Light-hearted look at Young Lady in Jane Austen’s times, or early 1800s. A glimpse into both the frivolous and more serious occupations filling a young lady’s day in the lifetime of Jane Austen, or the Regency Era, or the early 19th Century. Historic images and historical information show her fashions and frolics.
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1812 Two Ladies, French. Orange sleeveless Redingote over a white dress with high neck frill and interesting sleeves. High-waisted white dress with blue pattern on the short sleeves and hem. Both with gloves, matching bonnets and shoes. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
1807 Blue Walking Dress, French. Although this is a French fashion plate, this is the sort of dress that Jane Austen and her friends would have worn when walking together. Back bow, a train and black trim, a white hat with flowers and holding a looking glass. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Definition Empire Style Dress: High-waisted white gown defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given to the period when Napoleon Bonaparte 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.
Definition Walking Dress: Worn for walking in a park or the country estate. This sort of outfit needed to be presentable and warm, but not overly accessorized.
1811 August Walking Dress for a Mother and a child, English. Mother wears a typical Regency or Jane Austen style high round robe with full long sleeve trimmed with Van Dyke lace at the throat and cuffs and ornamented around the bottom with a Tuscan border in needlework. Short capuchin cloak of buff shot sarsenet fastened with broaches on shoulders and trimmed with deep Chinese silk fringe. Moorish turban bonnet gathered into a broach in centre of the forehead. Purple ridicule, or bag, with gold snap and tassels. Buff kid half boots, parasol with deep Indian awning. Child wears a short sleeved Spanish vest and trousers in one, which looks like a skeleton suit, a tight coat or jacket buttoned to a pair of high-waisted trousers. An Indian dimity waistcoat with long sleeves and collar trimmed with a narrow border of muslin, high shoes of purple morocco and a college cap of purple velvet with a crimson band and carries a parasol. via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Definition Skeleton Suit: Shirt and trousers made as one connecting piece, often buttoned together, and were one of the earliest fashions designs made especially for children and were worn from the 1790s to the 1820s.
1814 Gentleman’s Ensemble, French. Gentleman in brown tailcoat, white vest, high collared white shirt, knotted white cravat, white pants and white gaiters above black shoes. The style of outfit worn by the men in Jane Austen’s life. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
1808 Blue Grey Redingote, French. High waist, coordinating trim, short puffed sleeves over long straight sleeves, yellow striped bandana in her hair, yellow gloves and yellow walking boots. Jane Austen and her female contemporaries wore coats like these when outdoors because they needed the warmth over the fashionable light muslin dresses that all women wore. Redingotes could be both comfortable and decorative. They often had military elements in support of the thousands of men involved in ongoing wars. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Definition Redingote Or Pelisse Or Walking Dress Or Coat: Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. Often left open at the front to show off the dress underneath. French word developed from English words, riding coat.
Bandeau: Narrow strip or band worn around head to confine hair. Made of either twisted fabric, length of pearls, flowers, jewels or feathers. From the French word for “strip.
1818 High-waisted Promenade Dress, English. White dress with multiple layers of lace from hem upwards. Narrow striped scarf of bright colors, large brimmed hat decorated with flowers and a pink parasol. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London.
Definition Empire Style Dress: High-waisted white gown defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given to the period when Napoleon Bonaparte 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.
1812 October Autumnal Carriage Or Morning Costume, English. Loose white jaconet muslin dress, high in the neck, with double frills of deep vandyke lace that fall over the Spencer. Blue satin Spencer ornamented with silver cord and buttons ‘en militaire’ and held at the throat with a cord and tassels, a quartered foundling cap of lace tied under the chin with a full band and decorated with an autumnal flower. Grey kid shoes, lemon gloves and a ridicule, or bag, of purple velvet. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Dress – Morning: Worn either at home, out shopping, or for walking in the park or country. Presentable but not overly accessorized.
Spencer: Short body-hugging jacket worn for warmth &modesty. Said to have originated in accident to Lord Spencer in hunting when coattails torn off.
1811 Evening Dress, French. Red cashmere dress over white under shirt with short puffed sleeves, carrying a white shawl, long white gloves, earrings and white evening shoes. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Though this is a French fashion plate, the outfit is typical of the dresses worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries. An Empire style, or high-waisted, dress with a white underdress and for warmth there is an extra layer with the shawl.
Definition Cashmere: Soft, fine wool, historically used for costly dress fabric, usually in twill weave. Originally made of yarn handspun from the wool of Cashmere goats but later from other soft wools. Used for dresses, infants’ coats.
1816 January Blue Carriage Dress, English. High neck but no collar, front is fitted but back has slight fullness and very short bodice. Puffed roll to decorate the hem, trimmed in bias cut blue satin, long sleeves finished at wrists with satin, gloves of white kid and ‘sandals’ or shoes of blue kid leather. Head-dress à la mode de Paris is an unusual cap of white lace and decorated with two rolls of ribbon. “We are indebted to the tasteful fancy of Mrs. Bean, of Albemarle Street, for both our dresses this month.” Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have worn this style of outdoor, or carriage ensemble with a coat over a dress. These outdoor dresses were labelled a variety of names. In England, this might also have been called a Walking Or Promenade dress, or Pelisse. In Europe, it would be called a Redingote.
Definition: Pelisse, Walking Dress, Carriage dress, Promenade Dress, Redingote. Long, fitted coat sometimes cut away in front to show off the dress underneath. Originally made for men with several capes and trimmed with large buttons, they were adapted to add an additional, and warmer, layer to the typical white muslin dresses worn in the early 1800s. Those light weight dresses were good in summer but not suited to harsh winters. Over the carriage dress, a shawl could be added as well as a muff to give a warm and comfortable outfit for traveling by carriage.
