fashionable shape was a rather conical torso, with large hips. The waist was not particularly small. Stays were usually laced snugly, but comfortably. Shoes had high, curved heels (the origin of modern “louis heels”) and were made of fabric or leather. Shoe buckles remained fashionable until they were abandoned along with high-heeled footwear and other aristocratic fashions in the years after the French Revolution,
18th Century Late Men’s Fashions. A man’s outfit consisted of a knee-length coat, knee breeches, a vest or long waistcoat, a linen shirt with frills and linen under drawers. Lower legs showed and were an important part of life. Men wore stockings and leather shoes with stacked heels of low or medium height. The whole ensemble would have been topped by a shoulder-length wig and a tricorne, or three-cornered, hat an upturned brim. By end of the 18th century, wigs were out of fashion except for the most formal occasions. Undergarments and knee breeches did not change very much. Coats gradually became less full and die front was cut in a curve towards the back. Waistcoats became shorter. The upper leg began to show more and more and by the end of the century breeches fitted better because they were often made of knitted silk. Shoes became low-heeled with pointed toes and were fastened with a detachable strap or ribbon on the front.
18th Century Snuff Boxes. Not only were boxes made to serve a purpose, but decorative boxes of all types were prized, especially in the 18th Century when everything decorative and extravagant was in vogue and taking a pinch of snuff was fashionable. Snuff is made from ground or pulverized tobacco leaves and is sniffed from a pinch of snuff placed on the back of the hand. Flavorings were added to the tobacco to give a fast hit of nicotine and a lasting scent. Snuff began in the Americas and was used in Europe by the 17th Century.
Snuff became popular from the mid 1600s to the mid 1800s and was more popular than smoking. Inhaling snuff, or snuffing, was first seen by a European missionary in 1493 in Christopher Columbus’s new world within Haiti’s indigenous Taino. Until then, tobacco had been unknown to Europeans, but its use spread quickly throughout Europe during the 1500s. By the second half of the 17th century, ornate boxes started being produced to keep the precious powder dry and an entire industry making accessories blossomed around the fashion of taking snuff. Noblemen, and some women, carried extravagantly decorated snuff boxes with them at all times and would offer a pinch of their own particular blend to friends and family. Therefore, these boxes were always on display and so it became a competition to see who could have the most bejeweled or expensive box possible. books2read.com/suziloveFashMen1700
1660-1700 ca. Green Velvet Gaming Purse, Probably French. Trimmed with Copper-Gilt Thread, probably French. This purse was designed especially for gaming, or gambling, and would have held money, or counters, and is of a different design to other 17th-century purses. The base is a flat circle and the sides are gathered on a drawstring to stop money or gaming counters from spilling out, and to hide how much a gambler had in the purse. The bag’s plain look was probably a deliberate move to fool other gamblers into thinking the owner had little money.The purse is quite plain, with no embroidery and only a twist of copper gilt thread, gilt being a cheap substitute for gold or silver thread.
Playing and betting on card games was a socially acceptable pastime for the wealthy in the late 17th century. Along with dancing, riding and the theatre, it was an amusement for those classes that did not have to work. A gentleman or lady who did not participate in games such as ‘Quadrille’ and ‘Basset’ would have been considered ‘low-bred and hardly fit for conversation’ according to ‘The Compleat Gamester’, published in 1674. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.
1806 Young French Gentleman. Brown Castorine Coat Over Blue Tailcoat, French. White cashmere breeches, white stockings, yellow gloves, black hat and a cane. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
French fashions and Georgian and Regency Era fashions from Great Britain were copied around the world. This is the normal daily outfit for a gentleman in the early 1800s, or in the times of Jane Austen, for daily city and country life.
Le Beau Monde magazine made suggestions for men’s fashion in November 1806.
“The neckcloth should, by no means, be too greatly puffed out; but should be neatly united in front with a large unspread bow. Dark bottle green coats will be as generally worn this season, as those of brown colours were last winter.
“For morning dress frock coats will be prevalent: those of an olive hue, with a black velvet collar, will be the most universal. Fancied waistcoats of all manufactures may be worn with this kind of coat; but fashion ordains the invariable use of dark blue or light-coloured kerseymere pantaloons, and half-boots. The boots must rise somewhat higher in the leg than has recently been the custom, and the toes of them should be formed into a perfect semi-cirlce.
“Full dress coats will likewise be made of dark green cloth, double-breasted, and will possess the similar ornament of a black velvet collar. Single-breasted white waistcoats, and light-coloured kerseymere breeches will be in much estimation. Either flesh-coloured or now-white silk stockings fashion now considered as elegant.
“The hair, for morning dress, should be cut à la Titus; for full dress, it should be powdered. Buckles for the shoes are employed in full dress; but ribbands are allowed in afternoon or dinner dress.”
