This morning I was doing some research on the fashions of 1814. Okay , I should have been writing, but it seemed like a good excuse. I happened to look up La Belle Assemblee. This was the first fashion magazine.
Anyway, in the January 1814 issue was this plate.
My sister should recognise it as it has been on my wall forever. My great grandmother used to collect prints and this is one I was given. The colours on the web are more vivid than one I have. What you can not see are the curls in the woman's hair and the intricacy of the lace. Her cheek is a far softer pink and parts of the hat are not coloured in. Equally, the blanket is shown as green in this picture but in my print it is blue. And her foot rests on a blue footstool. Her slipper has a pink band over it but looks white instead of being dark as shown. The woman's dress in my print is all white and the pink of the braces is merely crosshatching. I know that sometimes the prints were hand tinted later and this could account for the difference.
The caption on mine says Morning Dress. Invented & to be had exclusively of Miss Bell removed to No 26 Charlotte Street Bedford Square
Engrav'd for No 60 New Series La Belle Assemblee 1st Aug 1814.
Anyway, if anyone is interested in fashion from the Regency period, it is worth looking through the Belle Assemblee. It is very fun to see what well dressed ladies were wearing. I am however very grateful to my great grandmother and her collection of prints.
4 comments:
Gorgeous picture, and curiously up to the minute in some ways-- what wouldn't Victoria Beckham give for such voluptuous boobs and such a tiny waist-- without the aid of surgery!
Very interesting! I like the pic.
Thank you both for liking the picture. I am very fond of my version.
Apparently the tudor or Elizabethan collar was very in that year.
One of the intersting things about reading La Belle Asblemee is to see how quickly fashions changed and what colours were in or out. Plus ca change.
What a beautiful picture. Something about it just grabs me.
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