1812 June Couple In Fashionable Jane Austen style Walking Dress, English. Lady wears a green cape and hat over a high-waisted, or Empire style, white dress with a pink parasol. Man wears a tailcoat over fawn breeches, yellow gloves, black shoes and hat and a walking stick. Fashion Plate via The Lady’s Magazine Or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex.
By the end of the 18th century, tailored garments for both men and women were replaced by styles made for ease and comfort, resulting in the neoclassical style of the 1780s. Inspired in part by the statuary of ancient Greece and Rome, the new fashion was epitomized by light cotton gowns falling around the body in an unstructured way, held around the high waist with a simple sash and accompanied by a soft shawl draped around exposed shoulders. This style was ideal for the Indian imports like Kashmiri shawls and Bengali muslin, as used in this embroidered gown.
1815-1820 ca. Blue Wool Tailcoat As Worn By Bridgerton Gentlemen and the Men In Jane Austen’s Life.
1815-1820 ca. Man’s Blue Wool Tailcoat, English. Chest View. Blue wool, lined with wool, brass buttons, and hand sewn. Double-breasted coat of blue wool, cut away in the front. With a fairly deep roll collar, a double row of five brass buttons, and four further brass buttons at the back. The wrists fasten with two cloth-covered buttons. With oblique false pocket flaps, one on each side, with deep pockets below them entered vertically, and another deep pocket inside entered horizontally. Lined with wool. Hand-sewn. Marks and Inscriptions: ‘Hammond Turner & Sons, Extra Superfine’ (Stamped behind the brass buttons) The cut-away coat remained formal daywear for men until the 1850s. This example has long tight sleeves, puffed at the shoulder, a style typical of the period 1815-1820. The roll collar has an M-shape notch, introduced about 1803, and a waist seam. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. Given by Lady Osborn.
What did the lady of the house use to pen notes in Bridgerton and Jane Austen’s years? What sat on the desk of Jane Austen’s male contemporaries when they managed household and estate accounts? books2read.com/SuziLoveWritingTools. Writing Tools, History Notes Book 13.
1802 Silk and Metal Dress, Spanish. Brown silk dress with very high waist, decorated bodice, zig-zag hem decoration, long straight sleeves. I can picture Jane Austen and her female friends and family wearing this sort of dress to a dinner party or musical evening. via Metropolitan Museum, NYC, U.S.A. metmuseum.org
1809 Messrs. Harding Howell and Co., London, UK. View of interior of Harding Howell and Co., draper’s shop on Pall Mall. Ladies examine latest fashions and fabrics which they could then request of their dressmakers. This house extended 150 feet from front to back and was divided by glass petitions into four departments, furs and fans, haberdashery, jewellery, ornaments and perfumes, and millinery. bl.uk
1809 July Opera Dress. I can picture aristocratic women wearing this sort of gorgeous outfit to the opera or an evening event.
Round convent robe of Egyptian brown tissue worn over white satin underdress, ornamented at feet, bosom and sleeves with broad Antique lace, out on full, and narrowing in front, white satin appliqued stomacher embellished with gold lattice work and continued in a straight line down to the hem. Headdress is a gold net caul, enclosing the hair at the back and finished in front with a Mechlin veil displaying the hair on the forehead and falling over the left shoulder. Necklace and armlets are a single row of Bohemian pearl with topaz or diamond snaps. Grecian scarf of rich Andalusian silk, contrasted with the robe and wrought at the ends in a deep Tuscan border of gold or colored silks. White satin slippers, trimmed with brown foil or gold, French kid gloves, opera fan of white crepe with a border of jessamine. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
1800 ca. Chemisette, English. In Jane Austen’s times, there were several ways for women to keep their modesty when the fashion trend was for low cut bodices and loose flowing dresses e.g. Chemisette, Fichu, Pelerine etc. DefinitionChemisette: Sleeveless under-bodice covering neck, shoulders and breast, usually of muslin or lace and worn to fill in the neckline of a dress. French term for vestee, gilet, etc. via Killerton House, U.K. & National Trust.
1808 Jane Austen Style Blue Redingote Over A White Dress. Green turban and lace veils. Bodice. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
French fashions like this were copied by English magazines so these styles of hats would have been worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries.
1800-1820 ca. Woman’s Gloves, Spanish. Repeating pattern of concentric ovals across fingers shows their high quality and workmanship. Scalloped, pierced, pinked edges of cuff have geometric elements with floral garlands. Scene of gentleman presenting a gift to a young seated woman. European etiquette allowed a woman to receive gloves as a gift from men other than her husband so gloves were carefully chosen for their novelty. Spain produced high quality printed leather gloves using intaglio process. via Cooper Hewitt, New York City, USA. collection.cooperhewitt.org
Now surviving in museum collections throughout Europe and North America, this style of glove must have been a brief, but very popular fad of the last years of the 18th century. As gloves were one of the few gifts a man could give to a single woman he was not engaged to marry, new designs and colours were eagerly sought after to provide variety in this staple form of present.
Printed kidskin gloves of this type were fashionable from the last decade of the 18th century until the 1820s. They were suitable for wearing with the long sleeved day dresses which women adopted in the last decade of the century. Long gloves continued to be required for court dress which retained its short sleeves. By this date many European countries were manufacturing gloves, both in leather and in woven or knitted textiles made of silk, cotton, linen or wool. Printed kidskin was used for gloves and for the backing for fans. English fan makers were printing on leather before 1720. The intaglio method of printing used a copper plate. The design was engraved with a buril or dry point into the plate, then the plate was immersed in ink and the leather placed on it in a screw press. Several different pairs of gloves could be printed at a time and if the pattern wore off with use, they could be reprinted.
Love the charming chatelaines and chains women wore in Jane Austen’s and Bridgerton’s times? Check out this fascinating read! #bridgerton #janeausten #chatelaine #suzilovebooks books2read.com:SuziLoveChatelaines
The Bridgerton women and Jane Austen and contemporaries carried keys, writing tools, sewing items and other personal necessities on their person by long chains, or a chatelaine, that hung from their waist. Early chatelaines were simple essentials but later chatelaines were decorative and expensive. http://books2read.com/SuziLoveChatelaines
Definition Chatelaine: The word Chatelaine is French and means the keeper of the keys. Chatelaine” derives from the Latin word for castle. In Medieval times, the chatelaine was in charge of the day-to-day running of the castle. Women in charge of households dangled long chains from their waists to keep essentials within easy reach e.g. keys, notebook and pen, watch, sewing items, vinaigrette or perfume, or magnifying glass. Early chatelaine were simple essentials. Later chatelaine were decorative and expensive.books2read.com/SuziLoveChatelaines
What did a chatelaine do? Most important task was keeper of the keys. Also ordered supplies, did bookkeeping, supervised servants, taught castle children, and organized guests.
