1808 January Trio In Half Dress Walking Ensembles, English. Lady on left wearing a pink dress and green coat and carrying a reticule. Lady on right in a white trained dress, long draping shawl and fitted hat. Gentleman in a blue tailcoat, white vest, extra high white cravat, knee breeches, shoes, and black top hat. Fashion Plate via Le Beau Monde. The sort of outfits ladies and gentlemen in Jane Austen’s times would have worn while out walking, shopping, or going to visit friends.
1816 December Carriage Dress, English. Fawn or lemon dress with blue silk hem trimming, blue bow tied at the back with long hanging ends, a half sleeve over a plain long sleeve, tight at the wrist and bound with blue trimming and finished with a narrow ruffle of three falls of tulle. A fichu of tulle with matching ruff. When worn as a carriage dress, the head-dress is a bonnet, the crown composed of white satin at the top and the middle and front of Leghorn. Lined with white satin and ornamented with a white satin band and strings. An indispensable India shawl, yellow slippers and carrying a black ridicule, or bag, and later called a reticule. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Definition Fichu: Piece of lace, muslin, or other cloth worn about the neck and cleavage to preserve a lady’s modesty. From French word meaning neckerchief.
Definition Ridicule, Reticule, Indispensable, or Handbag: From the late 1700s, pockets could no longer be sewn into gowns nor could separate pockets be tied around their waists and accessed by slits in the gown and petticoats, as skirts fell from just under the bust and were full and flowing. In Jane Austen’s times, women carried small bags, known at first as ridicules and later as reticules, to keep necessary items on their person e.g. handkerchiefs, coins, vinaigrettes, calling cards, glasses etc.. For more on reticules, try my History Notes book 3 http://books2read.com/suziloveReticules
1818 September 18th Le Palais Royal de Paris, Or ‘A Peep at the French Monstrosities’.
By George Cruikshank. Two English tourists, both dressed as dandies, walk arm-in-arm under the arcade of the Palais Royal, interested in the promenading courtesans. Two Frenchmen make more direct overtures to two women. Their dress is rather similar to that of the Englishmen, but the latter wear bell-shaped top-hats, while the Frenchmen have flower-pot shaped hats. An officer wearing a large cocked hat addresses a girl, and a man, said by Reid to be Irish, jovially accosts another. Some of the women are in evening-dress, others in street costume. Behind are iron railings between the supports of the roof; on one of these is the inscription ‘Caveau des Sauvages’. Published by: George Humphrey. via British Museum.
1820 August Walking and Evening Dresses, English. Walking Dress of cambric muslin with frilled hemline. Blue-purple Spencer with epaulettes of points of satin. Bonnet to match of metallic gauze and tied under her chin, yellow Limeric gloves, reticule or bag, and blue boots. Evening Dress of Urling’s lace with aqua blue leaf decoration, earl combs, pearl necklace and ear-rings, gold chain or chatelaine with a watch, white kid gloves and white silk shoes. Via Ladies’ Monthly Museum in The Mirror of Fashion, London, U.K.
Definition Limerick Gloves: Named after County Limerick in Ireland where they were first made. Often referred to as chicken skin gloves, though actually made from skins of unborn calves. Usually cream or yellow, superior quality and very thin.
Definition Ridicule, Reticule, Indispensable, or Handbag: From the late 1700s, pockets could no longer be sewn into gowns, as skirts fell from just under the bust and were full and flowing. Instead, women began carrying small bags, known at first as ridicules and later as reticules, to keep necessary items on their person e.g. handkerchiefs, coins, vinaigrettes, calling cards, glasses etc.
Definition Spencer: Short jackets cut to match the high waistlines of Empire dresses. They often copied military styling, such as braiding, shoulder decoration, buttons and loop fasteners, and wrist adornments. They were generally of complex construction, often with a diamond shaped piece in the back. Said to have originated in an accident to Lord Spencer while hunting when his coat tails were torn off and he wore it as a short jacket.
1800-1830 ca. Drawstring Bag, German. Basket-shaped, Ecru cotton knit embroidered with colored glass beads in design of grapevine on upper half, open work embroidered with weaving motif on lower half. Wired at center, cardboard at base. Green silk cord drawstring. The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A. mfa.org
Definition Reticule Or Ridicule Or 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.
1660-1700 ca. Gaming Purse, Probably French. Green velvet trimmed with copper-gilt thread. Gaming or gambling with cards popular 17th-century pastime and any gentleman or lady not playing games like Quadrille and Basset would have been considered ‘low-bred and hardly fit for conversation’ according to ‘The Compleat Gamester’, published in 1674. Typically, gaming purses had flat, circular bases with sides gathered on a drawstring. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. collections.vam.ac.uk.
19th Century Early Reticule, Or Bag, New England, England or U.S.A. Septagonal, or four sided, with embroidery and silk tassels. White satin embroidered with polychrome silks, silver threads, silver sequins. On front, in center of wreath of roses tied with blue bow, is written VALUE THE TRIFLE. On back, in similar wreath, is FRIENDSHIP. On sides are floral motifs, one of sweetpeas and the other of pansies. On all sides a border of silver threads in chain motif entwined with curling brown vine. Primarily worked in satin stitch. Thirteen silk tassels attached. White ribbon ties. via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A. mfa.org
Definition Reticule Or Ridicule Or 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.
1820 ca. Collection of Reticules, or Purses. Silk silver gauze, netting, fine crochet. Bags have drawstrings, chains and tassels. via Ruby Lane Auctions. #RegencyFashion #JaneAusten #British
Definition Of A 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. These Reticules, or bags, were the forerunners of our modern day purses.
1807 Women’s French Coats, or Redingotes, or Pelisses, or Walking Dresses, as worn in the early 1800s, or early Regency years, or in the times of Jane Austen. Fashion plates from the 1807 volumes from the French magazine, Journal des Dames et des Modes or Costume Parisien.
The Journal des dames et des modes was a French fashion magazine published between 1797 and 1839 and was the second oldest fashion magazine published in France, replacing the Cabinet des Modes (1785-1793).
The magazine was the main source for French fashions, both in France and internationally. Pierre de la Mesangere was editor and main journalist for most of the time the magazine was in existence and he published a magazine every five days, which is why there is an abundance of French fashion plates from these years. The magazine had eight pages of text, one or two colored fashion plates, plus poetry, theatre reviews, current social news and fiction. During the Napoleonic wars, everything to do with France was unpopular, especially in Britain, yet French fashions thrived and so did the Journal des Dames et des Modes, despite the numerous other fashion magazines that copied the magazine.
