Last year we studied the French Kings and Queens of the Bourbon family with Marie Antoinette and their influence on American women’s fashion during the Revolutionary War era. Next we went many months about the French Revolution, Napoleon, his 2nd wife Josephine, and the whole Bonaparte ruling family and how they affected fashion world wide in the Regency Era(s).
Regency fashion is easy to identify until at least 1818, because it all looked similar with the high waisted “little white dress”. From 1818 to 1837 when a very young Queen Victoria took the English throne, Regency took many twists and turns in picking up fashions from around the world. The waists and bodices dropped, and the understructures became elaborate.
This is much due to invention of the metal grommet in 1822 which meant TIGHT lacing on corsets. We’re rejoining our Victorian Era discussion at this point, assuming the reader has some knowledge of what came before Victoria’s reign.
(Portraits: 1840 meant tighter sleeves, pointed bodices, tiny waists, and ringlets in the hair)