Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Regency Fashion For April

by Ann Lethbridge
I hope you all had a Happy Easter. We had a very nice family time, as well as some amazingly warm weather.



From the Lady's Magazine

Our first gown is a full dress: Of white satin; headdress of the same; white kid gloves and shoes.


The second is a walking dress, of pale blue silk mantle embroidered with gold bonnet and shoes to correspond.

The classical style is very much in evidence in these two gowns, along with the furniture upon which one of the ladies reclines. This is right before the real Regency began, but it is often this kind of style that is most associated with the period.

While not as nice as some of our pictures, hopefully the description will help with the image. As always it is nice to have a male in the picture.

This is from Le Beau Monde 1807

For the lady: a morning walking dress, a manteline a la Castilliane; This is described as: a short mantle of orange and purple velvet, made to fasten on the right shoulder, and, crossing the bosom, is confined with rich cords and tassels under the left arm; rounded gradually so the bottom of the right side is a regular point; a body of the same, with sleeves and high full collar; the back and skirt are cut in one, with only one arm hole; the whole trimmed entirely round with spotted leopard fur. A train petticoat of clear India muslin, made full and quite plain, without any ornament of work whatever, is worn with this dress; white kid gloves, and shoes of the same colour as the mantle.


For the gentleman: A half-full dress is described as: a light olive double breasted coat, buttoned close up, with covered buttons of the same cloth as the coat; yellow striped toilinette waistcoat; light brown Angola pantaloons, and half boots; the hair cropped a la Titus.

That is it for April, Until next time, Happy Rambles.

4 comments:

  1. Lovely descriptions. Many thanks for sharing them, extremely useful!

    Jx

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  2. Hurray! I put my hero in an olive jacket. Nice to read a description of another one. The word "Angola" is new to me.

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  3. Jane, so glad you enjoyed them.

    Gillian, it is always nice when serendipitously you get it right. Olive sounds very nice, dark enough, but a bit different from the usual black.

    Seems like Angola is a type of wool, which makes sense because pantaloons were knitted. I found later references to it in newspaper articles below.

    http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19260617&id=128tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-osFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1787,4009824

    http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=37&dat=19000102&id=cNwJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iykDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2807,206806

    Her is an excerpt from The Mercury Dictionary of Textile Terms, Polyglossum

    ANGOLA—Plain or twill fabric, woven from a cotton warp and an angola yarn weft. Principally used
    as shirting cloths for the home trade and often termed " Unions."
    ANGOLA BROCADE—A highly-finished English worsted dress fabric of the 19th century, woven in coloured patterns; obsolete
    ANGOLA MENDING—English yarn of mixed wool and cotton used for darning stockings. Made up
    on cards, reels and in skeins in all colours
    ANGOLAS—Shirting fabric (same as Angola)
    ANGOLA YARN—A yarn spun from a mixture of wool and cotton, generally 80 per cent wool, 20
    per cent cotton. This quality is known as " 80/20 " angola. The percentage varies. Used for
    shirtings called " Angolas," also for cheap dress fabrics. The wool is generally shoddy or
    mungo

    There was a factory which made Angola in Bonsall in Derbyshire in 1861 according the Census that year.

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