1809 October A fine cambric or Indian muslin high-gown, with long sleeves and falling collar, ornamented at the feet and around the neck with appliquéd lace or needle work. Deep amber broach or gold filigree buckle, confining the dress at the throat and waist, with bracelets to match. Gold chain and opera glass. The woodland hat of fine plaited straw or chip, with ostrich feather falling on one side. A French cloak of bright purple sarsnet or velvet, lined with amber or rose, and trimmed entirely round with black lace and beading. Parasol, with deep amber awning. Shoes and gloves of buff kid. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
1808 April Trio of Two Men and a Woman in Full and Half Dress in the Directoire and Empire period, or the Regency Era, or the times of Jane Austen. Two varieties of men’s pants, one knee breeches and stockings and one long pants worn inside high boots. One wearing a Bicorn hat and the other holding a top hat and both with yellow gloves. Woman wearing a pink pelisse, or coat, over a white walking gown with a train and holding a parasol. via Le Beau Monde, or Literary and Fashionable Magazine, London, U.K.
1818 Deep Green Redingote, French. Merino wool coat or walking dress. High white neck frill, black velvet dress decoration and velvet bonnet shaped like a shell, green shoes and white gloves. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. The type of outfit young Regency Era ladies, such as Jane Austen and her family and the Bridgerton women would have worn if they were out shopping on Bond Street, walking in a park, or taking a carriage ride through Hyde Park.
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 Originally made with several capes and trimmed with large buttons.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.
1808 Walk in the Tuileries Gardens. A dandy of the Year VIII. According to Baudelaire, a dandy was, “no profession other than elegance…no other status but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons….The dandy must aspire to be sublime without interruption; he must live and sleep before a mirror.” Dandies tried to imitate the aristocracy in manner and appearance. This man wears short breeches, usually worn by the aristocracy, that were out of fashion and had been replaced by the ‘more-democratic’ ankle-length pants. His outfit and manners are a throwback to a pre-Revolutionary era. llustrations by François Courboin from Octave Uzanne’s Les Modes de Paris. Fashion in Paris : the various phases of feminine taste and aesthetics from 1797 to 1897, William Heinemann, London, 1898. (PD-Art) via Brown University Library.
1816 August Back view of a lady in Evening Dress, English. White, high-waisted, dress with short bodice, long sleeves, frilled hem plus decoration above the frill, high plumed headdress, and reading music sheets. “A gown of white soft satin, cut low all round the back and bosom.The skirt gored, and a good deal of fullness thrown behind. The body, which is disposed in small plaits, displays the shape, as our readers perceive by print, to very great advantage; it is trimmed round bosom with a wreath of small white net roses, with a little tuft of pearl in the heart of each. Long loose sleeve, composed of white lace, and finished a la Parisienne with a rich double frill at the wrists.
The skirt is ornamented, in an exquisitely tasteful style, with a broad flounce of rich blond, surmounted by a wreath of roses and deep scallops of white net, the points of which are finished by bows of white satin ribbon. The effect of this trimming is uncommonly beautiful. Hair, cropped and curled full in the back of the neck, and dressed light, and much parted on the forehead: it is ornamented With a superb white ostrich-plume, at the base of which is an aigrette of diamonds. Neck-lace, ear. rings, and bracelets also of diamond. White satin slippers, and white kid gloves. We have to thank the condescension of a lady of much celebrity in the fashionable world, to whom we are indebted for a sight of the very elegant and tasteful dress from which our present print is designed.” Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
1818 November 6th A Dandy Cock in stays or- A new thing for the ladies.By Isaac Robert Cruikshank A dandy, much burlesqued, stands full-face, his head, which has a bird-like profile, turned to the left; his hair is brushed up at the back behind his hat to resemble the tail-feathers of a cock. He wears puffed-out breeches and top-boots with enormous spurs, and holds an umbrella. Via British Museum, London, UK. britishmuseum.org (PD-Art)
Want To Know More About Georgian Era Men’s Fashions? Try History Notes Book 2 By Suzi Love. Fashion Men 1700s Late. books2read.com/suziloveFashMen1700 What was fashionable for men in the late 1700s? Extravagant colors and fabrics and outrageous styles. Take a look at their suits, hats, accessories and bedroom fashions.
What was fashionable for men in the late 1700s? Extravagant colors and fabrics and outrageous styles. Take a look at their suits, hats, accessories and bedroom fashions. Strictly speaking, the Georgian Era might include all the years that a ‘King George’ ruled in England, but for the purposes of this book the ‘Georgian Era’ is primarily the late 1700s when mad King George III ruled. His son became Prince Regent in the early 1800s, therefore creating the years known as the Regency, and became George IV on the death of his father.
The Georgian years officially ended with the death of King George IV in 1830.
Do you need more factual and visual information for your historical fiction? Try History Notes Books 1-28. Non-fiction Series: Fashion, corsets, Regency Era, music and social manners in the 18th and 19th centuries e.g.
1819 White Percale Dress, French. Deep hem of bubbly muslin, matching Percale Spencer or jacket, pink parasol and flowered straw hat. Spencer has short puffed sleeves over long straight sleeves and military style trimmings. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Even though this a French fashion plate, this is typical of the outdoor outfit worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries when going outside. An Empire style, or high-waisted white cotton dress worn under a Spencer, or jacket, for warmth and with a parasol to protect fair complexions from the sun.
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.
Definition Percale or Perkale: From the Persian word pargalah. Fine cotton fabric, or cambric muslin of good quality, originally from India, generally bleached, printed and finished without gloss. Contains more dressing than ordinary muslin, but without the glossy finish of cambric and is printed in fancy patterns on white and colored grounds. In May 1816, Percale was commented on in Rudolph Ackermann’ Repository Of Arts, “Perkale, as they call cambric muslin, is now almost the only thing worn in the morning costume: you must not, however, fancy that this proceeds from a wish to encourage English manufacture, but partly from a love for novelty, and partly because it is less expensive than cambric, and equally fashionable.”
1811 January Walking Dress, or Pelisse, English. Jane Austen and her contemporaries wore long coats like these to keep warm when out and about, visiting, shopping etc. Their thin muslin dresses worn in the early 1800s were little protection against European winters.
Round high morning robe of cambric with deep full-trimmed collar. Swedish coat of velvet, trimmed with swansdown or blue fox fur. Spanish pelerine of the same, fastened in front of the throat with a mother-of-pearl brooch, clasps to correspond for the bottom of the waist. Traveller’s, or slouch, hat of velvet turned up with shell ornament, half-boots of grey cloth, laced and bound with black velvet. Chinese ridicule, or reticule, or bag, of grey satin, embellished with black medallions and tassels. Gold chain and eye-glass, or quizzing glass.. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository’ of Arts.
Definition Redingote Or Coat Or Pelisse Or Walking Dress: Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. French word developed from English words, riding coat. French fashion plates call these coats a Redingote and English plates call them a Pelisse, Or Walking Dress, or Carriage Costume. For more of these, try my book on Pelisses, History Notes Book 5 . books2read.com/suzilovePelisse
Definition Swansdown: Fine down of a swan, used for trimmings on clothing and for making powder puffs.
Definition Velvet or Velour: Silk with short, dense and smooth pile produced by pile warp raised in loops above ground weave through introduction of rods during the weaving.
Definition Ridicule, Reticule, Indispensable, or Handbag: From the late 1700s, pockets could no longer be sewn into gowns nor could separate pockets be tied around their waists and accessed by slits in the gown and petticoats, as skirts fell from just under the bust and were full and flowing. Instead, women began carrying small bags, known at first as ridicules and later as reticules, to keep necessary items on their person e.g. handkerchiefs, coins, vinaigrettes, calling cards, glasses etc. For more on reticules, try my History Notes book 3 http://books2read.com/suziloveReticules
