1818 Redingote, Or Overcoat, French. Blue tailcoat, red waistcoat, straight blue trousers, black boots, knotted kerchief and black top hat. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
1807 Two Ladies and a Gentleman, English. Lady in lavender walking dress with fur trim, reticule or bag, fitted bonnet with tassel and yellow gloves. Lady in white evening dress with salmon tunic caught up at one side and evening turban. Man in long blue overcoat with contrasting collar, high white cravat, yellow gloves, tall boots, and top hat. Typical of the sort of outfits ladies and gentlemen in Jane Austen’s times would have worn while out walking, visiting friends or for an evening event, like a dinner party. A long coat, or Redingote or Pelisse for warmth when outdoors, and all matched with the essentials, day or night, of hats and gloves. via Le Beau Monde, or Literary and Fashionable Magazine, London, U.K.
1812 Gentleman’s Outfit, French. Brown overcoat, or Redingote, with front pockets, cream Drap trousers buttoned at the ankle, knotted kerchief, top hat and holding a cane. Fashion Plate via suzilove.com and Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. By 1812, men no longer wore complicated styles and extravagant fabrics. Men’s fashions had simplified and these practical and relaxed clothing items were the sort worn by Jane Austen’s male family and friends when out and about in town or on their daily excursions.
Definition Redingote Or Coat: French word developed from English words, riding coat. Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. Originally made with several capes and trimmed with large buttons. French fashion plates call these coats Redingotes and they were worn by men, women, and children. English fashion plates call the coats a Pelisse, a Walking Dress, Promenade dress, or Carriage dress. Definition Drap: French equivalent for the English word cloth or stuff and generally applied to fabrics of wool or silk.
1840s Green Wool, Leather, and Silk Boots, American. via suzilove.com and Metropolitan Museum New York City, U.S.A. metmuseum.org
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.
1817 Dandy In Blue Tailcoat, French. White breeches tucked into black boots with tan leather high tops, fob at waist, high white cravat, red waistcoat, black top hat and walking stick. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
Dandy: The author of The Hermit in London, a series of sketches published in 1819—1820 observed: ‘A distinguished Exquisite is padded all over to-day; and all the other foplings are, on the morrow, mere walking pin-cushions. A fat prince, or a fat dandy, requires confinement in his limbs; and all his subjects are immediately restrained within the same limits. One day, the back is to be as broad as an Irish chairman’s, and the shoulders to be bolstered up to imitate a hod-man; and the next, the shoulders are to be flat, and a man is to be pinched in and laced up until he resembles an earwig. All these are Master Snip’s maneuvers, who continues to make his bill equally long, whether the spencer or the box-coat be in vogue.
Beau Brummell was one of the most celebrated dandies of all time. Cartoonists ridiculed these high-in-the-instep gentlemen who wore the most fashionable clothes and set the fashion trends for the Regency years, the years when Jane Austen was writing her famous novels and the years when the Bridgerton series is set.
Hessian Boots: In the 1790s, British Army officers wore boots called Hessians, named after German mercenaries who fought alongside the British in wars, including in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The soldiers from the German state of Hesse were called Hessians and their boots took their name from Hesse, where they were made. The Hessian boot was made from soft, highly polished calfskin, knee high, curved top and with a V cut at the front and often had a decorative tassel.
They were shaped like a stirrup so the rider could easily insert their feet into the stirrups and the feet were kept securely in place. But tassels on Hessian boots were designed for wearing with breeches and didn’t suit tight fitting and fashionable new trousers that dandies like Beau Brummell wore in 1800s and so were replaced by Wellington Boots.
In 1823, the New Monthly Magazine had a comical story about tight pantaloons and Hessian boots being a perfect pairing. ‘…. tight pantaloons without Hessian boots were as preposterous as a haunch of venison without currant-jelly, or a leg of pork without peas-pudding.’
https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819
1808 Gentleman’s Ensemble, French. Drap Redingote or coat, black hessian boots with heart shaped front, black top hat. Fashion Plate via suzilove.com and Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien. Typical gentleman’s outdoor ensemble as worn by men in Jane Austen’s time, or the Regency Era. https://books2read.com/SuziLoveFashionMen1800-1819
Hessian Boots: Named after German mercenaries who fought alongside British. Soft, highly polished calfskin, knee high, heart-shaped top and decorated with tassel. Boot shaped like stirrup so rider could insert feet into stirrups and be kept securely in place. Tassels were designed to wear with breeches and didn’t suit tight fitting new trousers that dandies like Beau Brummell wore in 1800s so Hessians replaced by other boots e.g. Wellington.
1806 Gentleman With A Hand In His Pocket, French. Green cutaway coat, extra high white cravat, white striped breeches, yellow topped black boots, tan gloves, fob on the waistband, and long cane. Typical Gentleman’s outfit as worn by men to daytime activities, such as escorting his female family members to the shops in Bond Street,London,or for walking in the park in Jane Austen’s times. Fashion Plate via Journal des Dames et des Modes, or Costume Parisien.
1805 Regency Group of Ladies and Gentlemen dressed as Jan Austen and her family and friends would have dressed. Ladies in dresses, bonnets, shawls, gloves, and carrying a reticule, or bag, and a parasol. Gentlemen in tailcoats, overcoats, trousers, vests, cravats, hats, boots and shoes and carrying walking sticks. via Men And Women In Costumes, 1804-1829.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division, The New York Public Library, U.S.A.
