Catching the Past "Colours" Part 1

I found bucket loads of interesting information in Anna Reynold's Style and Society Dressing the Georgians and Hilary Davidson's Jane Austen's Wardrobe while I was doing a 'spot of research' for my next release in October. I highly recommend them if you can get these books. Thankfully, my library had copies because otherwise my pocketbook would be hurting.

Today, I'm going to chat about one part of Anna's book which really held my attention and use bits of Hilary's to show a how a real-life person from the era used these things.

Colours!

While Anna discusses so much about the Georgian period (1714-1830s), one part which really held my attention was her discussion on colours for fabric. Because there is so much, I'm going to break things down into categories and make this a two-part blog.

White

There was no chemical process to bleach fabric (or paper) until 1785. Before that, making something white(ish) involved a complex and lengthy process (we're talking months!) and lots of sunshine, not an easy combination in Europe (can you hear the dollars signs adding up???). It also worked a lot better on linen and cotton. Therefore, white belonged to the elite of society because no one else could afford it.

The pre-1785 method to whiten fabric didn't work so well on wool or silk. Yet white silk was hugely popular in the 1730s and 1740s, and since you couldn't actually wash silk (ek!), it was hard to keep it white even after the laborious process to make it white. Hence, why only the rich could afford to have it, and another reason why they liked to show it off.

White dresses still remained popular once the regency fashions took over, but those dresses were typically made of cotton. A fabric much easier to make white, but still hard to keep white.

Pre-1820s, Men's shirts were made of linen, and the elite man preferred cambric (from France, even when it was banned.). These were left white, mostly because linen did NOT like to be dyed.

Plant-based fabrics like cotton and linen could not be dyed in the early Georgian era and were therefore left in their natural state, more or less white.

Even after they worked out how to dye cotton (sometime around the First Industrial Revolution), it had a tendency to fade fast because it was one of the few fabrics you could actually submerse in water. Jane Austen complained to her sister about her coloured round gown having faded quickly even though she'd given everyone the strictest instructions on its care in 1796 (she was 20 at the time).

Leaving cotton white was still a popular choice for a day dress, especially during the Regency. One advantage was that a person could dye a white dress a solid colour after it began to show its age. Thereby, giving yourself TWO dresses (or even more if you dyed it more than once). In Hilary's book, she shares how Austen redyed her clothes, even dyeing some of the coloured cottons black for periods of mourning.

'Print cottons' often had a white base with a small pattern "blocked" onto it (as in the fashion plate pictured), still leaving the gown predominantly white.

Most weddings took place in the morning, and the bride wore a nice day dress. A white day dress was generally considered the finest. Therefore, many brides in the latter half of the Georgian period (1790s-1830) did indeed wear white to their wedding even though wearing white at your wedding wasn't a thing yet.  In Hilary's book, she shares a photo of a white wedding dress possibly worn by Baroness Eleonora Sophie Rantzau in 1797.

White and silver were the colours that a royal bride wore to her wedding. (Mrs. Elton--that great pretender--was said to have owned a white and silver gown.)

While cotton and linen were naturally white(-ish), Anna says that wool wasn't white:

"...sheep in the eighteenth-century Britain being naturally grey, brown or black rather than the white of today." Anna Reynolds Style and Society Dressing the Georgians, chapter 1

In what seems a contradiction, Hillary talks about large quantities of white flannel undergarments made from white wool. Now, Hillary is speaking about the proper Regency period, so perhaps, there were more white sheep by the early 19th Century, or it might have been imported. Or maybe they had figured out how to bleach it by then. I'm not sure how to reconcile these two reports. If you know, put it in the comments!

Before we leave white, let us not forget the white gloves (essential to a lady's wardrobe), and Jane Austen's white fan which apparently some 'he' had threatened to throw into the river (letter to Cassandra Jan. 9th, 1799). Don't we wish we knew more about that!

And white petticoats, and muslin shawls, and this list could go on for a long time. White was just a tiny bit important to the Georgian Era, and yet pre-1785, they didn't really have a way to make a true white!

Black

Lord Byron c.1804-06

Black was always important throughout the Georgian period--usually for mourning--yet it became hugely popular for men's fashion during the later period (e.g. think of all those regency gents we see in black!).

But women liked bold and dark colours as well. Jane Austen owned a black velvet pelisse (velvet at this time meant silk--expensive! Cotton and woollen versions were called plush).

Austen also owned a lace coat (with a silk lining) which Hilary believes to have been black. Fashion plates of the time show all lace coats as black or another dark colour.

Of course, black was an important sign of mourning. One had the full mourning black crepe gowns we probably know best when one lost a close relative, or it could be the black embellishments worn for court mourning. For losses in the royal family (court mourning), one observed it by sewing black details to one's normal clothes, e.g. black ribbon or rosettes. Jane Austen did this for the death of the Queen's brother in March 1814.

Most black or grey fabric was woollen. This was especially true before the 17th Century when they couldn't figure out how to make the black dye 'stick' to fabric. Up until then, one had to dye a garment with multiple different colours to try and achieve black. And then someone finally discovered a process which allowed a true black colour dye to stick (yay!).

Logwood from Central American was the main black dye colour for all of the Georgian period. Although a man from the midlands of England created an alternative for the stocking makers there, possibly from the oak trees of Sherwood Forest (yes, as in Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest).

Brown and other sombre colours

Sombre shades were very popular for men from the 1730s, especially in the country and then for all men during the later part of the Georgian period, starting well before the Regency Era. Anna didn't mention much about how they achieved these shades, but some of the brown came from naturally brown wool, and one type of dye from a colour that also made red (I'll mention that next month).

Hilary's book shares that Austen's niece was given a walking dress made of grey for her birthday from her papa in 1808. Walking dress meant the whole ensemble not the gown by itself (pelisse, bonnet, and waistcoat all of the same cloth). And while we're on the topic, walking dresses (the whole ensemble) of this time were ALWAYS wool.

While Anna didn't mention much about brown, Hilary Davidson in Jane Austen's Wardrobe did. Brown seemed to be a favourite of Austen to wear from the way she talks about her brown gowns and other garments. One particular brown bombazine gown was very dear to Austen because it looked so very sweet by candlelight (1813), and she was loath to relegate it from an evening gown into a day gown even though it was getting old.

Brown for a lady's day dress was considered quite a practical choice because it didn't show the dirt as much as a lighter colour would. The Hampshire Cultural Trust are fairly confident the brown pelisse in their possession was owned by Jane Austen herself.

In general, the warm hue of brown was popular throughout the decades of Regency fashions.

Jane Austen asked Cassandra to buy her some brown cambric muslin fabric (a type of dense cloth imitating linen), and she wanted enough for two dresses. But since one was for herself and the other for their mother, she wanted them to be different shades, so they could argue about who had the nicer gown. (1801) No, I'm not making that up.

And that's all I have on brown at present (although arguably puce could be here). Do you have any more info? Please share it in the comments!

Puce

This colour was made popular by Marie-Antoinette in 1775 and remained popular throughout the 1780s.

Depending on who you ask, puce can be a variety of shades, but most will agree that it's a purplish- or reddish-brown (hence why I could have put it under brown). What I found so interesting about this odd colour is the meaning of the word puce.

The French word Puce literally means flea

Yep, for some reason, people liked to wear what translated as flea cloth. Try and figure that out!

In fact, many variations of the colour developed which meant flea head, flea thigh, and more...

Honestly, most gentry spoke French. So, they knew what they were wearing.

Yeah, I don't think I'm ever going to understand fashion!

Blue

Pale blue was a hugely popular choice for gowns and remained so even during the Regency period. Jane Austen mentions that 4 of her gowns were blue in her letters (she didn't always specify the colour), making Hilary declared it was another favourite colour of Austen's.

You'll also notice blue as the ribbon or accessory colour of choice for several white gowns in the fashion plates from the time (like the one pictured here).

Before the introduction of Indigo in the late 17th century, domestically made woad was the blue dye most used. However, indigo was 10 times stronger than woad and much more vibrant. It quickly overtook woad as 'the colour.' (You can read Laura Frantz's The Indigo Heiress if you'd like to learn more about this remarkable shade!)

In 1704 Berlin, an artist created a new pigment called Prussian Blue, and by the middle of the 18th century, it was used as a dye with more flexibility than indigo. Meaning, it could make a broader range of shades especially in the lighter colours.

"By 1765 there were 24 commercially identifiable shades of blue..." Anna Reynolds Style and Society Dressing the Georgians, chapter 1

One shade was called 'Clarence Blue' after a princess who arrived to wed the Duke of Clarence in 1818. Her signature colour of 'Clarence Blue' was a sapphire blue which was often referenced in fashions plates of the 1820s.

And in 1816, due to the British victory at Waterloo, the colour most in vogue was Waterloo Blue! (Which from a quick internet search seems to be a dusky blue, something a little like this.)

Another use for blue dye wasn't even to make the fabric blue. Rather, blue was used to counter the natural yellowing of white fabrics and was therefore a 'whitener.' It could even be added at the start to create a 'bright white.'

Some generalities to remember:

Wool and silk took dyes better than cotton and linen. Linen was especially hard to dye and was generally left it's natural or bleached colour.

Some of the mordants which 'fixed' the colour to the fabrics had the unwanted side-effect of corroding the fabric. Therefore, re-dying your gowns came with the risk it might fall apart. This was especially true for silk.

Part 2

I'll be back next month to talk about red, pink, green, and yellow. But I think we'll finish up with blue today and be done. Is your head spinning? Mine is! And I haven't even touched many of the other things Anna talks about in her 321-page book. BTW, I'm NOT going to talk about the whole book. I just found the colours interesting. :)

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Resources:

Reynolds, Anna Style and Society "Dressing the Georgians" chapter 1 and chapter 8

Davidson, Hilary Jane Austen's Wardrobe ISBN 978-0-300-263602

Images:

The photos are from pexels and the fashion plates from wikimedia.