Women in Regency England if well born had a fashion headache of immense proportions. They had every type of dress for every possible occasion imaginable. They had a morning dress that they wore to receive callers in. When they went out they had either a walking dress, carriage dress, or riding dress.
Now this all sounds extremely tedious (and it was), however, for a young lady of society it could be the difference between making a good matrimonial match or a poor one. The dress code was broken down into two major distinct main categories: daywear and eveningwear.
Daywear fashion was designed to be quite simple. In fact frills and fancies were frowned upon and a persons entire character could be judged by it. The gowns were made of fairly inexpensive fabrics. Within daywear there were two types of dress. Undress which were gowns worn for informal occasions and half-dress which were gowns that were more formal than undress but were not formal such as evening.
I will in the future discuss more in detail the uses of the various gowns as this article is only meant to be an overview of the topic.
Eveningwear that was also called full dress encompasses the gowns such as the ball and opera gowns. They were made of rich and expensive silks, velvets, and other fabrics. In previous times cloth of gold and silver had been popular. In Regency England those fabrics fell out of popularity and were replaced with gold and silver thread. The fabric might be simple but would have elaborate embroidery with either thread.
Also for the time, Regency fashion was unique to any previous era. For all of the traditional enmity between England and France, the French influenced heavily women’s fashion. So while the men were at war with Napoleon, the women were imitating his wife, the Empress Josephine.
The waist of the gown was lifted to be just beneath the bosom. A style the empress wore at her coronation. What made this style so unique was the fact that it eliminated the need for a young lady to wear a corset. It is also noted that young ladies who discontinued the use of a corset suffered less miscarriages, had a reduced chance of dying from childbirth, and were generally healthier.
But it was socially scandalous initially because men for the first time could see the true natural figure of a woman. In the right circumstances the shape of a woman entire leg could be seen without the benefit of seeing said woman in a state of nudity. The more daring young misses would dampen their petticoats beneath their evening gowns so that the fabric would cling more to their bodies so that their curves would be more on display. In other words the young chits created the Regency version of the wet tee shirt.
The fashionable fabrics were very lightweight. Muslin was a very popular one and women were literally dying from hypothermia in the wintertime. All in the name of fashion.
In conclusion, fashion comes and goes, however, Regency fashion is one of the very few that have stood the test of time and has maintained it’s staying power generation after generation. It is most commonly seen these days in formal fashion such as wedding gowns and prom dresses. In future articles I will discuss in more detail the various gowns, when they were worn, and what they looked like.
