1818 Redingote, Or Overcoat, French. Blue tailcoat, red waistcoat, straight blue trousers, black boots, knotted kerchief and black top hat. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
1807 Two Ladies and a Gentleman, English. Lady in lavender walking dress with fur trim, reticule or bag, fitted bonnet with tassel and yellow gloves. Lady in white evening dress with salmon tunic caught up at one side and evening turban. Man in long blue overcoat with contrasting collar, high white cravat, yellow gloves, tall boots, and top hat. Typical of the sort of outfits ladies and gentlemen in Jane Austen’s times would have worn while out walking, visiting friends or for an evening event, like a dinner party. A long coat, or Redingote or Pelisse for warmth when outdoors, and all matched with the essentials, day or night, of hats and gloves. via Le Beau Monde, or Literary and Fashionable Magazine, London, U.K.
1818 November ‘Fashionables Of 1818’ By George Cruikshank.Couple walk arm-in-arm with the man wearing Dandy costume of bell-shaped top-hat, trousers strapped under high-heeled boots without spurs and jauntily carried cane. Much shorter lady wears enormously high bonnet, striped over-dress over frilled white muslin, skirt above ankles, and carries a large ermine muff. Via British Museum, London, UK. britishmuseum.org (PD-Art)
These are the sort of outfits a couple would wear in Jane Austen’s times although these are exaggerated in caricatures to poke fun at the extremes of Regency fashion when women’s hats were so large and high that a lady was dwarfed by her devotion to fashion and a gentleman’s collar and neckcloth were so high he couldn’t turn his head to speak to the lady.
Top Hat Styles Chart during the 1800s, from the Regency Era through to the Victorian years. Most popular style was cone shaped and tall in height. Originally made of beaver and very short but later from silk and taller. Tall crown, widens at top, narrow brim turns up slightly at sides. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819
1818 Blue Spencer Of Levantine, French. White cotton print dress with ruffled hem, high plumed bonnet and a neck scarf.
Definition Levantine: Stout silk cloth in twill weave. First made in the Levant, a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia.
Definition Spencer: Short jacket, cropped at the waist, worn over a dress, or gown. These close-fitting, tight sleeved, waist length jackets were modeled on a gentleman’s riding coat, but without tails. Delicate and regency dresses provided so little protection from the cold, so over garments were essential for warmth, modesty and good health.
1800-1820 ca. Man’s Everyday Oatmeal Colored Wool Suit With Breeches. Can you picture Jane Austen’s male relatives and friends wearing this? Oatmeal colored double breasted cutaway style coat with velvet collar, steel buttons, rear flap pockets, back vent flanked by stitched down pleats having top and bottom button detail, glazed linen lining. Fall front tan breeches having three button front, small side buttons, back lacing waistband with pocket, four buttons above buttoned cuff, front lined in green linen. via Whitaker Auction whitakerauction.smugmug.com
1800-1815 ca. Fan of Bone and Silk, French. Jane Austen and her family and friends would have carried this style of fan when attending assemblies, musical evenings and balls. Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org
1813 The Theatre. From Poetical Sketches of Scarborough By Thomas Rowlandson. Aquatint was added by John Bluck and Joseph Stadler. The sketches by Green were made as souvenirs and not intended for publication. Via Suzi Love suzilove.com
& Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org (PD-ART)
1800s French Palais Royal Sewing Box and Twelve Mother of Pearl Enamel Tools. This is the style of sewing box Jane Austen and her family would have used in the early 1800s, or Regency years. via via suzilove.com and 1st Dibs Auctions 1stdibs.com
Definition: Palais Royal: Name of an area around the Royal Palace in Paris, France, that specialized in making small and exquisite works of art during the 18th and 19th centuries. Palais Royal sewing tools were elaborate and usually feature mother-of-pearl, often intricately carved or engraved. During the 19th century, workboxes were often works of art with engravings, carvings, mother-of-pearl, and elaborate gilt metal mounts. Most popular were scissors with steel blades and gilt mounts, thimbles and needle cases which were often shaped like animals or other natural forms. Workmanship was exceptional and the tools almost too fragile to use.
1816 June Bridal Dress, English A frock of striped French gauze over a white satin slip: the bottom of the frock is superbly trimmed with a deep flounce of Brussels lace, which is surmounted by a single tuck of byas white satin and a wreath of roses; above the wreath are two tucks of byas white satin. We refer our readers to our print for the form of the body and sleeve: it is singularly novel and tasteful, but we are forbidden either to describe it, or to mention the materials of which it is composed. The hair is dressed low at the side, and parted so as to entirely display the forehead: it is ornamented with an elegant aigrette of pearls in front, and a spring of French roses placed nearly at the back of the head. Necklace, ear-rings, and bracelets of pearl. White kid gloves, and white satin slippers. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
