Lindsey Holmes - Making Georgian and Regency Costumes for Women

Acknowledgements

It takes a lot more than one person to make a project like this a reality. Meet the team that made this book possible.

Photographer: Glyn Reed, Lovelylight images

Glyns first darkroom was in an unlikely place, being in the corner of a rocket launch control room on board a Royal Navy Leander class frigate. Some years later and after a few photos in Navy News, he moved to Kodak. Technical support for large photo processing laboratories and training of photo industry personnel followed. Some photographic gaps and training as a teacher in later life has brought him round full circle. Exhibitions, national broadsheet press, regular pages in Rowing & Regatta, commercial work with large companies and lately an exciting project with a four-man crew planning to row across the Atlantic.

The team.

Illustrations and Retouching: Stuart Holmes

Aside from being a very talented designer, Stuart also has the great misfortune of being the authors husband. When it is possible to escape from various unpaid jobs for his wife, he works as a landscape architect.

Stylist: Heather McIlroy

Heather has worked in fashion and retail for two decades, covering styling, visual merchandising, window displays, creating garments and homewares, and even recovering furniture upholstery. She has travelled the world, and is passionate about interiors, design, architecture and all things fashion. On the side, Heather also coxes a mens rowing crew.

Hair Designer: Toni Tatlow

Toni began her career in hairdressing at the age of eighteen, and joined P.Kai in 2011. She is passionate about creative hair-ups, and about the art of hair. In 2014 Toni reached the regional finals of the Wella Trend Vision competition, and is also the mother of two small boys.

Hair Salon: P.Kai

P.Kai Hair opened in Hampton, just outside Peterborough, in 2002. The salon owners, Kai and Jenny, opened their smaller city-centre salon in the Victorian Westgate Arcade in 2008. The salons have enjoyed continued growth and success in the Cambridgeshire area and beyond, and have been featured in consumer and trade publications worldwide.

Make-up Artist: Rebecca Jefferson

Rebecca is a freelance make-up artist and hair stylist. She graduated from West Thames College with a BA (Hons) in Specialist Makeup and Hair, which covered areas as far and wide as intricate body paint and avant-garde hair to special effects, bridal and period work. Web: www.rebeccajeffersonmua.com.

Proofreader: Peter Starling

Although Peter is technically retired, he chose to come out of retirement to work exclusively on Lindseys first book, a fact that has absolutely nothing to do with his being her uncle.

Models

Georgia Delve

Georgia is a professional dancer and model with a fervent passion for historical costume and culture. Her interest in the social protocols of dance lead directly into the fashions of the ballroom, and Georgia enjoys creating period costumes for herself and for friends. She is a regular (fully costumed) attendee at Regency balls and loves to bring her historical dance-based research together with her love of costume.

Alison Dunbar

Alison studied Arabic and Middle East Studies at St Andrews University, and currently works in Glasgow. As well as extensive travel and outdoor pursuits such as hill walking, Alison also enjoys the creative arts of knitting, soapstone carving and pottery. She has a special love for the Regency and Georgian periods and wearing the dresses her great-great-grandmothers would have worn. Alison also dabbles in period millinery and dressmaking.

Camille Lesforis

Camille is a recent graduate of Central Saint Martins University, where she studied design and practice. She is passionate about creating art installations, writing childrens stories and character creation and design. Her love of period dramas and costumes inspires her work, and Camille plans to pursue a career in narrative design, and inspiring the creative skills of children through story writing.

Rachel Parton

Rachel is a costumier with over thirty years of design and making experience in costumes and props. She is a member of a medieval re-enactment group and also volunteers as a Victorian costumed room guide for the National Trust. Rachel also enjoys trying out period recipes and crafts as part of her interest in experimental archaeology.

Kirsten Stoddart

Kirsten is an Australian scriptwriter and musician, and spends her working days in film and television production offices. She is a lover of vintage and historical clothing, culture and knickknacks, and enjoys creating historically inspired events and projects for work and pleasure. Web: www.kirstenstoddart.com.

Kelly Walpole

Kelly has been passionate about the Georgian period since the age of thirteen, when she watched the television series Sharpe with her father. Since then, she has been fascinated by the people, fashions and architecture of the Georgian period, which has inspired a creative path of reenactment, balls and country dances, and an impressive wardrobe of Georgian costumes spanning from 1750 to 1812.

Bryony Woodgate

Bryony is a professional model and football blogger with a degree in Classics. She lives in London. Although she is happy to model historical clothes for her sister Lindsey, she would rather be watching the football. Web: www.toffeelady.co.uk.

Sebastian

Sebastian is a fifteen-year-old Pomeranian. He has lived in Australia, England and Ireland, and enjoys sleeping, posing, making friends and modelling his winter wardrobe.

An additional thank you to the following people for their hard work:

• Costume Assistants: Jo Sandbach and Rachel Parton
• Runners: Wendy Adamczyk and Laura Clappison
• Props: Edie Curtis, Heather McIlroy, Kelly Walpole and Brenda Capitan
• Fabric: Whitchurch Silk Mill.

I would also like to thank everyone who supported me in creating this book, especially my ever-supportive friends and family.

Korina, Bryony and Kitt model the robe langlaise with front opening bodices.

One has as good be out of the world as out of fashion.

Loves Last Shift, Colley Cibber

Alison in a green silk Regency style dress..

The long eighteenth century (1710 to 1830) was a period of great change, both politically and socially. Many aspects of life changed dramatically and all of this change had a direct or indirect effect on the development of fashionable dress. It is just as impossible for me to cover all of the fashion worn in this period as it would be to list all of the key social and political changes. Instead I have tried to cover a few key developments to give you a taste of the eighteenth century, especially those developments that had an impact on women and their wardrobes. Much of the timeline focuses on developments in Britain, France and the Americas, and I have tried where I can to reflect the key people and developments in other countries.

A Life through Dress

Dress is special, as our whole lives can be mapped through what we wear. Clothing marks each stage of our lives, and we are judged on what we choose to wear. Viewers read our development, accomplishments, character, position and even our cleanliness from how we look. In this way we are no different from our eighteenth-century sisters, but unlike us, for many eighteenth-century women, clothes were among the few possessions they owned, and often dress was one of the few things women had any control over. Dress was a rare opportunity for women to express their individuality. This was not restricted to women of means, as cheaper items such as ribbons and handkerchiefs meant fashionable expression was within the grasp of most women.