Fashion In The Time Of Jane Austen by Sarah Jane Downing Read Free Book Online Page B

making a new cap, she writes to Cassandra:
    I took the liberty a few days ago of asking your black velvet bonnet to lend me its cawl, which it very readily did, and by which I have been enabled to give a considerable improvement of dignity to my cap, which was before too nidgetty to please me. I shall wear it on Thursday, but I hope you will not be offended with me for following your advice as to its ornaments only in part. I still venture to retain the narrow silver round it, Put twice round without any bow, and instead of the black military feather shall put in the Coquelicot one, as being smarter; and besides Coquelicot is to be all the fashion this winter. After the ball, I shall probably make it entirely black…
    Scanty gowns were frequently chilly and a Spencer – far less popular in Europe where the fur trimmed Hussar jacket was preferred – was not always the answer especially with evening dress. The shawl provided an elegant way to add a little warmth without disguising the line of the gown or the figure beneath. First seen in London in around 1786, the shawl captured the imagination and remained popular in various forms for over a century.
    Draping the shawl fittingly in the style of a classical statue was an art that reflected innate good taste and had the advantage of providing a frame for the most appealing assets whilst drawing a veil over those less attractive. But the shawl was not always praised: in 1806 La Belle Assemblée wrote, ‘it is wonderful that the shawl should ever have found its path to fashionable adoption… it turns any female not beautiful and elegant into an absolute dowdy. It is the very contrast to the flowing Grecian costume …’

    ‘Morning Dress’ ( Ackermann’s Repository , 1819). Jane always wore a cap ‘as they save me a world of torment as to hairdressing’.
    The Parasol became increasingly popular, not only for its exotic ‘oriental’ status but for practical reasons. As it became fashionable for ladies to spend more time outdoors the parasol became essential to preserve their pale complexions from strong sunlight. Silk parasols came in pretty pastel shades to complement the outfit or matching the colour of the reticule. The pagoda parasol was very fashionable with the fabric extended in a point towards the ferrule so that when open they had an elegant curved shape, and they were often enhanced by a knotted fringe. The fan or marquise parasol was also seen, its stem hinged so that the somewhat flatter fabric or paper leaf could be used as a vertical screen.

    Always an excellent needlewoman, Jane Austen worked this scarf in satin stitch on white muslin, c . 1800.
    Umbrellas – most often green – were becoming useful especially as part of spa dress where the usual foul weather expedient of taking a sedan wasn’t an option because walking was an obligatory part of the cure. In Persuasion Captain Wentworth refers to his umbrella when he tells Anne Elliot, ‘I have equipped myself for Bath already.’
    Always important status items, gloves remained usual for formal occasions for both men and women, who were admonished to wear them in church and at the theatre, but ‘ladies should never dine with their gloves on – unless their hands are not fit to be seen.’ Men would buy theirs from glove makers who would also provide their buckskin breeches. Made in beautiful quality leathers like doeskin or York tan, male styles were short, little beyond the wrist for all except riding gloves, and unobtrusive in neutral colours.

    Madame Rivière (Ingres, 1805). In France the imported British cashmere shawls were heavily levied with taxes and on more than one occasion Napoleon in a fit of pique had whole shipments of shawls destroyed. Whatever her husband’s political frustrations, it made no difference to Josephine: an inveterate shawl lover, she collected nearly four hundred, each costing 15–20,000 francs.
    Throughout the eighteenth century women’s gloves had usually been