Last summer, I envisioned a white embroidered Regency gown for our homeschool history presentation scheduled for the autumn.
FABRIC
Since I used to do lots of embroidery when I was growing up, I hoped to refresh my skills with a gown.
However, one day I was at JoAnn where I found 8 yards of sheer lavender voile, 100% cotton, that with coupon was $5 a yard!
Voile is perfect for Empire gowns!
1812 EMPIRE GOWN
Recalling a striped Empire gown I had seen last summer at Hillwood Estate’s Empire of Fashion collection, I ventured to duplicate the bodice.
I used a basic pattern from Period Impressions, then tweaked the fabric as needed to recreate the style from the exhibit.
For the waistline I chose a pearl trim which nicely offset the stripes…
After applying various trims to the lackluster neckline and sleeves, I settled on this sheer lavender organdy trim after seeing this fashion plate of a pink gown from Ackermann’s Repository 1813, Series 1 Vol 10, November Issue.
Then came the bows for the skirt, inspired by many extant gowns.
SHEER EMPIRE GOWNS
Here the sheer delight of these gowns is revealed, which is very period, of which I read in Napoleon and the Empire of Fashion.
Early on that’s about all the ladies wore and all was truly revealed.
From Vincent Cronin’s book, Napoleon Bonaparte, I learned that Napoleon was quite upset with these sheer gowns revealing all and insisted on decency, knowing that morals enhanced a stabilized nation.
He strongly encouraging his wife, Josephine, and his sisters to cover up.
With these sheer gowns, fashion could go two ways.
One was that the top layer could be a sheer white, allowing the beauty of a solid silk color to peek from underneath.
There are many adorable fashion examples of this, including my simpler yellow gown with sheer white overlay I made two years ago.
Or the reverse would be a sheer color on top, like here, which would be under layered with a solid white.
That is what I wore for this gown, hence the need for my bodice petticoat and regency short stays.
NAPOLEON ENCOURAGED FASHION
This along with Napoleon stabilizing France to allow for fashion were two of his main contributions to Empire fashion.
Although he did not decide on fashion trends, as emperor he wanted to make France economically successful.
So he encouraged experts in their fields to do their job, all of which he had a great interest and appreciation for.
JOSEPHINE – FASHION ICON OF FRANCE
Josephine though set the pace for fashion.
If she wore it, the other ladies wanted to wear it too.
NAPOLEON ENCOURAGED SILK
The Kyoto Costume Institute informs us that the cotton industry was so successful, that it was hurting the silk industry in Lyons, damaging the French economy.
Therefore in 1811 Napoleon issued an imperial decree that men and women must wear silk clothes at public ceremonies. -Kyoto Costume Institute
Oops, well, I have a cotton gown. Next one is silk!
LAVENDER FOR BONAPARTISTS
While pursuing our Napoleonic homeschool studies, I was delighted to stumble on some information of interest for my lavender gown.
After Napoleon was exiled to Elba, Bonapartists wore the color purple to covertly show their support of him.
Perfect!
JEWELRY SETS
Jewelry of the Regency Era, at least in France, would be an entire ensemble which I duplicated with my collection of pearls.
The hairstyling was copied from fashion plates.
For more photos, check my Flickr set.
