1815-1825 ca. Pink Leather Slippers. Probably French but worn in America. via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. mfa.org. In Jane Austen’s years, fragile slippers were worn for balls and evening events but for walking sturdier shoes were needed, In the early 1800s, slippers were made of fabric such as satin or from leather, were flat or had a very small heel, slightly rounded toes and were laced up on the top. They were usually not made in right or left but instead one shoe shape and in multiples so that when one slipper wore out, another was on hand to replace it.
1809 June Evening Full Dress, English. Lemon dress with white underskirt, short sleeves, braid decorated bodice, zig-zag hem, long white gloves, plumed headdress, full Parure of necklace, bracelet and earrings, evening slippers and a fan. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London.
Definition Full Evening Dress – Ball, dinner, evening and opera gowns but with every possible accessory added to make the most impressive display possible, such as adding a Grand Parure, or full jewelry set and including headpieces as with the feathered headdress above.
1810-1815 ca. Salmon Taffeta dress with ruched fabric at shoulders gathers at wrists and on bodice. The type of dress worn across Europe in the early 1800s. This sort of high-waisted dress would have been worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries in England. via Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Amsterdam.
The Empire waist gown defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given in France to the period when Napoleon 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. Jean-Jaques Rousseau advocated copying peasants and returning to a simpler life and more natural fashions. Unrestricting clothing was part of the new Democracy in France and these simpler and flowing fashions were adopted all over Europe, including Britain and despite the continual wars being fought against France during the early 1800s. Not even war stopped fashions from being copied everywhere.
1807 February 15th ‘Miseries of Travelling’ in Jane Austen’s times. The Overloaded Coach Series By Thomas Rowlandson. Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London (active 1794–1829). Hand colored etching.
1790-1810 ca. Jane Austen Style White Linen Shift Or Chemise, American. #RegencyEra #JaneAusten #underclothing https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1801-1804
1800s Early Tattersall’s Horse Auctions, London, U.K.. Top sporting venue for Regency Life in London. ‘A mixture of persons of nearly all ranks’. By Pierce Egan. Via Wikimedia Commons (PD-ART)
In Jane Austen’s and Bridgerton times, or the Regency Era, horse riding was a vital mode of transport and Tattersall’s was the best place to buy and sell horses. Tattersall’s was established in 1773 near Hyde Park Corner for the sale by auction of horses, carriages, hounds and harnesses. Sales during the winter months were every Monday and Thursday, and on Mondays only during the spring and summer. On the mornings when there was no sale, Tattersall’s was a meeting place for fashionable sporting gentlemen.
Pierce Egan’s Description of Tattersall’s
A masquerade could scarcely exhibit more motley groups than the attendants of this place of fashionable resort. There were Peers, Baronets, Members of Parliament, Turf gentlemen and Turf-servants, Jockies, Grooms, Horse-dealers, Gamblers, &c. There you might see the oldest and some of the best blood in England, disguised like coachmen.
From: 1820 Sporting Anecdotes by Pierce Egan via Google Books (PD-150)
Lover of Jane Austen and the Regency Era fashions? History Notes Book 25. #JaneAusten #RegencyFashion #HistoricalFashion books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1801-1804
1826 Cartoon: A squeeze at Carlton Palace in Bridgerton and Jane Austen times. From Regency Social Life. #JaneAusten #Bridgerton #Cartoon #England https://books2read.com/suziloveYGD
1816 August. Morning Dress in Bridgerton or Jane Austen style, English. White high-waisted dress worn with a blue striped spencer, blue boots, and a white hat white blue trim. Fashion Plate via Lady’s Magazine.
Description Spencer: Short jackets worn for warmth over the high-waisted Empire style gowns that were popular after the French Revolution, where there was a shift away from opulence and decadence to simpler fashion. This jacket with very short bodice and long sleeves was known as a Spencer and was named after the male coat made famous by the Earl Spencer and said to have originated in accident to Lord Spencer in hunting when coat tails torn off and a cropped jacket was invented. The dresses in the early 1800s therefore became looser, lighter, and flowing and women became cold due to their very low cut and short bodices. Short fitted jackets that went easily over the dresses and provided extra modesty and some warmth. As Europe and many other parts of the world were deep in wars in the late 1700s and early 1800s, men in uniform were found everywhere. In support of these military men, fashions leaned towards military style shoulder paddings, shoulder embellishments, loops, buttons, and braids.
I love these snippets from Captain Gronow’s Recollections 1864. Even though they were written after the Regency, they give us fun bits of information about Almack’s Assembly Rooms, the Prince Regent or later King George IV.
“Good society at the period to which I refer was, to use a familiar expression, wonderfully “select.” At the present time one can hardly conceive the importance which was attached to getting admission to Almack’s, the seventh heaven of the fashionable world. Of the three hundred officers of the Foot Guards, not more than half a dozen were honoured with vouchers of admission to this exclusive temple of the beau monde; the gates of which were guarded by lady patronesses, whose smiles or frowns consigned men and women to happiness or despair. These lady patronesses were the Ladies Castlereagh, Jersey, Cowper, and Sefton, Mrs Drummond Burrell, now Lady Willoughby, the Princess Esterhazy, and the Countess Lieven.
Almack’s: Exclusive temple of the beau monde. The gates of which were guarded by the lady patronesses,The Ladies Castlereagh, Jersey, Cowper, Sefton, Willoughby, Princess Esterhazy, and Countess Lieven.
From Captain Gronow’s Recollections 1864.
The most popular amongst these grandes dames was unquestionably Lady Cowper, now Lady Palmerston. Lady Jersey’s bearing, on the contrary, was that of a theatrical tragedy queen; and whilst attempting the sublime, she frequently made herself simply ridiculous, being inconceivably rude, and in her manner often ill-bred. Lady Sefton was kind and amiable, Madame de Lieven haughty and exclusive, Princess Esterhazy was a hon enfant, Lady Castlereagh and Mrs Burrell de tres grandes dames.
Many diplomatic arts, much finesse, and a host of intrigues, were set in motion to get an invitation to Almack’s. Very often persons whose rank and fortunes entitled them to the entree anywhere, were excluded by the cliqueism of the lady patronesses; for the female government of Almack’s was a pure despotism, and subject to all the caprices of despotic rule: it is needless to add that, like every other despotism, it was not innocent of abuses.
Almack’s
The fair ladies who ruled supreme over this little dancing and gossiping world, issued a solemn proclamation that no gentleman should appear at the assemblies without being dressed in knee-breeches, white cravat, and chapeau bras.
From Captain Gronow’s Recollections 1864.
1815 The First Quadrille at Almack’s Assembly Rooms, London. Left to Right: Marquis of Worcester, Lady Jersey, Clanronald MacDonald and Lady Worcester. “It was not until 1815 that Lady Jersey introduced from Paris the favourite quadrille, which has so long remained popular. I recollect the persons who formed the very first quadrille that was ever danced at Almack’s: they were Lady Jersey, Lady Harriett Butler, Lady Susan Ryde, and Miss Montgomery; the men being the Count St Aldegonde, Mr Montgomery, Mr Montague, and Charles Standish.” From The Reminiscences of Captain Gronow 1810-1860. 1811-1820 Snippets of Regency Life By Captain Gronow. #RegencyEra #Almack's #PrinceRegent https://books2read.com/suziloveROver Share on XRL_1_D2D_Regency Overview RetailerLinks
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