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"I have been meditating on the very great pleasures which
a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow."
--Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"
| Lucy |
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Lovely Lucy gathers the season's last rosebuds as Autumn descends on the garden. She is dressed in the same dusty pinks and
muted greens as the blossoms and fruit in her basket:
"The spirits of the air live in the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees."
Thus sang the jolly Autumn ..."
--excerpt from "To Autumn" by William Blake
| Lucy |
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Her period costume is in the Regency or Empire Style of the 1820's. This particular style was popular from about 1800-1830's;
one of its earliest advocates was the Empress Josephine of France. The recent movie versions of Jane Austen's novels employ
this style, being faithful to the period in which Austen lived (she died at a young age in 1817), since her stories were of
the society and manners of her own time. The dresses were much less structured than those of the 1700's with their stiff,
low-waisted bodices; here the waistline crept upward to cinch just below the bosom, and lighter-weight fabric was used. Also
unlike the styles which came after, later in the 1800's, the skirts were shorter, allowing a glimpse of shoe, and less full,
allowing a more natural silhouette than the hoop-skirt of the 1850's and the wasp-waist of the later Victorian period. Women's
clothing styles were not to be so comfortable and simple again until the 1920's. By the 1820's the dresses and hats were
becoming a bit more ornate than they were ca. 1800, with a puffed sleeve and wider-brimmed bonnets becoming fashionable.
Click here for a web-site dealing with Regency style and culture, as well as a Jane Austen filmography! (a separate browser
window will open)
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