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Ackermann’s Fashion Plates December 1816

October 10, 2018 By BlissBennet Leave a Comment

 

The death of the Queen’s brother sent the court into mourning in late 1816, but the fashion plates from the December issue do not shy away from bright colors. Court mourning may have “retarded the appearance of those novelties” in fashion, but as mourning is “expected to be short,” Ackermann’s columnist feels no compunction at describing “what is expected to be most in request among belles of taste at its close.”

Both of this month’s dresses are, in fact, both French, “but in the best style of Parisian costume,” reassures our columnist. Was there a “worst” style of Parisian costume?

Ackermann's Fashion Plates December 1816, Plate 36: Promanade Dress

Plate 34, Vol. II, no. xii

Plate 34 features a Promenade Dress, one almost entirely hidden under a crimson “Angouleme pelisse.” Candice Hern suggests the style is named in honor of the Duchesse d’Angloulême, the eldest daughter of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, who lived in exile in England from 1807 to 1814. Its bright color certainly appears appropriate for the December holiday! I’m particularly drawn to the model’s “ridicule” or reticule, which is described as being made of “black silk… exquisitely worked in imitation of the ends of an India shawl, and trimmed with black silk fringe.” Its boxlike shape, with its triangular top, makes it look like a little house, don’t you think?

Ackermann's fashion plates December 1816: Plate 35, Carriage Dress

Plate 35, Vol. II, no. xii

Were ladies on the road during December, traveling to visit relatives for the holidays? Plate 35 also features an outfit for out of doors time, a carriage dress made of “pale faun-colour cloth, made a walking length, and trimmed round the bottom with four rows of rich blue silk trimming.” The front (although we can’t see it in the plate) is reported to be “cut very low,” is also trimmed with the same rich blue silk, although “but very narrow.” The “tasteful half sleeve, over a plain long sleeve, made tight at the wrist,” is also “bound with blue trimming.” The description mentions the usefulness of an India shawl when actually riding in a carriage, although no such shawl appears in the plate. And while no mention of it is made in the description, a small but quite colorful red reticule features prominently. Makes me want to visit the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam…

Ackermann's Fashion plates December 1816, description part 1

General Observations on Fashion and Dress for December include the following:

• For “juvenile and hardy élégantes,” high dresses made of poplin or levantine will be in style

• Cloth shawls will be matched with such dresses; those featuring narrow gold bindings and gold tassels are “likely to be most prevalent,” although ermine and other costly furs are also likely to be popular

• Bonnets of black straw, beaver, and velvet are “all talked of,” while “feathers, to correspond, will be universal”

Ackermann's December 1816 Fashion plates, description part 2

 

• Fancy velvets and white merino cloths will dominate carriage costumes

• For evening dresses, fancy gauze, and white net spotted with white silk, “are likely to be in the highest estimation for juvenile belles,” while “white satin, white and figured velvets” will be “generally adopted by mature élégantes”

 

I don’t remember Ackermanns’ columnists making distinctions between the dress of young girls and older women before; is this where the idea that young girls only wore white comes from, I wonder?

 

Instead of a needlework pattern, this month’s issue features “Ornaments for Painting on Wood and Fancy Work.” Puffing its own wares, Ackermann’s notes that “painting and ornamenting Tunbridge and fancy ware” has become “an elegant and useful amusement” among the fair sex, and that anyone interested in pursuing such a recreation may find the materials necessary at the Repository of Arts.

 

Filed Under: Regency History Tagged With: Ackermann, Ackermanns, Ackermmann's, clothing, dress, fabric, fashion, mourning

Ackermann’s Fashion Plates March 1813

March 22, 2017 By BlissBennet 3 Comments

 

Earlier this month, I attended a wake for a young Catholic man. As I watched the mourners moving through the room, I noticed that many of the girls and young women wore necklaces with crosses of silver or gold. I had always regarded the wearing of such crosses as a particularly Catholic tradition, but this month’s fashion plates reminded me that Protestant women in the Regency period often donned the cross as an adornment, too. In both of March 1813’s plates, one featuring a Half-Dress, the other an Opera Dress, the ladies wear necklaces with a cross: in Plate 21, of amber beads; in Plate 22, of white satin beads. And of course, this reminds me of Jane Austen’s topaz cross, gifted to her by her brother Charles. Was wearing a cross always appropriate, no matter the occasion?

 

Vol. IX, no xvi, plate 21

 

Vol. IX, no xvi, plate 22

 

 

March’s “Patterns of British Manufacture” are all fabrics, three dress materials and one of linen shirting. The latter, despite being sold by the “East India Warehouse,” is apparently an English manufacture, for Ackermann declares it “of a quality equal to, and nearly half the price of Irish and foreign linens.” And it “prevents[s] a too profuse perspiration” to boot!

“It is sold, wholesale and by the piece, at the beforementioned warehouse, No. 16, Cheapside, and at no other house in London.” Were Regency shoppers drawn by such claims of exclusivity, I wonder?

 

Vol. IX, no xvi

 

Filed Under: Regency History Tagged With: Ackermann, Ackermanns, clothing, dress, fashion, mourning

Ackermanns Fashion Plates December 1811

March 16, 2016 By BlissBennet Leave a Comment

 

Can’t remember seeing a riding dress featured in Ackermann’s Fashion plates before. This one is rather dour, at least in color: “a pale lead or olive tinge.” Better ride a strikingly-colored horse if you put that gown on, else you’ll be likely to fade right into the background of the dank English countryside…

Plate 35, Riding Dress
Plate 36, Mourning Dress

Ackermanns Dec. 1811 Vol. VI, no xxxvi

 

I’m in love with the first of this month’s fabric samples, a “cerulean blue and white embossed satin.” Dreaming about drifting about a ballroom in a dress made from that one, I am. The other dress fabrics look pretty dreary in comparison…

Check out the note about the creators of the tambour work on last month’s fabric sample—a potential plot detail for someone’s next Regency novel, perhaps?

Screen Shot 2016-03-02 at 5.00.29 PM

 

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Filed Under: Regency History Tagged With: Ackermanns, Ackermmann's, clothing, dress, fashion, mourning, riding

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  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates January 1817
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates December 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates November 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates October 1816
  • Ackermann’s September 1816 Fashion Plates
  • Ackermann’s August 1816 Fashion Plates
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates July 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates June 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates May 1816
  • Ackermann’s Fashion Plates April 1816

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