Georgette Heyer's Regency World (22 page)

Because Regency dresses were often lightweight with short sleeves, keeping warm required an array of fashionable coats, cloaks and accessories. An essential item of clothing, the pelisse was a coat which followed the dress style of the period (eventually evolving into a dress in its own right). Originally knee-length, by the time of the Regency the pelisse had lengthened to the ankle with the waist below the bosom. Pelisses were close-fitting, with front fastenings across the bosom or extending all the way from neck to ankle, and they were elegant, ornamental garments often with trimmings that matched those of the dress. In
Cotillion
Meg, Lady Buckhaven, wore an elegant new pelisse of Sardinian blue velvet when visiting her mother but was advised by that fashionable lady to wear it with chinchilla or ermine rather than the dark sables her daughter was wearing. Sleeves were long and generally extended over the hand and could be puffed, gathered or trimmed with fur at the shoulders; collars varied but were often high or flat and wide. Sometimes two or more shoulder capes were added. Worn in both summer and winter, pelisses were made of almost every type of fabric, although those of wool, kerseymere, velvet, brocade or other heavy cloth were favoured in the cooler months. An extremely fashionable garment during the Regency was the spencer, a very short jacket resembling the bodice of the pelisse, with long sleeves extending over the hands. Designed to cover the chest, they were made of a variety of materials including silk, velvet, kerseymere, wool and satin, and could be collarless—although many women favoured those with high frilled collars. Both elegant and utilitarian, shawls were a versatile accessory which could be worn, artistically draped across the arms or shoulder, over an evening dress or could be, when not out socially, used to cover the shoulders and upper body in cooler weather. Either square or rectangular, shawls came in a wide variety of sizes with some as much as six feet long. Cashmere shawls made of fine goat’s hair and imported from Kashmir in the Himalayas were both warm and beautiful and proved popular as did English Norwich silk shawls, despite costing as much as £60 and being only a yard square in size. Lady Bridlington in
Arabella
was tempted to buy her young protégée a handsome Norwich shawl before she remembered that she had a superior one at home to lend to Arabella. A mantle was similar to a cloak but of variable length; it fastened at the neck and was made of fur, velvet or other warm fabrics; and occasionally had a cape or sleeves.

Shoes were also known as slippers and were quite dainty and often unsuited to the demands of daily life or the exigencies of walking and dancing. Either flat or low-heeled, they had a slim leather sole and were fastened with ribbons or laces tied around the ankle or instep. For everyday use shoes tended to be made of kid leather or jean although, despite their impracticality for outdoor wear, velvet, silk and satin were also popular and even recommended in the ladies’ magazines, especially for evening wear. Half-boots, worn for walking or riding, were low-heeled, short in length (they reached to the bottom of the calf), and were either buttoned at the side or laced at the side, front or back. They were made of either kid leather, jean, or nankeen, and occasionally of silk. Frederica wore half-boots of orange jean when visiting Lady Buxted and, on her long journey to London, Arabella found that her half-boots of crimson jean did not keep out the cold.

Accessories were an essential part of a well-dressed lady’s wardrobe and generally included a variety of bags, gloves, fans and muffs. A reticule was the Regency woman’s handbag and also known as a ‘ridicule’. It usually had a draw-string opening and came in a range of shapes, styles and fabrics. The style of dress during the period precluded pockets, making the reticule an indispensable accessory for any lady wishing to carry her money, handkerchief, scent or smelling-salts. Women often fashioned their own reticules and decorated them with embroidery or beads. In
The Unknown Ajax
, Anthea Darracott, following the advice in
The Mirror of Fashion
, attempted to make a reticule in the shape of an Etruscan vase which her mother assured her would look very elegant once it was painted. An alternative to the reticule for carrying money, the stocking purse was a long narrow tube with a single opening at the centre enabling the user to drop coins into each end. Usually knitted, crocheted or netted, they were closed by means of two metal rings encircling the central opening which could be pushed in either direction to secure the contents. Lady Bridlington kindly bought one for Arabella while shopping in London but ladies often made stocking purses to their own design and ornamented the ends.

No well-dressed woman went out of doors without her gloves which, although useful for keeping the hands warm, were considered an elegant and essential accessory for both day and evening wear. During the Regency they were mostly worn short during the day and elbow length in the evenings. Short kid leather or York tan gloves were mostly worn for riding, driving or other outdoor activities; coloured silk gloves were reserved for more genteel pastimes; long white kid gloves were exclusively for evening wear and knitted woollen gloves or mittens, though utilitarian and less attractive, were useful in the winter months. In
Lady of Quality
, Lucilla Carleton was thrilled when Ancilla granted her permission to buy her first pair of evening gloves to wear to a rout party.

Muffs, large hollow cylinders usually made of fur, swansdown, fabric or sealskin, were used by both men and women, although favoured by the latter, to keep their hands warm. They varied greatly in size, with the heavier winter muffs as much as two feet in length, and were often made of sable or ermine while summer muffs were lighter and made of feathers or swansdown. An elegant accessory, muffs were often designed to match a woman’s tippet or the edging on her pelisse and could be used to conceal or carry small objects such as billets-doux or money. Sophy carried a large swansdown muff when she visited the moneylender, Mr Goldhanger, in
The Grand Sophy
and found it extremely useful for carrying her money, several important papers and her pistol.

Introduced to fashionable English society from China, the early parasols were made of silk and often shaped like a pagoda. Primarily used to shade a lady’s complexion from the sun, they were also considered an elegant accessory and were often chosen to match a particular gown or pelisse. Bamboo, cane and the new telescopic steel sticks were used for the frame, and hinged parasols, which could be used like a fan, were popular for a time. Unlike their male counterparts who carried their furled umbrellas held firmly in the middle, ladies carried their furled parasols by the handle.

And finally, every lady of fashion carried a fan in her reticule or slipped over her wrist at a ball or evening party. In previous decades the fan had been an instrument of dalliance and ladies were well-versed in the language of the furled or open fan, twirling, tapping, opening or closing it to convey messages of love and rejection. By the time of the Regency, however, the fan was used less for flirtation and more as an elegant accessory which could also provide some relief from the often oppressive heat of a crowded ballroom. Folding fans with multiple elaborately decorated sticks, known as brisé fans, were among the most popular and were often articles of great beauty. Those created by the celebrated eighteenth-century artist Angela Kauffmann, or which used the French
vernis
technique developed by the four Martin brothers, were highly prized.
Vernis Martin
fans were so-called because of their varnished (
vernis
in French) decoration; they were hand-painted, often with oriental scenes. In
A Civil Contract
Jonathan Chawleigh had already bestowed a
Vernis Martin
fan on his daughter Jenny when her husband Adam gave her an elegant painted fan with mother-of-pearl sticks. Fans could be made with sticks of delicately carved ivory, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, bone, metal or lacquered wood, with leaves of silk, crape, lace or chicken skin. These delicate works of art had become smaller by the early nineteenth century and during the Regency were usually between six and ten inches long with a span of approximately 120 degrees. French fans and those made by oriental craftsmen were among the most popular fans for ladies during the period.

Hairstyles

The penchant for the Grecian style which influenced fashion in the early nineteenth century also extended to men’s and women’s hairstyles. For much of the Regency, men wore their hair short with just enough length to have it curled or waved. Partings were rare and many men wore their hair as it fell naturally while followers of fashion frequently affected one of the well-known styles of the day. Sir Richard Wyndham in
The Corinthian
favoured the Windswept which was one of the most difficult hairstyles to realise: the aim being to look as natural as possible without any indication of the time required to achieve it. The dishevelled style known as the Brutus was first made popular by Beau Brummell and was fashionable until the later years of the Regency although it took both time and patience to create the desired tousled look.

Some men still adopted a version of an earlier Grecian style called the Titus in imitation of the Roman emperor; it had short side-whiskers and was carefully cut and styled to sit up at the front and to follow the contours of the face at the temples. Other popular pre-Regency styles were the
Coup au Vent
, which was short at the back and worn long over the eyes at the front, and the
Chérubin
, which was all over short curls. Although a few members of the older generation still wore wigs, the 1795 tax on hair powder had seen them worn less and less and by the time of the Regency they were mostly worn only at Court. By 1813 many men had begun to cultivate side-whiskers and by 1818 both short and long side-whiskers had become fashionable.