Oops, procrastination and squirrel brain posts have unintentionally pushed this one back from when I originally scheduled it to post... By 2 weeks at least now. Sorry! I had intended to do the Regency Wardrobe group as a straight series of posts, but brain go "Wheee! Look over there!" and I did. Mea culpa...
So back to the original plan: The outer layers of my planned Regency costume.
The outer layer in this project is the layer where I will attempt to make something, but where I accept that I may well run out of time. For the purposes of these posts I am going to list the things I would like to make (and may make later if I don't have time this time), and alternatives I may consider adding instead. I am considering here three specific areas:
- Head
- Body
- Feet
Head
Head coverings of some kind were both normal and socially acceptable for adults of both genders. For women what was expected would vary depending on their age, but even in a ball situation, the hair would have some sort of decorative covering, even if it did more to adorn than conceal. Depending on your age, wealth, and taste, these could range from simple and plain, to incredibly elaborate affairs. Common types of coverings included Caps, Bonnets, and Turbans.While millinery was a definite profession by this time, it wasn't uncommon for women to buy hats to trim at home, or to trim and retrim the same hat to go with multiple outfits, so fashion plates were useful places for the contemporary woman to gather inspiration. It has been argued that these plates show the extremes of fashion, akin to modern catwalks, or show composites of various options which could be mixed, matched, and omitted according to the wearer's tastes. Being able to modify or create your own headwear allowed women, in particular, a lot of capacity for personalisation.
So what would a women in around 1818 have worn throughout the day?
In the morning, women wore lighter headwear, such as lace caps, linen bonnets, and similar items. These were "at home" items, and seem to have been commonly made of the same sort of fabrics and colours as both visible and intimate underwear. The fashion plate below shows a woman sitting in a very decorated yet simple white dress. The tucks and lace on the hem are reminiscent of petticoat edgings. The dress has looser sleeves than the dresses worn outside or later in the day, and the fichu at the neckline would have kept her warm in a colder house. Her cap is completely in line with this "undress" fashion style, with a deceptively simple fabric cap to keep her hair out the way. I say deceptively, because like her dress, the simple shape is then covered with a huge ribbon (the width and depth of her forehead), and a very frilly decorative border. The whole ensemble is about the impression of intimacy, for an at home, without actually being either simple or undressed.
Morning Dress, 1818, La Belle Assemblée
Candice Hern's Regency World shows a number of fashion plates of hats dating from this about 1800-1817. Although there were variations each season and by activity, from about 1815 one popular shape for daywear was of a blocky crown (think of the crown part of a top hat) tilted back about 45° from the face, with a curved brim. The brims on this style gradually grow deeper and more exaggerated as the years progress. By 1818 a fashion plate from La Belle Assemblée shows a deep sweeping curved brim coming out from the nape of the neck outwards to shade the whole face, and then upwards above the face. The upper tip of the brim is about the same distance up from the head as the crown, or even a little further, and forms an angle of about 90° with the crown. Depending on the style, some brims form a straight line out from the crown, and others have a slight curve. All the plates I've seen of this style of bonnet, show that the edge of the brim, and the top of the crown were Very heavily decorated, with options such as lace, ribbon ruffles, and what looks like cording being quite popular. They were then finished with a broad ribbon running from the centre of the crown down to a point below the chin. This was to secure the bonnet to the head. It's not clear from the plates whether this ribbon was sewn into the seams of the bonnet form itself, sewn into the covering, or attached underneath a band around the base of the crown. Some prints (e.g. the middle left one in the image below) have a triangular effect with the chin ribbon being mirrored upwards and then along the back edge. The others on the page show a slightly puckered ribbon extending out below the crown ribbon.
Parisian Bonnets, 1818, La Belle Assemblée
Evening Dress fashion plats often seem to show a type of hat that is reminiscent of military hats, covered with a riot of feathers. Unlike the bonnets described above, these are worn much more vertically up from the head, extending the profile upwards, with the feathers above even the tops of the hats. Other evening dress plates show more turban like affairs wrapping around the hair, and again topped with feathers.
An undressed bonnet was not a thing that a lady of the time would have accepted! In addition to the edge trims, bonnets were also decorated with floral decorations, and possibly other natural items. This poke bonnet from the 1820s at the Met Museum, while of a different bonnet shape from the 18-teens, shows a wonderful riot of leaves, flowers and other plant matter. Decorations were seasonal and also influenced by activity. Feathers seem to have been prefered for evenings, and also for winter outdoors activities like riding. Flowers were popular for daytime wear in the spring and summer. Autumn seems to have brought in berries, leaves and other foliage. Ribbons
Hats and bonnet forms were often covered in silks, which could be of a coordinating or in a contrasting colour. Other fabrics could be used depending on your means and your outfit, but silk appears to have been both the most common (or the most common to survive) and the ideal described in the women's journals.
Making
So what have I gone for? I decided quite quickly that a bonnet in the style of the Parisian Bonnets plate above would be the most appropriate option for me, based on the time of day (afternoon), the activity (a promenade), and my personal preferences. While looking at Black Snail Patterns during their sale, their "Romantic Era" bonnet pattern fell into my basket. *cough* Although this pattern is designed for about a decade later, the broad shape of the bonnet in the pattern is not dissimilar to the one above, and I felt that it wouldn't be too difficult to adapt to the 1818 shape. If it doesn't work, I may just go ahead and draft my own pattern instead!
Black Snail Sewing Pattern #0615 - Romantic Era Bonnet & Pellerine
I am currently piecing together the PDF pattern for this bonnet, as I plan to decorate it for part of my Harvest Hat challenge entry.
I will post the Body & Feet work in a separate post, probably tomorrow, as this one has got rather long. Again.
