Category Archives: costume

Historical costume 1800-1850: bonnets and hats

Joanna has realised that, in all her costume blogs, she hasn’t included bonnets or hats…

Sarah Siddons, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1785, Public Domain, Link

It’s not that long ago that no lady (or gentleman, for that matter) would go out without wearing a head-covering of some kind. No one questioned the need for hats, caps and bonnets.

When Sarah Siddons sat for her 1785 portrait, she was wearing a hat. With feathers.  Of course, she was. And it looks splendid, don’t you think?

If you look closely at the 1894 image below, you’ll see that most of the spectators are children and almost all of them are wearing caps or hats. Back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was no question of not wearing a hat or bonnet or cap.

Crowd waiting to see policeman's funeral 1894, by Paul Martin

Crowd waiting for policeman’s funeral, 1894, by Paul Martin © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

And that continued into the twentieth century. Hats, cloches, flat caps, trilbies. They’re all there in this coach party image. The dog is hatless, though 😉

Coach Party at Rhyl. Date: 1920s

Coach party to Rhyl, 1920s, by archivist – stock.adobe.com

After the Second World War, the widowed mother of one of my school friends managed to support two children by running a hat shop. Selling nothing but hats was enough to provide a living for three. But it wasn’t going to last. Continue reading →

Historical Costume : nightwear : what was worn in bed?

Joanna has been packing her nightie:

When I was packing to go on writing retreat — yippee! 😉 — I started thinking about what nightwear people wore in earlier times. Nowadays, lots of folk sleep naked. But then, most of us have central heating. In earlier centuries, bedrooms might be really cold, though I imagine the curtains round a four-poster bed would have helped.

Research rabbit hole beckons…

Nightgown 1780-1820 in form of coat and waistcoat(c)

“Nightgown” 1780-1820 © V&A Museum, London

Intrigued, I did a quick search for “nightgown” in the V&A’s collection and the results surprised me. Many of the images were of what modern folk would call “dressing gowns”.

For men.

Like this one, dating from 1780-1820. It looks like daywear, doesn’t it? And, in fact, it sort of is, though it’s more complex than you’d think, from the picture.

This is what the V&A says about it:

“This nightgown is an example of one type of informal clothing worn by men in the 18th century. Nightgowns were worn over shirt and breeches, in the privacy of home before noon or late at night. They first appear in the male wardrobe in the mid-17th century, inspired by the kimonos given by the Japanese shoguns to the directors of the Dutch East India Company. … This example looks like a nightgown and waistcoat but it is one garment, with the waistcoat fronts stitched to the side seams of the gown. The waistcoat skirts recall the styles of the 1770s, while the high collar and revers (lapels) of the gown are in keeping with coat fashions of the early 19th century.” Continue reading →

Gold and jewellery. From earliest times? For females only?

One of the things that struck me on recent visits to museums in Crete and Santorini was the sheer amount of gold and jewellery on display. Much of it dated from millennia ago. And the workmanship was often exquisite, as you can see.

necklaces 1400-1300 BC from Archanes, Crete

necklaces 1400-1300 BC from Archanes, Crete

Gold necklaces, rings, bead, Heraklion Museum

Made me think about what that means in practice.

Imagine goldsmiths working in Crete in 1500  or 2000 BC. They would be working with the relatively soft Bronze-Age tools—no acetylene torches for them; no hard steel implements, because smelting of iron didn’t start till around 1300-1200 BC—and with only experience and handed-down skills to guide them in their manipulation of metal and fire. Continue reading →

Clothes and character : does fashion matter?

Blogging Inspiration and Regency clothes

AI generated picture of three cats dressed in historical costume.

AI generated image by GrumpyBeere at Pixabay

Joanna recently blogged about blogging, and where we could find inspiration. All very helpful but I envy the fact that, as an historical novelist, she has photographs to share from costume exhibits at the museums she has visited.

Lovely dresses, shoes, uniforms as well as what her characters wore beneath them. So much fascinating detail to write about.

Regency fashion is such an important part of the pleasure in reading books set in an era when clothes and character are inextricably linked.

As someone who has always written contemporary novels – and with a very low personal fashion threshold – I tend to find dressing my characters a bit of a challenge. Continue reading →

Underwear: what was worn under Regency gowns?

petticoat-gathered-back-flounced-hem-closeup

See-through petticoat with flounced hem

What underwear did ladies have beneath their Regency gowns? Generally, not much. I’ve blogged before about see-through gowns and the Regency petticoat but what else was underneath?

The go-to reference book for underwear is The History of Underclothes by C. Willet and Phillis Cunnington which starts at the medieval period and finishes at 1939. The History of Underclothes by C Willet and Phillis Cunnington

 

 

As you can see from the cover, it includes corsets and bustles and much, much more. And it includes underwear for men. That gent in the middle of the cover is wearing a Jaeger nightgown, dating from the early 1880s.

The lady to his right is wearing “cami-knickers in crêpe-de-chine” from 1922. (No, they didn’t look like knickers to me either!) The lady to his left is much earlier, of course. She may look fully dressed, but she isn’t. That’s corset, chemise and underskirt, dating from about 1780. And French!

Regency underwear

Continue reading →

Conveniences: Shampoo, Toothpaste, Electric Light?

If you found yourself translated back to a previous era, what modern conveniences would you miss? It’s a question I often think about when I turn on a light, for example, or when I read a book or watch a TV documentary about how things were, way back then.1900 House book cover, a story with few conveniences

I am reminded of the Channel 4 documentary, The 1900 House, the first of several such re-enactments. The whole family had signed up for the project, but they met problems and lack of conveniences that none of them had expected.

Shampoo?

One of the most contentious problems was the lack of shampoo which hadn’t then been invented. Continue reading →

Silk, Silliness and Sumptuary Laws

Silliness and Sumptuary Laws

Greek temple at Paestum, ItalyTime: 7th century BCE. Place: an ancient city under Greek law. A fanciful tale by Joanna…

A free-born woman, drunk and reeking of wine, leaves the city accompanied by two female slaves. She is wearing a splendid gown with a purple border, and has gold jewellery in her ears and round her neck. Outside the gates, she meets a man wearing a Milesian-style cloak with a gold-studded ring on his finger.

What do you think might be going on in this silly tale of mine?

The answer was inspired by this first written record of sumptuary laws which made me gasp and then chuckle when I first read it.

gavel balance judgement integrityA free-born woman may not be accompanied by more than one female slave, unless she is drunk; she may not leave the city during the night, unless she is planning to commit adultery; she may not wear gold jewellery or a garment with a purple border, unless she is a courtesan; and a husband may not wear a gold-studded ring or a cloak of Milesian fashion unless he is bent upon prostitution or adultery.

In the light of the laws above, you have probably worked out what the man and woman are up to. But I’ve got them sticking to all the laws in the book while they’re at it 😉

Clearly, in those days, any wife would know what her man was planning when he went out wearing his Milesian cloak. Or even just his gold-studded ring. Continue reading →

Sexy, seductive silk—and sexy, seductive IN silk

Silk is a fabric that delights the eye and, particularly, the sense of touch. Run your fingers over a piece of silk—smooth, luscious, sensuous. And slightly baffling, too, in the way it can be so very tough while seeming so fine and fragile. Colorful threads of Thai silk

Silk seduced me the first time I saw it. I loved the jewel-like colours that the magical fibres can take. The ones shown above will make Thai silk. Aren’t those colours sumptuous? (Which makes me think, in passing, of Sumptuary Laws and the prohibition on the wearing of materials like silk by “inferior persons”. Possibly a topic for a future blog?)

Sewing silk: joys and pitfalls

Paisley pattern silkWhen I was in my teens and early twenties, I made a lot of my own clothes. A friend who was an air stewardess offered to sell me a dress length she’d brought back from Thailand. I couldn’t resist. The silk was mostly ruby and garnet coloured, with a paisley-type pattern, with hints of sapphire and amethyst. Gorgeous. (The pattern was something like the one shown here, only much, much nicer and without the orange.) Continue reading →

Beau Brummell has lots to answer for…

This last week, I’ve been comfort-reading, which means Georgette Heyer. And the influence of Beau Brummell crops up an awful lot.

James Purefoy as Beau Brummell

James Purefoy as Beau Brummell

He is there, even in novels like Arabella that are set after his flight to France. Brummell might be gone from the scene, literally, but he’s still around, in spirit.

cartoon of Regency dandy 1818

Wadded shoulders and wasp-waist for the dandy

Until that moment [Arabella] had thought Mr Epworth quite the best-dressed man present; indeed, she had been quite dazzled by the exquisite nature of his raiment, and the profusion of rings, pins, fobs, chains, and seals which he wore; but no sooner had she clapped eyes on Mr Beaumaris’s tall, manly figure than she realized that Mr Epworth’s wadded shoulders, wasp-waist, and startling waistcoat were perfectly ridiculous. Nothing could have been in greater contrast to the extravagance of his attire than Mr Beaumaris’s black coat and pantaloons, his plain white waistcoat, the single fob that hung to one side of it, the single pearl set chastely in the intricate folds of his necktie. Nothing he wore was designed to attract attention, but he made every other man in the room look either a trifle overdressed or a trifle shabby. (Arabella, Chapter 6)

“Nothing he wore was designed to attract attention…” That could have been a description of Brummell himself. After all, Brummell was the one who said: “To be truly elegant, one should not be noticed.” Continue reading →

Historical costume pics: gowns, petticoats, dolls, even men

Woman businesswoman working, files, clockThis past couple of weeks, I’ve been editing, nose to grindstone, so there hasn’t been much time to think about anything else. So today, Saturday, faced with a blank screen (and editing finished last night, yippee) I’m a bit short of blog ideas.

What, I ask myself, would Libertà visitors like to read about? What can I produce before midnight? And answer came there—pictures, specifically, costume pics. I know you like our costume blogs, because they get lots of hits. So today, I’m going to give you mostly costume pics. To let you drool a bit. What’s not to like?

The Regency Gown: really see-through?

Continue reading →