wedding

Ackermann’s September 1816 Fashion Plates

September 12, 2018 By BlissBennet Leave a Comment

Stripes! I can’t remember a previous gown featured in Ackermann’s Repository that featured stripes to the degree that plate 16’s half dress does. Not only is the gown itself made of striped sarsnet, the slippers that accompany it are, too! But in 1816, stripes alone are not enough to adorn even a simple day dress; the candy striped concoction here features two flounces of lace with headings, and bows of Pomona green above the highest flounce. Similar bows run down the top of each sleeve, too. I think I would have preferred a striped dress to be weighted down with less adornment—would you?

Ackermann's Repository September 1816, plate 16: Half Dress

2nd series Vol II, no. ix, plate 16

Plate 17 features a plain white evening dress—at least, plain in terms of its fabric, British net over a sarsnet slip. But the dress features as many embellishments as its companion day dress. A double flounce of lace, a wreath of roses, and a rollio of white satin above the roses bring the skirt trimming almost to knee-height; a companion bouquet of moss roses “shades” the bosom, while a quilling of blond lace frames the bodice. Even more detailed are the dress’s short and full sleeves, which are “divided into compartments by rollios of satin.” (FYI, a “rollio” is a type of rolled trimming, used for decoration; according to Cunnington’s Dictionary of English Costume, fabric is “rolled into a very narrow tubular shape”). Pearls are the jewelry of choice for this gown. Was it made for a very young lady?

Ackermann's September 1816 Fashion Plate 17: Evening Dress

2nd series, Vol. II, no. ix, plate 17: Evening Dress

Ackermann's Fashion Plates September 1816 descriptions

General observations on British Fashion and Dress include the following:

• The Gloucester bonnet and spencer are in vogue for carriage dress

• The cold weather has led ladies to wrap themselves in silk scarves and shawls, laying aside muslin pelisses as not warming enough

• Lace is not so generally worn in morning dress as in the past (although the columnist’s adumbrations against it suggest this may be more of a recommendation than an actual observation)

• Silks striped of the same color are popular in dinner dress, as are gowns of shot sarsnet

• The Gloucester robe is an “elegant novelty” in full dress

The prevalence of “Gloucester”-named apparel stems, I’m guessing, from the July 1816 marriage of the Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776-1834), nephew of George III, to King George’s fourth daughter, Princess Mary.

Fashionable colors for September echo those of August, with the addition of Pomona green and lavender.

This month’s magazine also includes fashion news from France, where the bad weather experienced in England had turned fine only a few weeks earlier. Worked muslin is in fashion for promenade dresses, unlike in colder England, and white is the most commonly seen in evening dress. The author mourns poor French taste in not matching bonnet linings with trim or ribbons:

“for example, you see a bonnet lined with blue, trimmed with green, and perhaps ornamented with a bunch of different coloured flowers; at present, blue, rose-colour, and green are favourite linings; but, I think, plaid silk is still more than any thing in request, and some of our most distinguished fashionables have sported bonnets entirely composed of it” (180).

Luckily for French fashion, reports the correspondent, the Duchess of Berri (mother of the current heir to the French throne) sets the French style with her notable taste in dress.

Ackermann's September 1816 French Female Fashions description

Curves, rather than stripes, take center stage in September’s needlework patterns:

Ackermann's September 1816 Pattern for Needle-Work

Ackermann’s Fashion Plates June 1816

July 18, 2018 By BlissBennet Leave a Comment

Vol. I, no. vi, plate 33: Bridal Dress

In commemoration of the wedding of HRH Princess Charlotte of Wales to HSH Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield in May of 1816, Ackermann’s June 1816 edition features a white “bridal dress” as its first fashion plate, the first time, I believe, such a garment ever appeared in its pages. Historians suggest that the white bridal dress, or wedding gown, did not become de rigeur in Western culture until after Queen Victoria wed in white in 1840; Charlotte’s gown was actually silver. But dressmaker Mrs. Gill of Burlington Gardens anticipated the Victorian trend with this design, which features white striped gauze over a white satin slip. And wearing white was not a symbol of sexual purity, but of class status: only the richest people could afford to pay to launder such easily soiled clothing.

Princess Charlotte of Wales' Wedding Dress 1816

Princess Charlotte’s wedding dress (1816) – This elaborate cloth-of-silver empire line dress embroidered with flowers and trimmed with Brussels lace was worn by Princess Charlotte when married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg in 1816. This remarkable, glittering dress is 195-years-old, the oldest royal wedding dress that Historic Royal Palaces cares for. © The Royal Collection/Historic Royal Palace.

Regency wedding gowns were rarely expected to be worn only once and never again, as they typically are today. If a Regency-era lady had a gown especially created to be married in, as Mrs. Gill’s customer did, it was more likely to become her new best dress, rather than something to be stored away in her wardrobe. Can you imagine what it might be like to step into this elaborate dress just to attend church of a Sunday?

The issue’s second fashion plate is also white: an evening dress made of white lace worn over a white satin slip. This gown’s adornments are even more pronounced than those on the bridal gown. The “wrath of beautiful fancy flowers” “surmounting” the flounce and 3 bias tucks are almost as large as the lady’s head! Of what do you think they were made?

Vol. I, no. vi, plate 34: Evening Dress

The writer of the London Fashion column reports that she/he is “forbidden either to describe it [the body and sleeves], or to mention the materials of which it is composed”—no doubt, to encourage viewers to visit Mrs. Gill’s shop and enquire themselves. A nice marketing trick, no?

The long description of London fashions include the month’s most fashionable colors: “green of all the lighter shades, evening primrose, sapphire blue, pale blush colour, and straw colour.” Our columnist also notes that “frocks are entirely exploded.” I’m not sure whether this comment refers to the observation made just before it, that bodices have moved higher, or are covered by a small lace tippet; or to the one made just after it: “Coloured bodices are very prevalent: they are in general worn with white long sleeves.” What is more clear is that full dress jewelry composed of colored stones mixed with pearls or diamonds is also “wholly exploded.” Instead, London’s ladies are wearing only diamonds or pearls, or sets of necklaces, earrings, and bracelets all made from a single gemstone (sapphires, amethysts, topazes being the most common), when they step out in full dress. For half-dress, gold, or white cornelian intermixed with gold, is deemed suitably elegant.

What would happen, do you think, if a lady arrived at court wearing unfashionable jewels?

Fronds, curlicues, and half-circles feature in June’s muslin patterns:

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Ackermann’s Fashion Plates April 1816

May 15, 2018 By BlissBennet Leave a Comment

As with March’s fashion plates, April’s dress designs are also by one Mrs. Gill of Cork-street, Burlington Gardens. I’m wondering, now, if these dressmakers had to pay for the right to place their dress designs in front of the eyes of Ackermann’s readers? Or did they just have to have an in with the journal’s fashion writer?

As for that writer, I have to say that after reading four months of their commentary, I’m finding their descriptive powers somewhat lacking. Almost each outfit featured is described with the word “novel”; second in popularity seems to be the word “elegant.” If everything is termed both novel and elegant, how is a reader to know what is truly novel? Or has fashion begun to change so quickly that what was “novel” one month is now displaced by a new “novelty” the next?

Plate 22, Vol. I (2nd ed.), no. iv

The shape of Plate 22’s Morning Dress doesn’t strike me as particular novel: a round gown of cambric. The lines of small tucks, and the worked flounce with a heading seem quite in keeping with the increase of trimmings in post-war fashions. I quite like the bodice, gathered at the center and flowing toward each shoulder. Caps have always left me a bit cold, but our reporter describes this one as “uncommonly becoming,” ornamented with lilac ribbon.

Ackermann's April 1816 plate 23, Opera Dress

From the waist down, this month’s Opera Dress, plate 23, looks quite similar in style to its companion Morning Dress, although it is made from white satin with a lace overlay rather than from cambric. Again, the bodice is not really described in much detail; the columnist seems most interested in the outfit’s “Berlin cap,” with its rich gold band and its crown of short ostrich feathers. “The Berlin cap is, in our opinion, the most generally becoming headdress which has been introduced for some seasons,” writes our columnist.

Ackermann's April 1816 London Fashions

This month’s general observations note that “the fashions have changed less since our last number than they do in general at this season of the year.” But this is likely to change soon, given the upcoming nuptials of Princess Charlotte (May 2, 1816). Despite the report of the increasing fashionableness of mantles last month, pelisses still seem to be ruling the fashion scene. Our columnist’s prediction that the Cobourg hat would increase in popularity seems to have been more on the mark. “Satinet,” a fabric composed of silk and worsted, with a rich satin stripe, has recently been introduced, and is reported to be “in much request with belles of rank and taste.” Another recent introduction, Irish satin, is also reported to be popular, especially among those “ladies of rank who wish to encourage the productions of our own looms, in preference to French goods.” (“Satinet” is indeed listed as a fabric in Fairchild’s Dictionary of Textiles, although “irish satin” is not).

Ackermann's London Fashions 2

This month’s fashionable colors are the same as last’s, with the addition of light drab and lilac.

This month’s muslin pattern:

Ackermann's April 1816 muslin pattern