Clothing & Fashion

Articles related to Regency clothing and fashion

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Regency Fashion Victims

In my last post I discussed Beau Brummell’s sophisticated manner of dress, and what a contrast Brummell’s understated style was to the flashier styles worn by some of his contemporaries. While Brummell may have disapproved of their fashion sense, the men and women whose dress he criticized provided excellent fodder for the caricaturists of their…

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Beau Brummell and the Evolution of Men’s Fashion

There have always been and always will be dandies – men who follow fashion and take an active interest in how they present themselves to the world. However, the Regency produced one of the most influential and famous dandies of all time, George Bryan “Beau” Brummell.

Beau Brummell and the Snub that Backfired
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Beau Brummell and the Snub that Backfired

This month marks the anniversary of one of the most famous snubs in history, or at least in Regency history. For it was in July of 1813 that Beau Brummell snubbed the Prince Regent at London’s Argyle rooms. And that snub, for whatever momentary satisfaction it may have given Brummell, marked the beginning of the…

Off to the Races! The Royal Ascot
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Off to the Races! The Royal Ascot

June is a busy month in the UK’s royal calendar. In addition to the King’s Birthday Parade (also known as Trooping the Colour), on the second Saturday of June there’s the Royal Ascot – arguably the most famous horse race in the world. The Royal Ascot races, held every year, span five days in the…

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Wigged Out

In my post earlier this week, I discussed the Titus haircut that was all the rage during the late 1790s-early 1800s, and how women sometimes used wigs to augment their fashionably cropped hair. So I thought it would be fun to show you a set of period caricatures of women in wigs. Of the four women,…

Photo from Netflix's Bridgerton Season 2 showig off Kate Sharma's exquisite blue velvet top hat.
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April and Easter Bonnets in Regency England

Ah, spring is here—Bridgerton has returned for season two, and we’ll have bonnets (don’t you love the blue velvet hop hat worn by the heroine, Kate Sharma?) to renew the year. Or so goes the tradition. The origins of the tradition are lost in time, but springtime has always been the season of renewal, plus…

Promo image for the 2021 Silent Auction. All details are in the body of this post.
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RFW 2021 Annual Silent Auction

Bidding opened on July 2nd for the 2021 RFW online auction! More than 100 donations are offered, and your final bid is your final price, as the generous donors have agreed to pay for shipping. The selection of research books is the best ever. In addition to books donated by our members, about 30 books…

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Silk to Silicon:   How French Weaving Created Computer Commands

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote: Truth, as usual, is always stranger than fiction. The machines that wove all those lovely French silks which were so often smuggled into England during the war with Napoleon did indeed provide the key to issuing commands to computers shortly after the Regency. This same method continued in use…