Regency Era Fashion
Magazine
Regency Era Fashion
Written by Hannah Mae Webster
During the chaotic revolutionary period a dramatic change occurred in women’s fashion. The chemise dress, so named because of its resemblance to a chemise undergarment, became the dominant fashion. Its simplicity stood in stark contrast to the full rococo dresses of the preceding era. Undergarments such as the corset and pannier, which had been necessary to form the exaggerated shape of women’s rococo costumes in the previous century, were abandoned. Women preferred to wear thin, almost transparent white cotton dresses with few or no undergarments instead. The chemise, with its high waistline and single-pieces bodice and skirt, had a clean, tubular silhouette. Marie Antoinette wore a prototype of this dress, as can be seen in a portrait of her by Francois Gerard Vigee-Lebrun.
a.k.a. The Fashion of “Pride and Prejudice” and “Bridgerton”
The French Revolution of 1789 brought about the collapse of the traditional social hierarchy and saw the rise of a wealthy bourgeoise that came to characterize French society throughout the nineteenth century.
During the chaotic revolutionary period a dramatic change occurred in women’s fashion. The chemise dress, so named because of its resemblance to a chemise undergarment, became the dominant fashion. Its simplicity stood in stark contrast to the full rococo dresses of the preceding era. Undergarments such as the corset and pannier, which had been necessary to form the exaggerated shape of women’s rococo costumes in the previous century, were abandoned. Women preferred to wear thin, almost transparent white cotton dresses with few or no undergarments instead. The chemise, with its high waistline and single-pieces bodice and skirt, had a clean, tubular silhouette. Marie Antoinette wore a prototype of this dress, as can be seen in a portrait of her by Francois Gerard Vigee-Lebrun.
A later portrait, this time of “Madame Recamier” by Francois Gerard, illustrates how that dress shape gradually blended into the style of neoclassicism, which celebrated the refined and geometric forms of Greek and Roman antiquity.
The chemise was emblematic of a newly of a newly developed aesthetic consciousness if post-Revolutionary values in Europe. Many people interested in how France and other countries may re-organize were also fascinated in neoclassical art and thought. There was a particular focus on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. It is very easy to see how the high waisted, flowing, light dresses of the early Regency were influenced by these former civilizations. Regency Era gowns had a low square neckline, high waist, short sleeves, and short narrow backed bodice attached to a straight skirt unsupported by petticoats.
Regency caps - a new trend
The Regency took a drastic turn when it comes to women’s hairstyles. Hair was worn close to the head with a small-cap for modesty. While some head coverings and hairstyles that came before and after were determined by class, age, caps were a universally embraced style. Says the Jane Austen museum:
Regency caps were worn by all classes of women for many different reasons. Widows and mothers wore caps. Some married women chose to wear them. Housekeepers and servants wore them. Children wore them. Old maids wore them. The only ones who didn’t were young ladies, during that period of time when they were no longer children, and not yet old maids, though Jane Austen took to wearing them at the age of twenty-three.
