Fashion In The Time Of Jane Austen (10 page)

White silk reticule with border embroidered with floral designs and silver spangles, and tassels on each point (
c
. 1790–1810).

Reticules could be bought from milliners ready made, but many ladies enjoyed making their own. In infinite variety reticules could match with a gown, Spencer, parasol, gloves or shoes. Usually in silk or, after 1810, increasingly in velvet, they were rectangular, lozenge shaped, or even during the Napoleonic wars shaped like the military sabretache, each with a tassel from the lowest point. Framed bags also became popular, the metalwork providing not only a secure alternative to the drawstring, but an opportunity to add moulded designs of sphinxes or classical lion masks. Within the first three decades of the century they became a major vehicle for female artistic and even, in the case of the silk reticules distributed by the Ladies’ Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves, political expression.

Eliza Farren, Countess of Derby
(after Sir Thomas Lawrence,
c
. 1792) wearing a furtrimmed cloak with large matching muff.

The large picture hats of the 1790s gave way to a far less extravagant look. Hair became simple, close to the head and was often closely cropped in little curls decorated with a fillet or bandeau, or for evening, a simple spray of ostrich plumes. Without the need to balance on a large cushion of hair, hats took on a wide variety of styles, many closely fitted to the head.

Women also took on the fashion for tall crowned hats like the military shako. Hoods in various forms came in at the turn of the century as homage to the Grecian caul, a cloth or net that covered the hair in an elongated shape at the back. There is an engraving of Jane’s Aunt Perrot looking formidable in a dark silk hood.

‘Promenade Dresses’ (
Ackermann’s Repository
, June 1811). Little face veils adorned a variety of hat styles and were thought a fashion essential by Mrs Elton in
Emma
who considered Emma’s wedding
‘extremely shabby, and very inferior to her own … very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business!’

Straw was very popular for morning or informal wear, and once a method of splitting straw was perfected, the English straw trade rose successfully to the challenge of replacing the delicate Italian leghorn straw that had been embargoed during the wars with France. Smarter afternoon and promenade hats were of fabrics shaped with wire, and evening styles were silk.

Little could seem more feminine than the bonnet, but the close-fitting style was originally masculine, based on a military helmet.

The casquet à la Minerve (Le Bon Genre, 1810).

‘Walking Dress’ (
La Belle Assemblée
May 1813). ‘Short dress of jacconet muslin… Over this our fair pedestrians throw a sky-blue scarf. Bonnet of white-willow shavings, with a flower and wreath of sky-blue. Gloves and sandals of sky-blue kid. Necklace and earrings of white cornelian. Johnston parasol. This elegant appendage to the walking costume, is also of sky-blue silk, and finished with a rich and deep fringe; it has very recently made its appearance, and is already a general favorite.’

The
casquet à la Minerve
first appeared in the opera
La Caravanne du Caire
in 1797. It was a helmet of black velvet trimmed with a laurel wreath and ostrich plumes, and created a segue between the Egyptian influence and the coal-scuttle bonnet.

The 1790s also saw the rise of the ‘oriental’ style of a silk turban topped with nodding ostrich plumes. Jane borrowed a Marmalouc (or Mameluke) cap, which was ‘all the fashion now’ in January 1799. It was inspired by the success of Nelson’s Nile Campaign in 1798, and a Nelson cap in Coquelicot velvet was one of the many articles of Nelsoniana worn to commemorate the hero.

The Hats of 1810
(Haller von Hallerstein, 1810). The bonnet brim grew exponentially until 1810 when the ladies who wore them were satirised as ‘invisibles’. The central lady also carries an oversized trefoil fan.

Although it was beyond the range of most ladies to construct a hat, they delighted in trimming and re-trimming them to emulate the latest styles. A vogue for artificial flowers and fruits appeared in the late 1790s. In a letter to Cassandra Jane wrote:

In her next letter she adds ‘besides I cannot help thinking that it is more natural to have flowers grow out of the head than fruit. Caps were frequently worn indoors, especially by older married ladies and Jane was very fond of wearing one even when only twenty-three. Her niece Caroline recalled:

‘Half Dress’ (
Ackermann’s Repository
, January 1820). A veritable fruit bowl of a hat worn with a fawn silk gown and tucker.

In December 1798 when Jane is deeply involved in making a new cap, she writes to Cassandra:

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 …’