Fashion In The Time Of Jane Austen

Sarah Jane Downing

SHIRE PUBLICATIONS

Promenade de Longchamp During Year 10 of the French Consulate
[1802] (Auguste Racinet for
The Costume History,
c. 1876–88). Polite society was ever more diverse and exciting and this was reflected in an increasing range of styles.

T
HE WORLD
was on the brink of revolution when Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775. The battle for American Independence heralded an era marked by decades of war and conflict as the old order was swept away in an explosion of radical ideas and technological innovations. As the modern era loomed on the horizon, propelled by capitalism and industrialisation, fashion became the barometer of change. Looking for the first time beyond the decorative, it embodied the philosophical, the political and the practical issues of the day. For the first time England not only revolutionised style, but with industrialisation it revolutionised the process to produce it.

It was an era of contradiction immortalised by Jane Austen, who adeptly used the newfound diversity of fashion to enliven her characters: Wickham’s military splendour, Mr Darcy’s understated elegance, and Miss Tilney’s romantic fixation with white muslin. They are characterised by their dress but rarely do they speak of it; unless they are one of Austen’s sillier characters, they maintain the good taste and decorum of the times, which held that it was poor manners to impose conversation about such footling matters upon company. It was within her private correspondence with her beloved sister Cassandra that she discussed such fripperies as her plans for new bonnet trimmings and the successful reception received by her black velvet cap.

Jane was essentially of the gentry, very aware of the correct way to behave but not necessarily with an income large enough to make it happen easily. Taste and poise should come naturally to a lady, and it was an indictment of a lack of breeding to be worried about looking correct. The drawing room tensions of fashion and faux pas that she so beautifully illustrated were the furthermost ripples of the revolutions that were changing the world.

The impenetrable class order that had held strong since time immemorial was gradually being breached by a budding generation of increasingly wealthy industrialists, entrepreneurs and merchants who were making their own place in society through their ideas and innovations. Their impact was huge, not only in the foundation of the textiles industry and international trade, but in their eagerness to display their newly gentrified status with all the trappings of a country estate.

Headdresses
(caricature in crayon,
c
. 1777) in contrast to
Les Merveilleuses
(
c
. 1797). There was a radical contrast between the old and new fashions, most notably in the silhouette as the exaggerated confluence of the hoop and the wig were abandoned in favour of a natural slender silhouette.

Fashions had tended to originate at the French Court, transferring to England through royal circles, but throughout the revolutionary years and the Napoleonic wars the typical route for fashions and fabrics coming from France was severed. This coincided with increasing trade with India, which imported fine muslins, cashmere shawls and the raw cotton to be processed by the rapidly growing numbers of mills appearing across the north of England. In France muslins were fashionably democratic for their affordability but in England they were doubly so, as many people became wealthy from cotton and were amongst the first to attain social mobility.

The Advertisement For a Wife
(
The Third Tour of Dr. Syntax
, Rowlandson,
c
. 1821). There was huge competition for any eligible bachelor so it was essential to be as beautiful and fashionable as possible.

Yorkshire cotton factory child workers,
c
. 1814. Democratic cottons represented a new egalitarian age for some, but many others lost their independence when they were forced to exchange their cottage industries for the oppressive factory system.

Jane was fourteen in the year the Bastille was stormed marking the beginning of the period of turbulence that would launch democracy as a new force in the world. She had a direct link with the tragedies of the Revolution through her cousin Eliza de Feuillide, who had been married to the Comte de Feuillide before marrying Jane’s brother in 1797. Eliza was in England in February 1794 when she heard that her husband had met
la guillotine
, news that would make the horror of the Revolution shockingly real to all the Austen family.

The Angler’s Repast
(George Morland,
c
. 1789). Rousseau’s ideas about nature became very influential, and as the closest acceptable thing to nature, the English country gentleman unexpectedly found himself a style icon.