Category: Fashion

Fashion, Friday Favorites

Friday Favorite: Matti’s Millinery & Costumes

Cora Lee

Some of you might remember a certain little copper satin Regency-era gown that I wore for the Historical Novel Society’s Costume Pageant in 2013.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Our Favorite this week is the originator of that gorgeous frock, Matti’s Millinery & Costumes. Based in Minnesota, Matti’s makes historically accurate attire for men, women, children, and even pets, ranging from the Middle Ages all the way through the Edwardian era. Check out their website or Etsy shop and see if anything strikes your fancy. If you’ve got something else in mind, Matti’s also does custom clothing, and the customer service was wonderful! They also ship internationally 😀

Fashion, Friday Favorites

Friday Favorite: DeviantArt Regency Dress Up Doll

Cora Lee

A few months ago, I shared Isobel Carr’s article on Regency-era paper dolls. This week’s Favorite is the 21st Century version.

Created by Sarah Vaughn (aka savivi) for DeviantArt, Regency Dress Up Doll is basically an electronic version of the old paper doll. The outfits and their accessories are all inspired by Jane Austen’s novels and the moves they spawned. You can change facial features and hair styles, too!

And if you prefer Ken to Barbie, the same artist has a Regency Hero Dress Up Doll…with period accurate underclothing 😀

Regency Dress Up Doll

Fashion, Friday Favorites

Friday Favorite: Georgian Jewelry

Cora Lee

This week’s Friday Favorite is a haven for history lovers and jewelry enthusiasts of all stripes. The Three Graces is an online jewelry store specializing in authentic period jewelry (including Georgian and Regency-era pieces), along with modern jewelry that reproduces or is inspired by pieces from the past. Here’s just one example:

Georgian Halley's comet earings

“Halley’s Comet jewelry is usually in the form of a small brooch almost always 1-1/4 inches (3.2 cm) or less in length. This fabulous jewel is a pair of matched earrings with that motif. Each of the fiery 10k yellow gold comets sport two (2) faceted natural garnets in crimped collet mounts. Typically Georgian in construction, the gems are foiled and set closed back.

Date: Circa 1835.”

For more period jewelry pieces, visit The Three Graces website.

For more information on Halley’s Comet jewelry, check out this post by Kyra Elliott for the Pennington Planetarium in Louisiana. Or this one at Art of Mourning.

Fashion, Friday Favorites

Friday Favorite: Regency Era Fashion Plates

Cora Lee

Every author has her favorite resources, and this week I’m sharing one of mine.

1800-1819 Cover

As the title suggests, it’s a book of fashion plates from the years 1800-1819. Descriptions are only occasionally provided, but the source of each plate is always identified (magazines such as Ladies’ Monthly Museum, Costume Parisien, La Belle Assemblee, and Ackermann’s Repository) along with the year of publication.

Since I’m a huge visual learner, the plates themselves are more important to me than the descriptions. With this book I can see what dinner dresses and pelisses and poke bonnets looked like, what colors they might have been, and how a lady might have worn them. 🙂

Available from Amazon, Amazon UK, and Abe Books.

Fashion, Food, Friday Favorites, Society

Friday Favorite: Having a Ball

Cora Lee

I mentioned this video a couple of weeks ago in my Austen in August post, but it was so much fun (and so informative) that it deserves its own day.

Produced by the BBC and aired in May 2013, “Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball” attempts to re-create a Regency-era ball. Using Bingley’s ball at Netherfield as a guide experts in the clothing, food, and even dancing use their knowledge and skill to bring history to life.

That sounds cliched, I know, but it’s truly what they do–not only do you see the finished product, but you experience the chaos of the kitchen as supper approaches, the energy and precision required for each of the dances, the realities of wearing Regency dress. The participants are interviewed throughout, so you also get a modern perspective: what is this like compared to what you’re used to?

Grab a cup of tea, put your feet up, and enjoy 😀

Fashion, Friday Favorites, Society

Friday Favorite: Candice Hern’s Regency World

Cora Lee

quadrille

Our Friday Favorite this week is a treasure trove of information. Regency romance author Candice Hern recently revamped her website, and now it’s bigger and better than ever!

Features include:

The Illustrated Regency Glossary

A Regency Timeline

Collections of Regency fashion prints, accessories, and other household objects

There’s even a section called Bridgerton Couture, featuring Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton heroines and their fashion selections.

This is one of those websites you can visit and quickly become absorbed in–an excellent resource for the Regency reader or writer 😀

Fashion, Friday Favorites

Friday Favorite: (Un)Dressing Mr. Darcy

Cora Lee

Our Friday Favorite this week comes to us from Brian Cushing, a Regency period re-enactor who gives workshops and talks about gentlemen’s dress in the early 19th century. This video is taken from his demonstration at Burdett’s Tea Shoppe in Springfield, TN. Mr. Cushing begins with the outermost layer of clothing and works his way inward, explaining the function and development of each piece as he goes–great for those of you who like visual aides!

Fashion

Regency Fashion: Men’s Breeches, Pantaloons, and Trousers

Cora Lee

Jane Austen's World

One of the benefits of gathering images for Pinterest is that one’s awareness of the minute differences in fashions from year to year improves. Daily exposure to thousands of fashion images from the Georgian era have taught me to notice the nuances of style and line. These images are one-sided, since very few articles of clothing from the lower classes survive. With rare exceptions, most museum quality fashions were made for the wealthy, and one must keep in mind when studying these images that fashions for the upper classes were vastly different from those of the working poor or laboring classes. Men’s trousers are a perfect example of class distinction.

By the turn of the 19th century, breeches, pantaloons and trousers worn by all men were sewn with a flap in front called a fall front. This flap was universally held in place by two or three buttons at the…

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