1819 Gardens of the Tuileries Near the Rue de Rivoli, Paris, France. Woman in a red walking dress, or Redingote, or Pelisse, modeled after British riding dresses and worn with a high white bonnet with feathers, or plumes. The skirt remains fairly narrow and the waist is fairly low, indicating the transition into 1820 styles. In the background are women walking with children. From Illustrations by François Courboin from Octave Uzanne’s Les Modes de Paris.
Variations du goût et de l’esthétique de la femme, 1797-1897, L. Henry May, Paris, 1898, or from the English translation of the same work: Fashion in Paris : the various phases of feminine taste and aesthetics from 1797 to 1897, William Heinemann, London, 1898.
I love Pinterest for keeping thousands of historical images in some sort of order.And I love using Pinterest Boards as inspiration for my romance books.What about you? Do you use Pinterest for planning something, or just for fun?Need more hints for what to do with your boards and pins? Take a look at these fascinating articles on Pinterest. if you want even more Pinterest information and tips for becoming a power user, check out my Suzi Love Pinterest Boards
1770-1790 ca. Child’s Stays, American. Linen plain weave, baleen, or whalebone, silk braided tape. Dimensions: Center Front Length: 5 3/4 inches (14.6 cm) Waist: 18 inches (45.7 cm). Made in United States of America. This pair of stays is only eighteen inches around, and might have been worn by a small child of eighteen months to two years old. Putting stays on young girls and boys was not seen as harsh, but rather as insurance that their figures would develop the correct form, with chest out and shoulders down. While boys usually wore stays only in early childhood, they were considered essential for females throughout their lives. via Philadelphia Museum of Art philamuseum.org Accession Number: 1988-15-1Credit Line: Purchased with the Bloomfield Moore Fund, 198
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.
1826 Harrow Boys Having Fun Smashing Crockery. Regency Family Life. Photo Editing By Suzi Love. From: 1826 The English Spy By Robert Cruikshank via Google Books (PD-150)
Light-Hearted look at an Older Lady’s Life In Jane Austen’s Times, or early 1800s. An easy to read overview of what an older lady did, wore, and how she lived in the early 19th Century. Information for history buffs and pictures for readers and writers of historical fiction. Older Lady’s Day, Regency Life Series, Book 5, by Suzi Love. books2read.com/suziloveOLD
Through historic images, historical information, and funny anecdotes, it shows how an older lady in Jane Austen’s times fills her day, where she goes, and with whom she spends her time. This light-hearted look at the longer Regency years is an easy to read overview of what people did and wore, and where they worked and played. There is plenty of information to interest history buffs, and lots of pictures to help readers and writers of historical fiction visualize the people and places from the last years of the 18th Century until Queen Victoria took the throne. Regency Life Series, Book 5, By Suzi Love.
1809 September Lady and Infant In Slight Mourning Habits. Black gossamer net, or imperial gauze, worn over a white satin slip. A half train. A round frock front, and short French sleeves, each edged with a rich Vandyke lace. A cestus, or belt, of white satin edged with gold bullion and finished in front with a rich cord and cone tassels, suspended from topaz studs. Pearl necklace and bracelets, with topaz snaps. Hair in the eastern style, with a Spartan diadem, and comb of topaz or gold. Circassian scarf of grey Spanish silk with a Tuscan border in black embroidery, tassels to correspond, confined on one shoulder with a topaz broach. Shoes of grey satin, with clasps of jet, or rosettes of black bugles. White gloves of French kid; and fan of black crape, with gold spangled devices.
‘In deep mourning, this robe should be formed of black crape, and worn over black sarsnet. The ornaments and trimmings of every description must be of bugles or jet. The shoes of queen’s silk. The scarf, black crape or imperial silk, spotted and bordered with bugles. Jet tassels and broach. The child’s dress is a simple frock of black crape muslin, tucked small, and worn over a cambric skirt. A plain net-lace tucker, and cap to match. Grey kid slippers, with black clasps.’ Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository’ of Arts.
Because many men across Europe were fighting in wars during these years, women often had a reason to dress in black. The loss of numerous family members and friends meant that black was a mainstay in any lady’s wardrobe. Black dresses, hats, capes, shoes, gloves, fans and jewelry would have been essentials, with touches of white, grey or purple being added for times of half mourning. Early publications of Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’ had many fashion plates that included children, but the plate below with a child in ’slight’ mourning dress is very unusual. With this fashion plate is a description of how this ’slight’ mourning could be adapted for deep mourning.
Fabrics for deep mourning would be flat, rather than shiny, hats would be black with little embellishment, and jewelry would be subdued. Slight mourning allowed the white dress trimming, white gloves and these grey satin shoes.
Definition Van Dyke: V-shaped lace and trims named after a 17th Century Flemish painter, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, known for painting V-shaped lace collars and scalloped edges on sitters.
From the finish of the 18th century until 1820, men’s fashions in European and European-influenced countries moved away from the formal wear of brocades, lace, wigs and powder to more informal and relaxed styles. Focus was on undress rather than formal dress. Typical menswear in the early 1800s included a tailcoat, a vest or waistcoat, either breeches, pants, or the newer trousers, stockings, shoes or boots, all worn with an overcoat and hat. This basic ensemble was accessorized with some form of neckcloth or cravat, gloves, walking stick, cane or riding crop, handkerchief, fobs, watch and perhaps a quizzing glass or eye glass.
Skirted coats were replaced with short-fronted, or cutaway, tailcoats worn over fitted waistcoats and plain, white linen shirts. Knee breeches were gradually replaced by tight-fitting pantaloons and later trousers, decorative shoes with buckles were replaced with a variety of boot styles, and fussy and ruffled neckwear gave way to intricately tied, white linen neck cloths. A Regency Era, or early 1800s, gentleman was outfitted in more practical fabrics, such as wool, cotton and buckskin rather than the fussy brocades and silks of the late 1700s.
