If you are jonesing for some Jane austen kinda thing, ladies, clicky here!

[Baker]

@teela brown

Here’s a costuming website I like to visit when I’m “jonesing” for some Jane Austen-era (or Aubrey-Maturin era, for that matter) visuals.

I’m going to bookmark that site, as I know someone who is into that sort of costuming!

[Guinastasia]

Oh sigh! Is there nothing lovelier than antique costumes?

[JR_Brown]

@rockle

Can someone please translate the following portion of the Wiki article into some kind of grammar for me?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
The corset falls from favor

After about 1908, the small corseted waist slowly started to fall out of fashion. But rigid corsets had the bedst year in 1918 because many the woman get work and mony. In 1919 the rigid corset been replaced by elastic dress. But corsets and girdles final disappear about 1960 of the tights.

Only the first sentence makes any sense. And I can’t even really guess from context what that last bit is supposed to say, because I just don’t know.

Incomprehensible, I agree. I think that the points being made are:

1. Starting about 1908, the artificially exaggerated waist began to fall out of fashion. True. Corsets became more tubular, with less waist definition, although they were still a fashion necessity.

2. Boned corsets had good sales in 1918 because women working at relatively well-paid war jobs had more money to spend on their wardrobes. Um, maybe? Presumably they are talking about the U.S. population here since the European economy (and corset production) tanked during the war; U.S. women, on the other hand, had opportunities to earn a much better paycheck than normal “feminine” jobs offered at the time. I don’t know if U.S. corset sales were indeed higher in 1918 than other years, but a couple of fashion articles I have seen from the late teens do suggest that the “average” woman was buying a higher-priced corset compared to the 1900’s / early 1910’s, so it might be true.

3. In 1919 the corset was replaced by the elastic girdle. False. In the late teens and early 20’s, “belts” of elastic fabric (what we would now call girdles) began to be a viable alternative to boned corsets, especially for slender women, but boned corsets (and later corselettes) remained the norm until the late 20’s at least.

4. Corsets and girdles finally disappeared in the 1960’s because of pantyhose. I really don’t believe pantyhose had all that much to do with it…

Getting back to the OP: I’m not much into Regency but my first impression of the gown was that the lace sleeves were odd for the period. They would be just right for late Victorian or Edwardian “pseudo-Regency”, though. It might be an original that was later modified for fancy dress wear; it might be a Victorian “reformed dress” reinterpretation; or it might be entirely original and just eccentric. A good close look at the lace and the stitching might tell (i.e., if it’s machine-made lace it’s not from 1805).

And why can’t eBayers that deal in antique clothing ever come up with a dress form / mannequin that has an even vaguely appropriate body shape for the period?

JRB

[JR_Brown]

Follow-up post: looking closely at the photos, I’d bet cash money that the fabric is brocaded (i.e., the design is woven in), not embroidered. I’m also suspicious about the “crochet lace” on the sleeves; I do crochet lace, and it would be fairly difficult to make the scrolls and spider-webs in crochet. It looks more like point lace or maybe one of the bobbin laces.

JRB