1814 Statistics On Classes, Properties and Population In Great Britain. From: 1814 A Treatise On Wealth and Power. By Patrick Colquhoun. These are the statistics for England in Jane Austen’s time, or the early 1800s, or Regency Era.
What did Jane Austen and friends wear? Early 1800s fashions were elegant and pretty with high waists and fabrics that were almost transparent. These Empire style gowns, named after Napoleon’s first Empress, became popular throughout Europe, and were then copied around the world. Colorful outwear was added to make an ensemble more attractive and warmer. History Notes Book 26 Fashion Women 1805-1809.
https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1805-1809
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.
1823 Couple In Evening Costumes, French. Short length dancing dress of white gauze, short sleeves, pink ribbon trim, flowers, parure, or jewelry set, dancing shoes and hair in a bandeau. Man in half dress of black tailcoat, yellow vest, short length white trousers, high white
cravat, blue fob, and curled hair style. via Modes Francaises L’Indiscreet, France.
1823 Couple In Evening Costumes, French. #RegencyFashion #RomanticEra #HistoricalFashion https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819 Share on X
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.
1804 Men's Fashions In The Time Of Jane Austen. #Regency #Fashion #JaneAusten Share on X
Craftsmen created containers of precious metals, leather, and silks and decorated them with jewels and engraving. Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have used writing boxes, linen boxes when travelling, boxes to hold their food and drink supplies while traveling by carriage, and decorative boxes to keep letters, ribbons, gloves, hairpins etc. Boxes, Cases, and Necessaires By Suzi Love, History Notes Book 11. books2read.com/suziloveBoxesCases.
1800 White Walking Dress, English. Worn with a full length bronze wrap and matching turban. Engraved Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository’ of Arts.
The Empire dress which evolved in the late 1790s began as a chemise shift gathered under the breasts and at the neck. Named after the First Empire in France, by 1800 Empire dresses had a very low décolleté, or neckline and a short narrow backed bodice attached to a separate skirt. 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 simple cotton high-waisted dress was worn most days and accessorized according to the importance of the occasion.
1800 ca. Gentleman’s White Dimity Waistcoat, England. This vest is typical of the move away from the 18th Century’s formal styles and fussy fabrics and matched the shift of women’s fashions towards lighter and airier styles and fabrics. via Whitaker Auction whitakerauction.smugmug.com Typical of a gentleman’s waistcoat, or vest, worn during the early 1800s, or Regency Era, or Jane Austen’s times.
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.
1804 Men's Fashions In The Time Of Jane Austen. #Regency #Fashion #JaneAusten Share on X1818 January Fancy Mourning Dishabille. A lady reading a pink book while wearing Dishabille, or morning dress, though as this labeled ‘Fancy’, it was most likely more formal than any normal At-Home morning dress. Dress of crepe with a lavishly decorated hem, worn over a white cambric Spencer, ornamented with fine muslin, embroidered at the edge with black, finished at neck with a triple ruff of muslin, tied in front with black love. Black sarsnet French apron, edged round with a newly invented trimming of black love. Cornette, or hat, of fine muslin, crowned with a garland of black flowers. Black chamois slippers. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London. The magazine’s General Observations on Fashion and Dress tries to explain why the outfit is labeled ‘Fancy’, ‘However little versatility can possibly be attached to the sable garment of sorrow, yet the Print we have presented to our readers representing the home costume of a lady of high fashion, will prove to them how busy Fancy is in her endeavors to throw a changeful hue over the tinct of solid black.’
I can picture Jane Austen and her female friends and family wearing this sort of dress if they were in half-mourning yet wanted to look fashionable. .
1818 January Lady Reading Book In Fancy Mourning Dishabille Of Blue Dress. #RegencyEra #HistoricalFashion #Mourning. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1815-1819 Share on X
1818 May Morning and Evening Fashionable Dresses, English. Pale blue dress, heavily decorated with lace, matching hat and with hand held glasses. Lavender dress with low cut bodice, tiny sleeves, lace decoration on the hem, white paisley shawl, long white gloves and large bonnet. Fashion Plate via Lady’s Magazine.
Definition: Morning Walking Dress: Worn out shopping, walking in a city park or the country estate. Presentable and warm, more fashionable than relaxed Morning Dress but not heavily accessorized apart from a shawl that was usually added for warmth.
Definition Evening Dress: There were minute distinctions between ball, dinner, evening and opera gowns, which meant different quality of fabrics and designs. A Ball Gown differed from an evening dress as expensive silk fabrics were usually worn, light or heavy, decorated with lace, embroidery or beading, with low-cut bodice, short or no sleeves, and full skirts. In the early 1800s, white cotton dresses were considered suitable for many evening events, but not for balls. And definitely not for an evening event in a palace. White dresses with white embroidery for evening were considered fashionable and exclusive as only the wealthy could afford them.
1816 December. Promenade Dress, or Pelisse, English, also called a Redingote in France. High cambric muslin dress trimmed at the bottom with a single flounce of work, shaped without any fulness to fit the body, plain long sleeve finished by a triple fall of narrow lace. Over this is the Angouleme pelisse of crimson velvet, lined with white Sarsnet, and trimmed with a single Welt of crimson satin, a shade lighter than the pelisse. Shaped the to the body and without much fullness, confined at the short waist with narrow velvet band, edged to match. Small stand-up collar, supports a rich lace ruff, which is worn open in front of the throat. Sleeve has little fullness and is confined at the wrist by three narrow bands of puckered satin. Bonnet of white satin a la Royale with a large bunch of flowers and tied under the chin with satin ribbon and finished in front with a full quilling of tulle. Black silk ridicule, exquisitely worked in imitation of the ends of an India shawl and trimmed with black silk fringe. White kid gloves and black walking shoes. Fashion plate, hand-colored engraving on paper. Published in Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’, London.
Promenade Dress, Pelisse, Redingote, Or Walking Dress. Jane Austen and her contemporaries wore long coats like these to keep warm when out and about, visiting, shopping etc. The thin muslin dresses worn in the early 1800s were little protection against European winters.
1808 Richard Trevithick’s Steam Circus, Bloomsbury, London, U.K. Site where Trevithick ran his locomotive ‘Catch Me Who Can’. Trevithick wanted to prove that traveling by train was faster than on horseback. Locomotive ran at top speed of 19 km per hour and people paid a shilling to sit in an attached car and be pulled around. Via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org (PD-ART) This was the start of the railway expansions across England in Jane Austen’s time.
