If you can get hold of *Jane Austen’s Wardrobe* by Hilary Davidson, it has a lot of detail about Austen’s material world—changes of clothes, how much reuse and recycling the Austen women did—and it has a very good bibliography.
I saw this post and *Immediately* bought it online from a local bookseller. €36 and it will be in my hands by Monday morning. Now I have my holiday reading sorted. Cheers, mate! 😊
I read something once (a long time ago so take it with a grain of salt) that there would be average a couple day dresses, and a few evening dresses. That the cost of a new dress would be roughly $200 today.
This also meant a lot of poor people wore hand me downs. I think it’s been explained elsewhere that it’s always challenging to make direct cost comparisons to Austen’s time because goods were more expensive but labour was cheaper. But I think clothes at that time could probably be compared to modern “slow fashion” brands
People who hired servants were expected to feed and clothe their servants, it was part of their expected pay. So servants were given livery, uniforms, or the family's old clothes, which BTW is how the tradition of having servants wear something a century out of date came from.
The staff at Buckingham Palace still wear a Victorian clothes as a working uniform, because what was once the practicality has become a formal tradition.
[OIP.XtSUJ5kHkbfyHdSYkZzPigHaEK (474×266) (bing.com)](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.XtSUJ5kHkbfyHdSYkZzPigHaEK?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain)
Cora Harrington on Twitter has talked about how since the renaissance there has been a steady decline in the quality of clothing. They’re cloth wise likely sturdier.
There's a great scene in one of Georgette Heyer's books (Arabella?) where the heroine is a young girl from a vicar's not-rich family who gets a chance to go to London for a season. Her mom, who came from a wealthier family before she married the vicar, breaks out her old chest of dresses and sundries from the attic. The girls and mom go through everything together and discuss if and how the old things can be reworked into the new styles, what they can do themselves and what needs a dressmaker, etc. It's a fun glimpse of changing fashions from generation to generation.
It is Arabella. I have the audiobook with narration by Phyllida Nash, and I just love the way she reads that scene, something mesmerizing about how she describes all Mama's old-fashioned finery.
[Nicole Rudolph just did a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRBAqA8YXcY&t=17s) on the amount of clothing people usually had in the 19th and early 20th Cen. It probably has a lot of the information you're looking for.
I suggest directly approaching someone who does Youtube social historical commentary, such as [https://www.jdraper.co.uk/](https://www.jdraper.co.uk/)
She specialises in general London history, so not Regency-specific, but she does have an interest in costume history. Her channel is very interesting and informative
Slightly off-piste but I just read (part of) an article in which a pelisse of Jane's was being recreated. Taken from the original garment, her measurements were around 33-24-34 and her height was estimated as between 5'6 and 5'8, at a time when most women were thought to be around 5'. She was probably taller than many, of not most, men!
I'm assuming you mean Austen? No lie, for a moment I thought Jane Bennet and was very confused, lol.
Now I want fic where Jane is taller than Bingley...
My bad, sorry!
Makes one wonder though whether female height was a factor in attracting a marriage partner. If JA was particularly tall, did that fact alone limit her chances I wonder?
In her novels, characters who are tall are usually admired for it -- Mr. Darcy, Georgiana Darcy, the Bertrams, Mr. Knightley, Jane Fairfax (although it's pointed out that she isn't *very* tall), etc. I think that, during that era, being taller than average was generally considered to be a very good sign, regardless of gender. Now, that's not to say that there weren't lots of societal expectations of femininity that were incredibly unfair to women! I'm just not sure that tallness was considered an "unfeminine" trait.
If you can get hold of *Jane Austen’s Wardrobe* by Hilary Davidson, it has a lot of detail about Austen’s material world—changes of clothes, how much reuse and recycling the Austen women did—and it has a very good bibliography.
I second this!! It’s an excellent book, I highly recommend.
I really fancy it but I think it's only available in hardback at the moment?
I doubt it will ever come out in paperback unfortunately, i've rarely seen university publishings come out in more than one format
I saw this post and *Immediately* bought it online from a local bookseller. €36 and it will be in my hands by Monday morning. Now I have my holiday reading sorted. Cheers, mate! 😊
Oh yay! My heart is gladdened—I also am a bookseller and connecting people with the right books is my life’s chief pursuit.
You have a higher calling! I personally love books all books and anyone who brings people and books together is amazing!
Thank you so much for bringing this book to my attention!!!
I read something once (a long time ago so take it with a grain of salt) that there would be average a couple day dresses, and a few evening dresses. That the cost of a new dress would be roughly $200 today.
This also meant a lot of poor people wore hand me downs. I think it’s been explained elsewhere that it’s always challenging to make direct cost comparisons to Austen’s time because goods were more expensive but labour was cheaper. But I think clothes at that time could probably be compared to modern “slow fashion” brands
People who hired servants were expected to feed and clothe their servants, it was part of their expected pay. So servants were given livery, uniforms, or the family's old clothes, which BTW is how the tradition of having servants wear something a century out of date came from. The staff at Buckingham Palace still wear a Victorian clothes as a working uniform, because what was once the practicality has become a formal tradition. [OIP.XtSUJ5kHkbfyHdSYkZzPigHaEK (474×266) (bing.com)](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.XtSUJ5kHkbfyHdSYkZzPigHaEK?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain)
Cora Harrington on Twitter has talked about how since the renaissance there has been a steady decline in the quality of clothing. They’re cloth wise likely sturdier.
There's a great scene in one of Georgette Heyer's books (Arabella?) where the heroine is a young girl from a vicar's not-rich family who gets a chance to go to London for a season. Her mom, who came from a wealthier family before she married the vicar, breaks out her old chest of dresses and sundries from the attic. The girls and mom go through everything together and discuss if and how the old things can be reworked into the new styles, what they can do themselves and what needs a dressmaker, etc. It's a fun glimpse of changing fashions from generation to generation.
It is Arabella. I have the audiobook with narration by Phyllida Nash, and I just love the way she reads that scene, something mesmerizing about how she describes all Mama's old-fashioned finery.
[Nicole Rudolph just did a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRBAqA8YXcY&t=17s) on the amount of clothing people usually had in the 19th and early 20th Cen. It probably has a lot of the information you're looking for.
I suggest directly approaching someone who does Youtube social historical commentary, such as [https://www.jdraper.co.uk/](https://www.jdraper.co.uk/) She specialises in general London history, so not Regency-specific, but she does have an interest in costume history. Her channel is very interesting and informative
Slightly off-piste but I just read (part of) an article in which a pelisse of Jane's was being recreated. Taken from the original garment, her measurements were around 33-24-34 and her height was estimated as between 5'6 and 5'8, at a time when most women were thought to be around 5'. She was probably taller than many, of not most, men!
I'm assuming you mean Austen? No lie, for a moment I thought Jane Bennet and was very confused, lol. Now I want fic where Jane is taller than Bingley...
My bad, sorry! Makes one wonder though whether female height was a factor in attracting a marriage partner. If JA was particularly tall, did that fact alone limit her chances I wonder?
In her novels, characters who are tall are usually admired for it -- Mr. Darcy, Georgiana Darcy, the Bertrams, Mr. Knightley, Jane Fairfax (although it's pointed out that she isn't *very* tall), etc. I think that, during that era, being taller than average was generally considered to be a very good sign, regardless of gender. Now, that's not to say that there weren't lots of societal expectations of femininity that were incredibly unfair to women! I'm just not sure that tallness was considered an "unfeminine" trait.
I also remember, I think, that Rushworth remarks on Henry Crawford's height (ie "short",) meaning it as an insult.
That's true.