1806 Two Ladies In White Dresses, French. High-waisted, Or Empire line, dresses, pink and blue paisley shawls, bonnets tied under their chins, and long gloves, one in gorgeous yellow. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. These fashionable ensembles with a variety of fashionable and practical accessories would have been worn by Jane Austen and her family and friends during the day when out walking in the park or visiting village shops. Hats were a necessity to protect fair skin from the sun and scarfs and shawls added color and warmth to an outfit.
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. Only the very wealthy could afford white dress in this style as the cottons were imported from India and had to be carefully cleaned, usually by a lady’s maid.
Definition Paisley Shawl: Made of intricately woven and delicate wool with a teardrop motif that originated in Persia and India.
1805 November Three English Ladies In Full Dress. White walking dress with high neck under a purple tunic, or pelisse, and a masculine style straw hat. Two in evening dresses, one white and one pink, fur stoles and plumed, or feathered, hats. via Vernon and Hood Poultry at The Lady’s Monthly Museum, London, U.K.
These gorgeous dresses show the transition from the round dresses of the late 1700s to the Empire style dresses with the waistline high under the bust. Small trains were still worn in the early 1800s, but much more manageable than the larger and more elaborate trains of the late 1700s. Jane Austen and her friends would have worn dresses like this to their assemblies and evening events.
Definition Accessory: An accessory completes and complements an outfit.
Two groups – 1. Those worn e.g. bonnets, caps and hats, boots and shoes, cravats and ties, gloves, mittens and muffs, jewelry, scarves and shawls, socks and stockings.
2. Those carried e.g. bags, fans, and parasols.
Definition Full Dress: The most formal and complete ensemble, worn for day or night events, and includes the fullest range of accessories that could be added to the outfit to make the most impressive display.
1820 ca. Brown Silk Pelisse, Or Coat, British. Worn over a light weight dress for warmth. Silk, lined with blue silk satin and cotton, hand-sewn. Front opening with concealed buttons and loops, wide stiffened collar, elaborate piping with thin rolls of fabric, skirt cut A-line shape and hem padded to accentuate shape, fairly high waistline with attached gored skirt and gathered panel at back. Long sleeves with short puffed over-sleeves. Green shawl, parasol, matching bonnet. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. collections.vam.ac.uk.
Definition Redingote Or Pelisse Or Walking Dress Or Coat: French word developed from English words, riding coat. Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. Often left open at the front to show off the dress underneath. Sometimes cut away in front. Originally made with several capes and trimmed with large buttons. French fashion plates call these coats Redingotes and they are designed for women, men and children. English fashion plates call them a Pelisse, a walking dress, Promenade dress, or Carriage dress.
1818 Empire style, or high-waisted white morning dress, English. Puffed capped sleeves, lace shawl like neckline, ornate bodice cording around a scalloped hem, small white hat with blue flowers, and yellow gloves. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s ‘La Belle Assemblee’, London.
Definition Morning or At-Home Dress: Worn at home for reading, painting, sewing or for walking locally or while residing in the country. To be seen by family and close friends.
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 Morning Cap Or Cornette: Muslin or other lightweight material, worn to cover hair during at-home pursuits such as reading, playing music, or sketching, tied under chin and sometimes worn under a bonnet.
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
1800-1805 ca. Pink Silk Bonnet, French. Similar to hats worn in England by Jane Austen and friends. Silk net, silk satin ribbon, and silk flowers. via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A. mfa.org
19th Century Mid-Late Five Desk Seals. L-R Carnelian seal with silver mounts set with colored stones; malachite urn seal: gilt-bronze seal with winged cherub heads: Silver-gilt seal eagle, Silver-gilt seal as eagle’s leg below a blue glass ball. via Sotheby’s Auctions. sothebys.com
In the Bridgerton family, or Jane Austen’s household, and during the Regency Era, sealing wax was not only impressed onto the back of a letter with a seal to protect against tampering, but also to identify the sender of the letter. People, especially aristocrats, kept personal and family seals to be used for many different purposes e.g. A letter to a government official would be sealed with an aristocrat’s crest or title. Personal seals for identification have been since early civilizations. The rubber stamps and embossers we use today serve the same purpose, identifying the sender.
Definition: Wax Seals: Pressed onto a letter or envelope to show that a document is unopened or to verify the sender’s identity. A signet ring or was seal is pressed into a dollop of hot wax to seal a letter or envelope closed.
Do you need more factual and visual information for your historical fiction? History of fashion, music, peerage and customs in 18th and 19th centuries. Non-fiction series full of gorgeous pictures and engraved fashion plates. A visual history of fashion, music, peerage, social manners and customs from late 1700s to late 1800s, or 18th and 19th centuries.
1807 Fashionable French Couple. Man: Blue cutaway coat and yellow breeches. Lady: Lemon and blue dress and bonnet. This is the fashion styles worn by Jane Austen and her family and friends in the early 1800s. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819
