Posted in Children's regency fashion, tagged regency dress, Regency Fashion on November 1, 2007| 9 Comments »
Vintage Textiles is featuring two lovely items of hand-embroidered baby’s clothing: A dress c. 1815-1820 and a bonnet circa 1800. Note the exquisite details on the dress, including white on white embroidery, tiny tucks, and fine Van Dyke’s pointed trim edging.
The baby’s bonnet is made of fine sheer cotton muslin with insets of needle-run tulle.
Posted in jane austen, Regency Life, Regency World, Servants, Sewing, tagged Needlework and sewing, Regency Fashion, Seamstress, Sewing, Working class on October 30, 2007| 8 Comments »
March 15th – The seamstress came this morning to begin my wardrobe. We were with her for more than two hours and Mama ordered so many new gowns as that I am sure I shall never wear the half of them, but she insists that I must be properly dressed. – From The Journal of a Regency Lady 5
The above quote, though coming from a contemporary author, might well have been written during the regency era. Women’s clothes were made at home during this period by the ladies themselves, their servants, or a professional seamstress. A dressmaker (or mantua maker) would charge about 2 pounds per garment and come to the house for fittings, where she might be served tea. A successful mantua maker who had set up shop in the fashionable part of Town would also provide a pleasant environment in which a lady could relax, serving tea and refreshments to prolong the shopping experience.
In her letters, Jane Austen mentioned a Miss Burton, who made pelisses for her and Cassandra in 1811. The cost of cloth and labor were reasonable, she wrote, but the buttons seemed expensive. Fabrics, increasingly mass produced, became more affordable during the Industrial Revolution, and demand for clothes grew among the newly wealthy middle class women. Young girls who sought work in the cities became seamstresses in homes and sweat shops. A little over twenty years after Jane’s death, the poor working conditions described below were common for seamstresses.
1) EVIDENCE TAKEN BY Children’s Employment Commission, February 1841
Miss — has been for several years in the dress-making business…The common hours of business are from 8 a.m. til 11 P.M in the winters; in the summer from 6 or half-past 6 A.M. til 12 at night. During the fashionable season, that is from April til the latter end of July, it frequently happens that the ordinary hours are greatly exceeded; if there is a drawing-room or grand fete, or mourning to be made, it often happens that the work goes on for 20 hours out of the 24, occasionally all night….The general result of the long hours and sedentary occupation is to impair seriously and very frequently to destroy the health of the young women. The digestion especially suffers, and also the lungs: pain to the side is very common, and the hands and feet die away from want of circulation and exercise, “never seeing the outside of the door from Sunday to Sunday.” [One cause] is the short time which is allowed by ladies to have their dresses made. Miss is sure that there are some thousands of young women employed in the business in London and in the country. If one vacancy were to occur now there would be 20 applicants for it. The wages generally are very low…Thinks that no men could endure the work enforced from the dress-makers.
[Source: Hellerstein, Hume & Offen, Victorian Women: A Documentary Accounts of Women’s Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States, Stanford University Press.]
For other sources on this topic, click on the links below.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Regency Fashion on October 19, 2007| 3 Comments »
One of my favorite Ackermann illustrations is of this lush walking dress, taken from Ackermann’s Costume Plates: Women’s Fashions in England, 1818-1828, and which I purchased about eight years ago. Introduced by Stella Blum, the book comes with plates and the original captions. This publication provides a glossary; however, the definitions I used below are slightly different, as I found them on the web.
(Double click on image to view a larger version.)
A round dress composed of thin jaconet muslin, over a pale peach-coloured slip: the body of the gown is made high, and is trimmed with triple fall of lace at the throat. The bottom of the skirt is flounced with rich French work, which is surmounted by a rouleau of muslin and this rouleau is headed by fancy trimming. The spencer worn with this dress is composed of white stripe lutestring; the fronts are richly ornamented with braiding. The headdress, a leghorn hat, the brim large, and turned up behind in a soft roll in the French style; the crown is ornamented with four rouleaux of peach-coloured satin twined with white cord. White kid shoes, and straw-coloured gloves.
(Caption taken from the original Ackermann’s: Ackermann’s Costume Plates: Women’s Fashions in England, 1818-1828, Edited and with an introduction by Stella Blum, page 1, ISBN 0-486-23960-0)
Posted in Fashions, jane austen, Regency style, Regency World, The Spencer Jacket, tagged Regency Fashion, Regency Outerwear on October 12, 2007| 6 Comments »
So few excellent examples of clothing from bygone eras exist. Wear and tear, insect and humidity damage, and improper storage all take their toll. Well-preserved and breathtaking examples of historical clothing are featured in The Kyoto Costume Institute. Established in 1978 the Kyoto Costume Institute features an extensive collection of fashion and accessories.The following photos of regency gowns and outerwear have been gleaned from the Institute’s archives:
Spencer Jacket
Spencer Jacket, Leghorn Hat 
Posted in Fashions, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency World, Reticule and purse, tagged Regency Fashion, Reticules on October 7, 2007| 3 Comments »
She soon believed herself to penetrate Mrs. Elton’s thoughts, and understand why she was, like herself, in happy spirits; it was being in Miss Fairfax’s confidence, and fancying herself acquainted with what was still a secret to other people. Emma saw symptoms of it immediately in the expression of her face; and while paying her own compliments to Mrs. Bates, and appearing to attend to the good old lady’s replies, she saw her with a sort of anxious parade of mystery fold up a letter which she had apparently been reading aloud to Miss Fairfax, and return it into the purple and gold reticule by her side …
Emma, Chapter 16
Reticules became popular when pockets were no longer sewn into the slim delicate dresses and skirts so common during the Regency era. These small handmade bags, frequently beaded or tasseled, came in a variety of shapes and are made of silk, velvets, handmade lace, or knitted fabrics. Most fashion plates of the Regency Era show ladies attired in walking costumes carrying a reticule similar to the one on top, circa 1800-1824 (Victoria and Albert Museum). These fashionable accessories were used from the late 18th Century through the flapper era in the early 20th Century.
Read my previous post on the reticule here, and find more examples of the Reticule in the following links:
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