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Posts Tagged ‘Regency Fashion’

Bonnets, Caps, Turbans, and Hats: Fashion Necessities For Regency Ladies

Posted in Fashions, jane austen, Jane Austen's letters, Lady's work, Regency World, Sewing, tagged , , , , , on February 22, 2008| 11 Comments »

Illustration from Modes et Manieres Du Jour, 1798 – 1808

I have changed my mind, & changed the trimmings on my Cap this morning, they are now much as you suggested, – I felt as if I should not prosper if I strayed from your directions, & I think it makes me look more like Lady Conyngham now than it did before, which is all that one lives for now. Jane Austen to Cassandra, December 18-19, 1798

Women during the Regency period wore headdresses outdoors as a matter of course. When a woman married, or if she was a spinster in her late twenties, she would also take to wearing a cap indoors. This image from Wikipedia shows Mme. Seriziat wearing a bergere, or shepherdess-style straw bonnet over a cap, as was the custom back then. When her child was a baby, he might have worn a simple bonnet, as infants still do today.

Aside from sheltering delicate skin from the sun or hair from the elements, or protecting one’s head in drafty rooms, headdresses took on many other functions. They denoted class and economic status, as well as fashion sense and one’s marital state. Hats were also worn as a sign of respect, inside a church, for instance, and this custom remained widely popular until well into the 20th-century.

Lace caps, mob caps, or draped caps, were made of lace, white linen or delicate muslin, and trimmed with ribbon. They could be ruffled, embroidered, or plain, depending on who wore them and their status. A housekeeper, for example, would wear a more elaborate cap than a scullery maid, whose mob cap was simple by comparison. In Pride and Prejudice 1995, Mrs. Bennet wore such frilly caps with so many ruffles and trimmings that they complimented her image as a silly woman. One can imagine how much fancier her caps were than her maid’s!

Trimming and redecorating old bonnets provided a topic of conversation for women of all ages and social strata. In her novels and letters, Jane Austen frequently mentioned trimming new hats and making over old bonnets as a female activity. According to Penelope Byrde in A Frivolous Distinction, it was quite the fad during the last decade of the 18th century to adorn hats and bonnets with artificial fruits and flowers. As Jane Austen wrote Cassandra in June, 1799 (tongue in cheek we suspect):

Flowers are very much worn, & Fruit is still more the thing – Eliz: has a bunch of Strawberries, & I have seen Grapes, Cherries, Plumbs & Apricots – There are likewise Almonds& raisins, french plums & Tamarinds at the Grocers, but I have never seen any of them in hats.

In addition to professional milliners and modistes, there was quite a large cottage industry for making caps, hats, and turbans from home, which provided a meager salary for women who needed the income. The materials used in making headdresses were as varied as their styles: straw (chip or strip), beaver, velvet, silk, crape, satin, muslin or cloth (Byrde, p 6). Trims included ribbons, the above mentioned artificial fruits and flowers, veils, net, lace, or feathers, and even beads, pins, and brooches.

For a more detailed explanation of the headdresses worn during this era and to view additional illustrations, please click on the following links.

  • Hats and Bonnets, Victoriana: Scroll to the bottom of this page to see illustrations from 1811 and 1812.
  • Fileblogs, Regency Caps, Linore Rose Burkhart: Linore describes the various hat styles in this link, along with materials and trims.

For people interested in ordering their own Regency caps, or in trying their hand at making a bonnet, the following links will lead you to patterns, suppliers, and resources:

  • Louise MacDonald Millinery (link suggested by Laurel Ann, see above image). Louise created the caps for Pride & Prejudice 1995, and describes making them for the movie.

Byrde, Penelope, A Frivolous Distinction: Fashion and Needlework in the works of Jane Austen, Bath City Council, 1979.

Four Hundred Years of Fashion, Victoria and Albert Museum, edited by Natalie Rothstein, V&A Publications, 1984.

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Man’s Regency Coat

Posted in Clothes, Dandy, Fashions, jane austen, tagged , , on January 23, 2008| 2 Comments »

In “To Cut a Regency Coat”, Suzi Clarke, a British costumer, goes into great detail on how to make this man’s Regency garment.

The basic man’s coat for the first twenty-five years of the 19th century changed very little. It was cut to fit very firmly across the shoulders, with a shoulder seam that sloped into the back armscye. There was a center back seam, and the side seams curved toward the center back from the same armscye, narrowing in towards the waist. The center back continued on into the skirt, although occasionally there was a waist seam. The two front skirts were cut in one piece with the body, usually with a “fish” or dart at waist level early in the century.

All these coats were beautifully cut and sewn together, the stitching being very neat and small. English tailoring at this time was the envy of the fashionable world, and these coats were of the time of the famous George “Beau” Brummell. The top coat belonged to a banker, Mr. Coutts, and was made by the famous tailor, “Weston” of Savile Row, mentioned in Georgette Heyer, and possibly Jane Austen. It was lodged at Coutts Bank, together with other items of clothing, in 1805, and donated to the Museum of London many years later.

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Fashions and Needlework in the Works of Jane Austen

Posted in jane austen, tagged , on December 21, 2007|

A Frivolous Distinction: Fashions and Needlework in the Works of Jane Austen by Penelope Byrde is not a new publication. In fact, I bought its forerunner, a booklet, over 14 years ago in Bath. The short reference book, only 42 pages long, is rich in Jane lore, and filled with interesting information about clothes, shopping, and needlework. Find a fascinating description of the longer book published four years ago in JASNA. In her review, Marsha Huff describes her quest to find a more detailed description of the Mamalouc cap Jane Austen mentioned in a letter to Cassandra in 1799, and which she wore to the Kempshott ball:

I am not to wear my white satin cap to-night. after all; I am to wear a mamalone cap instead, which Charles Fowle sent to Mary, and which she lends me. It is all the fashion now; worn at the opera, and by Lady Mildmays at Hackwood balls. I hate describing such things, and I dare say you will be able to guess what it is like. I have got over the dreadful epocha of mantua-making much better than I expected. My gown is made very much like my blue one, which you always told me sat very well, with only these variations: the sleeves are short, the wrap fuller, the apron comes over it, and a band of the same completes the whole.

Ms. Huff attempted to find out more about Jane’s Mamalouc cap and what it looked like. The closest description I found (through Deidre Le Faye) was one from Constance Hill:

The battle of the Nile, fought in the preceding August, had set the fashion in ladies’ dress for everything suggestive of Egypt and of the hero of Aboukir. In the fashion-plates of the day we find Mamalouc cloaks and Mamalouc robes of flowing red cloth. Ladies wear toupées, somewhat resembling a fez, which we recognise as the “Mamalouc cap.” Their hats are adorned with the “Nelson rose feather,” and their dainty feet encased in “green morocco slippers bound with yellow and laced with crocodile-coloured ribbon.”

Click on this link to the Gallery of Fashion, 1799 to view illustrations of fashions and feathered headdresses of this period. And then click on the following links to view a regency era sewing box, and to learn more about bonnets and needlework of the period.

  • Hygra Antiques: See an example of an exquisite Regency sewing box in this link
  • Although the writing is breezy, 21st century, and American in tone, this 14 page PDF document, Back Stitch to the Future, discusses the history of needlework from Paleolithic times to the present.

Make this needle case made by Jane for her “neice”, Louise, and featured in A Frivolous Distinction. Instructions are courtesy of the Jane Austen Centre.

Illustrations from A Frivolous Distinction booklet, ISBN 0 901303 09 7

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Regency Fashion: A Quilted Spencer Jacket

Posted in jane austen, Regency style, tagged on December 17, 2007| 5 Comments »

Click on this link to Vintage Textiles to read a fascinating account about the history of the spencer jacket and to view breathtaking photos of this beautiful example of regency fashion. Be sure to scroll down to see the close up views of the design and stitching. If you have a spare couple of thousand lying in your vault, this fashion item would make a fabulous holiday gift for that special Janeite in your life. Click here for my other post on Spencer jackets.

  • If the price is too steep, you can purchase a pattern from Sense and Sensibility for only $12.00. Click here to view it.

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The Fashions of London and Paris, 1798-1810: A Unique Gift For a Special Janeite

Posted in jane austen, tagged on November 28, 2007| 3 Comments »

Yes, $55,000 might be a slightly steep price for a book purchase, but we can all drool and and wish, can’t we? Perhaps one of us will win the lottery so that we can buy this exquisite and rare item:The Fashions of London & Paris During the Years 1798, 1799 & 1800[-1810]. London: 1798-1810. First edition.

This fashion plate book is for sale at David Brass Rare Books. Click on the link to read more details and to view more fashion plates. This fabulous book shop has other, more affordable items for sale as well.

Here is one example of a fashion plate from the book, Promenade in Kensington Gardens, 1804.


Description of the volumes: Two hand-colored engraved vignette titles and 461 engraved plates, of which 459 are hand-colored. Thirteen octavo volumes. Contemporary blue boards. Original printed front wrappers bound in. A fine and complete run of this scarce series of Regency fashion plates. In three quarter red morocco clamshell cases.

Detail of the image.

Respecting the designs, it may be proper to observe, that all the dresses are such as have been generally worn, at the time specified, in places of fashionable resort, or by Ladies of the most distinguished rank, The leading feature of the publication is to exhibit only the dresses which are actually worn in the most fashionable circles of London and Paris. (From an advertisement of the first volume.)

With permission, David Brass Rare Books

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