Fashion In The Time Of Jane Austen (11 page)

‘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 leather and supplied by a glove maker. But as gloves began to be made of fabrics complementary to the outfit, increasingly they were bought from milliners. In the late 1790s there was a vogue for kid gloves printed with a variety of ingenious designs from elegant all over prints, to pretty hand painted designs such as a lady dressing a lamb with a garland of flowers. White was universal in the softest leathers including kid, chickenskin or limerick – the skin of unborn calves – which was reputed to make the wearer’s hands and arms enviably white, clear, soft and smooth. Neutral shades of buff and stone, yellow, lilac and pastel shades were fashionable according to the colour of the gown. Black gloves were a statement of mourning until the 1820s when they became acceptable for fashionable wear in town.

The Gallery of Fashion
, 1796. The lady on the right demonstrates the vertical leaf of a marquise or ‘fan’ parasol.

The Coquette and Her Daughters
(Debucourt,
c
. 1800). He is peeking at her prodigious bosom round the marquise parasol that he carries in the same hand as her pink reticule, whilst she carries a tiny fan.

‘Promenade Dresses’ (
Ackermann’s Repository
, July 1810). Writing from Bath in May 1801, Jane observed, ‘black gauze cloaks are worn as much as anything’. A similar effect could be achieved by netting, as Miss Tilney’s friend Miss Andrews did in
Northanger Abbey
: ‘she is netting, herself the sweetest cloak you can conceive’.

Generally elbow-length, longer gloves often had the problem of slipping and wrinkling. Glove strings first appeared in the 1780s; they were ribbons tied or sometimes fastened with a diamond buckle ‘high over the elbow to preserve the arm in beauty for womanhood’. After Waterloo a new prudery dawned in reaction to the freedoms of the revolutionary period and gloves became extremely long, almost in compensation for the short puffed sleeves that were still de rigueur for evening.

Jane does not specify the length of them but she bought some ‘light and pretty’ coloured gloves for herself and Cassandra in May 1812 for 4 shillings, which must have been an exceptional bargain as she writes: ‘everybody at chawton will be hoping & predicting that they cannot be good for anything, and their worth certainly remains to be proved, but I think they look very well.’

The fan was the essential evening accessory as well as being pretty; they were extremely practical at the assemblies, which with their increasing popularity were often tremendously crowded, hot and airless. More importantly, clever use of a fan could draw attention to the owner’s beautiful eyes whilst concealing her pretty smile and, depicting classical, romantic, or fashionable scenes, convey something of her innate taste and sophistication.

Fans, which had become an important accessory during the eighteenth century, remained so, but increasingly the hand-painted biblical or pastoral scenes were replaced by printed political messages. Political fans played their part in the French Revolution, spreading propaganda or concealing hidden messages of aristocratic support, and it was said that Charlotte Corday carried a fan in one hand as she plunged the knife into Marat.

Mademoiselle
Rivière
(Ingres,
c
. 1804). Her exceptionally long suede fingerless gloves are fastened with glove strings and she wears a snake-style boa of white fox..

In England a fan of 1789 was issued as a patriotic gesture in support of King George III after another bout of illness, ‘On the King’s Happy Recovery’. Fans celebrated Nelson’s sea victories and followed each development in the war, giving details of the ships involved, those captured and sunk. Other fans were ivory or bone with incredibly intricate carving to look like muslin. There was a system of fan etiquette designating the correct ways to use and hold a fan to enhance the beauty and grace of the hands. There was also a language of the fan, probably derived from
The Speaking Fan
published by Charles Badini in 1797. Displaying the ‘Rudiments of Fanology’, it began as a party game but developed into a tool of romantic intrigue. However, it is for concealment that Catherine Morland uses her fan at the Cotillion Ball in
Northanger Abbey
when the boorish John Thorpe is in sight: ‘that she might not appear to observe or expect him, she kept her eyes intently fixed on her fan.’

With the rise of the reticule, fans became smaller at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and those displaying images of the sights of the Grand Tour were particularly popular. English taste remained modest, with church fans printed with psalms, educational fans with maps or botanical diagrams, and art fans depicting famous works, although pierced ivory
brisé
fans remained most popular. Cockade fans that opened up into a full circle became popular from 1808, some including a spy glass in the centre, with crape fans embroidered with silver and spangles leading the fashion in 1817.

‘Watering Place Morning Dress’ (
The Gallery of Fashion
, October 1795). Pea green gloves, green silk handkerchief tied over the hat, green sash and shoes show that accessories could be used to quite striking effect to pull an outfit together.