Tuesday, March 29, 2011

My newest Regency comes tomorrow and in honor of Prinny...

Here he is! Prinny in his coronation robes.
But Prinny in his Regent's role was not so encumbered!
By rules of conduct or social class. Only by his spendthrift ways. And his numerous mistresses. Seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.
But Regencies are the dawn of a new age in so many ways.
Manners were refined, kept under wraps, but all that pent up emotion came out in other ways.
Women cut their hair. Or they did during the period of Josephine. They wore diaphanous fabrics, showed their ankles, and wore no drawers. Really! Not until the 1820s do we see drawers demanded by ladies.
Women still had no rights of inheritance unless so decreed by kings or special court decree. Their fortunes were controlled by their husbands or their fathers. And so too were the candidates for husbands declared by the men in their families.
Men too were freed of a few strictures. Ruffles, lace and satins for shirts or jerkins and breeches were replaced by simpler, form fitting styles. Wool and cotton, well-tailored were the ideal. And costly to obtain from a first rate tailor, too!
Beau Brummel led the style in clothes and impoverishment to them, as well.
Now we have wash and wear.
Thank goodness.
Women can wear long hair, marry whom they wish and wear...almost anything. Even an egg to a nationally televised party!
Tomorrow? A nibble here of my newest cherry, THE BASTARD'S PASSIONATE PRIZE, the 4th in my Stanhope Challenge series.

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