Easy to read overview of what an older lady did, wore, and how she lived in Jane Austen and Bridgerton’s time. Information for history buffs and pictures for readers and writers of historical fiction. Older Lady’s Day Regency Life Series Book 5 by Suzi Love books2read.com/suziloveOLD
Spencers Or Regency Jackets By Suzi Love. History Notes Book 4. What was fashionable for outer wear in past centuries? Call them what you like: Spencers, short jackets, or Regency jackets were very popular. Take a look at the jackets being worn by women in the early 1800s or the times of Jane Austen. books2read.com/suziloveSpencers
1819 Gardens of the Tuileries Near the Rue de Rivoli, Paris, France. Woman in a red walking dress, or Redingote, or Pelisse, modeled after British riding dresses and worn with a high white bonnet with feathers, or plumes. The skirt remains fairly narrow and the waist is fairly low, indicating the transition into 1820 styles. In the background are women walking with children. From Illustrations by François Courboin from Octave Uzanne’s Les Modes de Paris.
Variations du goût et de l’esthétique de la femme, 1797-1897, L. Henry May, Paris, 1898, or from the English translation of the same work: Fashion in Paris : the various phases of feminine taste and aesthetics from 1797 to 1897, William Heinemann, London, 1898.
1815-1818 ca. Cocoa Silk Figured Dress with Spencer. High-waisted, Empire style, dress with long sleeved Spencer, decorated shoulders, bodice and hem. The Bridgertons, Jane Austen, and their family and friends would have worn this style of dress and Spencer. via Whitaker Auction whitakerauction.smugmug.com Spencers were needed to cover the flimsy dresses made of lightweight fabrics of the Regency years, to provide warmth and some protection from windy conditions when the transparency of gowns might cause modesty issues. Jane Austen and her contemporaries often walked to places and so would have needed the warmth of a Spencer over her dress in the cold British winters.
Definition Spencer: Short jacket said to have originated from an accident to Lord Spencer’s coat when hunting and tails were torn off.
1809 February Walking or Carriage Dress, English. Polanese coat, Saragossa mantle of spring green Virgnia cloth, trimmed round the edges and up the front of the coat with black velvet bindings, and edgings of gold lace. High puckered collar, confined round the throat with a gold cord and acorn tassels. Belt of black velvet, and rich gold clasp. Military cap formed of the same material, and trimmed also with black velvet and gold. Short white lace veil falling from the edge of the cap just below the chin. Half-boots of green kid or cloth, calashed and bound with black, and laced with gold cord. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London.
1817 June Blue Riding Costume, English. Loose riding habit with a train on the skirt, high white neck frill on the shirt underneath, and rows of decoration on the shoulders and cuffs of the habit jacket, an extra high hat with multiple plumes, or, feathers and gloves. Fashion Plate via The Lady’s Magazine Or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex.
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.
1817 June Bridgerton and Jane Austen Style Riding Habit and Plumed Hat, English. #Bridgerton #RegencyFashion #JaneAusten #Fashion https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionWomen1815-1819 Share on X
1815 White Dress and Reticule, French. White dress, green bonnet with pink trim to match the adorable pink reticule and green gloves. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Jane Austen and her contemporaries would have worn this style of outdoor walking outfit and flowered hat.
Definition 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.
1818 December Mourning Walking Dress. Round dress of black bombazine, body tight to the shape and up to the throat but without a collar, long sleeves, with white crape weepers, skirt is finished at the bottom with a broad black crape flounce, disposed in large plaits. Over this is a very narrow flounce, which is also plaited to correspond; a little above this is a third flounce, which is quilled in the middle to correspond, and the whole is surmounted by a broad band of bias crape. The spencer worn with this dress is composed of black clothing; it is cut without a seam, and ornamented with a fullness of black crape, disposed in large plaits at the bottom of the waist: a high standing collar rounded in front, made to stand out from the neck, and edged with a light trimming of black crape: long loose sleeves, finished at the hands with black crape trimming, and surmounted by epaulettes draperied with black cord and ornamented with small tassels. Head-dress, a bonnet of black crape of a moderate size; the edge of the brim is finished with a row of large hollow plaits; the crown is trimmed to correspond. A white crape frill stands up round the throat. Gloves and shoes black shamois leather. Fashion Plate via Rudolph Ackermann’s ‘The Repository of Arts’, London, U.K.
1807 Gentleman’s Everyday Outfit, French. Brown coat, high collared shirt, and vest simply tied, wit a cravat and a black hat and a cane. Brutus style hair cut of curled hair. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819
French fashions and Georgian and Regency Era fashions from Great Britain were copied around the world. This is what men wore in the times of Jane Austen for city and country life.
19th Century Rock-Crystal Desk-Seal, Russian. Fluted handle with domed top carved with oak leaves, matrix engraved with Imperial double-headed eagle within collar of Order of St Andrew, on ermine mantle and surmounted by the Imperial crown. via Christie’s Auction Rooms. christies.com. The type of seals that would have been on desks in Jane Austen’s times for sealing and identifying letters.
