Cartoons For Riders At The Hunt. Typical comical scenes from The Bridgertons and Jane Austen’s Daily Lives. From: 1860 Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour by Robert Smith Surtees. via Google Books (PD-100)
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.
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)
1802 February, 15th. ‘Advantages of Wearing Muslin Dresses.’ during the Regency Era, or Jane Austen’s times. By James Gillray. Fat lady sitting with man and woman at tea table reacts in horror when hot poker from fire falls on her dress. Man sits helplessly while second woman upsets the table. Butler drops plate of muffins and cat scampers away from fire. Painting of Mt. Vesuvius hangs over fireplace. Via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org (PD-ART)
1818 September 18th Le Palais Royal de Paris, Or ‘A Peep at the French Monstrosities’.
By George Cruikshank. Two English tourists, both dressed as dandies, walk arm-in-arm under the arcade of the Palais Royal, interested in the promenading courtesans. Two Frenchmen make more direct overtures to two women. Their dress is rather similar to that of the Englishmen, but the latter wear bell-shaped top-hats, while the Frenchmen have flower-pot shaped hats. An officer wearing a large cocked hat addresses a girl, and a man, said by Reid to be Irish, jovially accosts another. Some of the women are in evening-dress, others in street costume. Behind are iron railings between the supports of the roof; on one of these is the inscription ‘Caveau des Sauvages’. Published by: George Humphrey. via British Museum.
1804 September Exhibition of Water Coloured Drawings, Old Bond Street, London, U.K. Designed and etched by Thomas Rowlandson. Via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org (PD-ART)
1818 May ‘Beau’s of 1818’ By George Cruikshank. Two Dandies shake hands while third watches. All wearing bell-shaped top-hats, extra high collars, short waists, long spurs and yellow gloves. One with moustache wears wide and short white trousers, one wears top-boots and riding-breeches and has monocle in his eye and third has very full trousers gathered above ankle. These are the sort of outfits that the Bridgerton men and Jane Austen’s male contemporaries would have worn. Hand colored etching. Via British Museum, London, UK. britishmuseum.org (PD-Art)
1819 January ‘Going to White’s’. By Richard Dighton. Lord Alvanley walks on the pavement going to White’s Club for gentlemen in London wearing a top-hat, double-breasted coat, strapped trousers, and the high collar of a dandy. Via British Museum, London, UK. britishmuseum.org (PD-Art)
White’s was an exclusive Gentlemen’s Club on St. James Street, London, U.K where well-dressed men, or Dandies, gathered at a special table in front of the large bow window looking out at the street. This became known as a seat of privilege and was used by London’s most famous Dandy, Beau Brummell. Other well-known dandies were William Arden, Joshua Allen, Thomas Raikes and Ball Hughes. Cartoonists loved to ridicule these high-in-the-instep gentlemen who wore the most fashionable clothes and set the fashion trends for the Regency years, and the years when Jane Austen was writing her famous novels.
1812 Woman wearing an extraordinary hat, flounced dress and a cashmere shawl. 1801-1818 Le Bon Genre Fashion Series Plate 50. Published by: Pierre La Mésangère. Via British Museum, London, UK. britishmuseum.org (PD-Art)
1800 Un salon, or public Room, at Frascati, Paris. This plate depicts a group of people at Frascati’s. The man in the foreground is plainly dressed in dark colors while pastels are favored by the women. From: Illustrations by Francois Courboin from Octave Uzanne’s Les Modes de Paris. (PD-Art) Although this is in Paris, there were similar places in England where Jane Austen and her contemporaries would meet to eat, drink and play games.
Frascati’s was a cafe in Paris, described by the text as “‘A stream of human beauty’, as the expression of the period has it, was still to be seen flowing through the galleries of Greek and Roman antiquities, spreading through the porticos, into the saloons, and smaller chambers, pouring and winding along the garden alleys, and disappearing at last into the kiosks where it was lost to sight. The great mirror at the end of the garden reflected, as in a wonderful prismatic vision, the surging crowd of veiled or turbaned heads of ever-changing couples, each whispering and fondly clasped. While farther off seated at tables in the open air, thirsty nymphs called for creams and tutti frutti and all the various iced compounds then so eagerly consumed.”
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.