1890-1905 ca. Chatelaine Purse Of Silvered Cast Brass, English. #VictorianEra #EdwardianEra #Chatelaine #Antique books2read.com/SuziLoveChatelaines
1811 August Walking Dress for a Mother and a child, English. Mother wears a typical Regency or Jane Austen style high round robe with full long sleeve trimmed with Van Dyke lace at the throat and cuffs and ornamented around the bottom with a Tuscan border in needlework. Short capuchin cloak of buff shot sarsenet fastened with broaches on shoulders and trimmed with deep Chinese silk fringe. Moorish turban bonnet gathered into a broach in centre of the forehead. Purple ridicule, or bag, with gold snap and tassels. Buff kid half boots, parasol with deep Indian awning. Child wears a short sleeved Spanish vest and trousers in one, which looks like a skeleton suit, a tight coat or jacket buttoned to a pair of high-waisted trousers. An Indian dimity waistcoat with long sleeves and collar trimmed with a narrow border of muslin, high shoes of purple morocco and a college cap of purple velvet with a crimson band and carries a parasol. via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Definition Skeleton Suit: Shirt and trousers made as one connecting piece, often buttoned together, and were one of the earliest fashions designs made especially for children and were worn from the 1790s to the 1820s.
What did the Bridgerton ladies and Jane Austen use to carry her personal items? Ridicule, Reticule, Or Handbag? Call them what you like: purses, bags, handbags, reticules, ridicules, clutches, or pocket replacements. They all did the same job and they changed greatly with the prevailing fashions of time. books2read.com/suziloveReticules
Definition Of A Reticule; Bag or purse, often with a drawstring to pull closed and usually made of cloth or covered cardboard and often decorated with beading or embroidery. A reticule, or purse, or handbag, was usually carried by a woman during the Regency period to carry all their daily necessities. Earlier, women used pockets that tied at the waistline and were hidden in the folds of their skirts. Empire style, or early 1800s, high-waisted dresses made it impossible to either sewn in a pocket or to tie on a pocket, so women began carrying small, decorated bags called Reticules, or ridicules, which generally pulled close at the top with a drawstring. These Reticules, or bags, were the forerunners of our modern day purses.
The term ‘ridicule’ derived from the Latin ‘ridiculum’ and first used in France during the 17th century and meant subjecting something or someone to mockery. As women’s tiny bags were mocked, or ridiculed, for being a useless fashion accessory carried outside when they were first used in the late 1700s, it’s likely this is how the name ‘ridicule’ started. The later term ‘reticule’ derived from the Latin reticulum, meaning ‘netted bag’ and was applied when bags became larger and often made from netting. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, they were also known as indispensables as they carried all the personal items a lady needed upon her person every day. They were easily made by ladies, easy to carry and became an indispensable fashion accessory.
In the early nineteenth century, reticules started to look like future handbags as they were often made from rigid card or molded mâché or card into a variety of shapes. Early bags were circular and with a drawstring but as women wanted their reticules to look individual they could be made with two halves and a hinged metal closure or with concertina sides. Materials varied from silk, cotton and string and shapes were round, hexagonal or lozenge shapes with shell shaped bags becoming very popular during the Regency and Romantic Eras.
1800s magazines were written for well bred women who could read, so they gave plenty of ideas for how ladies could make and embellish reticules for their own use and as pretty gifts. Needlework was highly encouraged as a pastime for a lady so bags were frequently embroidered or decorated with beading. By the 1820s, reticules became more like our modern handbags using soft leather gathered at the top or hard leather with a rigid fastener and metal chain for carrying.
1810 ca. Typical Regency Era Day Dress of Sprigged White Muslin, England. High-waisted, hand sewn, bibbed front bodice fastens at shoulders with self covered buttons, net lace insertions on front bodice, squared neck, long tapered sleeves, gathered at shoulders, ankle length skirt, apron panels tied with cotton tapes at back and lined bodice. Via Museum Of applied Sciences, Australia. collection.maas.museum
Definition Empire Style Dress: High-waisted white gown defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given to the period when Napoleon Bonaparte 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. This sort of high-waisted dress would have been worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries in England and in the television series, Bridgerton.
1808 Blue Grey Redingote, French. High waist, coordinating trim, short puffed sleeves over long straight sleeves, yellow striped bandana in her hair, yellow gloves and yellow walking boots. Jane Austen and her female contemporaries wore coats like these when outdoors because they needed the warmth over the fashionable light muslin dresses that all women wore. Redingotes could be both comfortable and decorative. They often had military elements in support of the thousands of men involved in ongoing wars. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Definition Redingote Or Pelisse Or Walking Dress Or Coat: Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. Often left open at the front to show off the dress underneath. French word developed from English words, riding coat.
Bandeau: Narrow strip or band worn around head to confine hair. Made of either twisted fabric, length of pearls, flowers, jewels or feathers. From the French word for “strip.
1806 Silver and silver-gilt vinaigrette, Birmingham, England. Commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Rectangular with a hinged lid and a suspension loop. Gilded, pierced inner cover depicts HMS ‘Victory’ in relief inscribed ‘VICTORY’, ‘TRAFALGAR OCT 21 1805’. Via National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, U.K.
Vinaigrettes were used from the late 18th century through the 19th Century to revive a person who had fainted, having the vapors, or to mask unsanitary odors. Small containers, often a silver hinged box, held a tiny sponge dipped in an aromatic substance which had been dissolved in vinegar. The sponge was held beneath a grill or perforated cover so, by a flick of the fingers, the container was opened and the restorative substance held directly beneath a person’s nose. Jane Austen and her family and friends would have been very familiar with the use of vinaigrettes because Regency Era ladies were noted for having the vapors or fainting in hot ballrooms or dramatic situations. Ladies in the Romantic and Victorian Eras would have used them when tightly laced corsets became popular and ladies fainted because they were unable to draw in enough oxygen.
Both men and women used vinaigrettes in the late 1700s when people encountered foul aromas on a daily basis, but by the 1820s vinaigrettes were mainly used by women.These tiny containers were carried in a pocket, a reticule or bag, or suspended from the waist by chains as part of a chatelaine. Their sterling silver interiors were gilded to prevent discoloration from the acetic acid. Birmingham produced 90% of England’s silver vinaigrettes. As gold wasn’t affected by vinegar, craftsmen created some elaborate and decorative boxes on the container’s exteriors.
1818 High-waisted Promenade Dress, English. White dress with multiple layers of lace from hem upwards. Narrow striped scarf of bright colors, large brimmed hat decorated with flowers and a pink parasol. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London.
Definition Empire Style Dress: High-waisted white gown defined women’s fashion during the Regency Era. ‘Empire’ is the name given to the period when Napoleon Bonaparte 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.
1812 October Autumnal Carriage Or Morning Costume, English. Loose white jaconet muslin dress, high in the neck, with double frills of deep vandyke lace that fall over the Spencer. Blue satin Spencer ornamented with silver cord and buttons ‘en militaire’ and held at the throat with a cord and tassels, a quartered foundling cap of lace tied under the chin with a full band and decorated with an autumnal flower. Grey kid shoes, lemon gloves and a ridicule, or bag, of purple velvet. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Dress – Morning: Worn either at home, out shopping, or for walking in the park or country. Presentable but not overly accessorized.
Spencer: Short body-hugging jacket worn for warmth &modesty. Said to have originated in accident to Lord Spencer in hunting when coattails torn off.
1811 Evening Dress, French. Red cashmere dress over white under shirt with short puffed sleeves, carrying a white shawl, long white gloves, earrings and white evening shoes. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Though this is a French fashion plate, the outfit is typical of the dresses worn by Jane Austen and her contemporaries. An Empire style, or high-waisted, dress with a white underdress and for warmth there is an extra layer with the shawl.
Definition Cashmere: Soft, fine wool, historically used for costly dress fabric, usually in twill weave. Originally made of yarn handspun from the wool of Cashmere goats but later from other soft wools. Used for dresses, infants’ coats.
1816 January Blue Carriage Dress, English. High neck but no collar, front is fitted but back has slight fullness and very short bodice. Puffed roll to decorate the hem, trimmed in bias cut blue satin, long sleeves finished at wrists with satin, gloves of white kid and ‘sandals’ or shoes of blue kid leather. Head-dress à la mode de Paris is an unusual cap of white lace and decorated with two rolls of ribbon. “We are indebted to the tasteful fancy of Mrs. Bean, of Albemarle Street, for both our dresses this month.” Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’.
Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have worn this style of outdoor, or carriage ensemble with a coat over a dress. These outdoor dresses were labelled a variety of names. In England, this might also have been called a Walking Or Promenade dress, or Pelisse. In Europe, it would be called a Redingote.
Definition: Pelisse, Walking Dress, Carriage dress, Promenade Dress, Redingote. Long, fitted coat sometimes cut away in front to show off the dress underneath. Originally made for men with several capes and trimmed with large buttons, they were adapted to add an additional, and warmer, layer to the typical white muslin dresses worn in the early 1800s. Those light weight dresses were good in summer but not suited to harsh winters. Over the carriage dress, a shawl could be added as well as a muff to give a warm and comfortable outfit for traveling by carriage.
