1810s Layering

Last weekend when dressing for the “Mikelsmäss” I spent 1 hour on my hair (curling, styling and tying the turban) and the remaining 10 minutes to get the rest of the costume on.

This was not a good way to do it, since I usally count at least 30 minutes for the dressing. So I ended up going “half dressed” to the event, and needed help with getting the fichu right and to close the dress when I arriwed.

The reason why it takes so long getting dressed, are of course the many different layers of clothing you need to get the right look of your costume. And tying a back laced corset on your own takes both skills and time.

So here is an other “un-dressing” post – Regency style.

IMG_2256Lets start fully dressed in: Gown and fichu, whit a headress (turban) and some accessoares like mittens and a shawl.

You could also wear a open robe or a spencer over the dress, and a few more accessoares like a riddicule (bag), muff, fan or a parasol.

IMG_2264Lets take away the accessories.

By now you could call yourself dressed and be on your way. But you would need some small items/accessoares to compleate the look of your costume.

IMG_2266Once we take the gown of, we reveal the complete fichu, the petticoat and the some of the corset.

The fichu is a pice of sheer fabric shaped as a rectangel or a tiangel. Ladies used it to cover the neck and bust, and pined it on before putting on the gown.

IMG_2273Removing the fichu we now view the top part of the corset and the petticoat.

The regency lady could also have worn an extra under-dress on top of the undergarmnents, to prevent see-througness in verry sheer gowns.

IMG_2278And then we are down to the underpinings with the corset, chemise, stockings and shoes.

The chemise are worn to keep the swett and dirt from the body away from the corset.

 The corset could also be in a short style (ending right below the bust), or in a wraping style.

It is important to remember to put the shoes on before the corset – since it is very difficult to lace or attach buckles while fully corsetted.

Advertisement

3 thoughts on “1810s Layering

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s