1817 September Glengary Riding Habit, English, as would have been worn during Bridgerton and Jane Austen’s times. Pale blue cloth, richly ornamented with frogs and braiding, front braided on each side and fastens under the body of the habit, which slopes down on each side to define the figure. Epaulettes and jacket are braided to correspond with the front as is the bottom of the sleeve which is braided nearly half-way up the arm. Habit shirt is of cambric with a high standing collar and trimmed with lace. Cravat of soft muslin is richly worked at ends, tied in a bow, narrow lace ruffles at the wrists. Headdress is a Glengary cap of blue satin, trimmed with plaited ribbon of various shades of blue and a plume of feathers. Blue kid gloves are worn and half-boots. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Male tailors made most women’s riding habits during the Regency years and they were constructed similarly to men’s riding outfits. Generally in two pieces, a jacket and a skirt, and with a shirt with a frilled collar or front opening underneath. The trains of a habit could be caught up for walking, usually with a button and loop, and unhooked and let down so that the skirt flowed over the woman’s legs when she rode side saddle. Due to the numerous wars during the early 1800s, it was seen as patriotic for women to add military style touches to outfits in support of military men. The shoulder and cuff trims resemble the epaulettes and coat trims of a military uniform.
