Friday, May 10, 2013

The Allure of Regency Fashion

In France, it is known as Empire fashion. To quote author Philippa Jane Keyworth:
Enlightenment ideas had led to the admiration of classical civilisations, such as Rome and Greece, and this admiration gradually filtered into fashion with women’s dresses losing the rigid, falsified outlines of the Robe a la Francaise, and instead embracing the neo-classical loose-fitting almost ethereal designs of the Regency dresses. It also led to a more rational dress-style for men, a more practical style, discarding the frock-coat which could get in the way and instead embracing the cut-away Redingote and eventual tail-coat sported by the fashionable Brummel.

The rise of consumerism allowed fashions to change more easily, though no-where near the rate we witness today. It also meant that middling classes were able to follow the fashions, and that demand for exotic new materials such as muslin could be met by changing domestic manufacturing. (Read entire post.)
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