Natural Beauty
Natural Beauty - the Regency Aesthetic As the 19th century dawned, no one wanted to look like Marie Antoinette. In a backlash against the powder, patch and paint of the decadent 1800s, the Regency beauty ideal for women of the privileged classes was natural. Unless you were married, the smallest hint of rouge was tantamount to declaring yourself a fallen woman. But the change in aesthetic was not only a matter of taste. With the gruesome excesses of the French Revolution fresh in everyone’s minds, the English upper classes worried that they, too, could [...]
List of Dressmakers in Regency London
A List of Dressmakers in Regency London This post lists some of the 160 women included in my Regency Modistes' Compendium (due for release December 2023). The Compendium represents the first and only comprehensive research into the identities and lives of the forgotten women who defined Regency fashion from 1800 to 1830. Variously known as as milliners, modistes, mantua makers, marchands des modes, and dressmakers, these women built the foundations of the present-day design fashion industry, as I discovered when I began my deep dive into their stories early in 2018. I've been adding to [...]
The Indispensable Bourdaloue
When Georgian and Regency era women HAD to go and there were no public toilets, the bourdaloue was a small boat-shaped chamber pot designed to be used standing up. Since most women did not wear knickers, a hassle-free bathroom break could happen virtually anywhere, without having to touch icky facilities used by hundreds of others. For those who did not have their own maid to manage the process, the bourdaloue contents could be tipped into the bushes or the nearest alley and the portable lady-potty rinsed next time water was available. The bourdaloue was indispensable during [...]
