Regency Fashion and Writers' Routines

As the pandemic has dragged on, one of the bright spots has been finding a new focus with my writing. Although it's been a challenge managing my child's elearning schedule (so hard!) and also keeping up with work, I found some time to think about what's really important and what important dreams I've set aside. It's been easy to make excuses about why I can't write, but I realized it's a choice. So, I've set aside at least 30 minutes each day to write, and to my surprise, I now have 35,000 words (this after writing 0 words for the previous 6 months).

I also decided to make an investment in my romance writing by taking a class on Regency fashion. I've been re-reading Jennifer Kloester's excellent reference book on Regency England (see image below), and it's provided valuable information on specific details, such as food and carriages.

Over the next few months, therefore, I'll be focusing my posts on writers and their routines, especially their environment and their daily word count goals. I'll also be sharing helpful tidbits from the Regency class. Today, I'm learning about corsets and chemises, which will definitely be helpful with writing love scenes in my Regency romances!

Regency Fashion: Walking Dresses

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Victoria & Albert Museum has a wonderful collection of fashion plates available. This print was originally published in the June 1808 edition of La Belle Assemblee. The description provided is as follows: "Engraving with hand-colouring, showing three women in white high-waisted dresses walking together. The woman in the foreground wears yellow gloves and shoes, and has a fob hanging from her waist, and is wearing a flat straw hat tied on with a yellow scarf with a face veil. She holds a blue parasol by its ferule with the cover at the top. To the left is a woman in a puce spencer jacket with military-style braid details and matching puce turban, carrying a green parasol or reticule. To the right is a woman wearing a pale blue short-sleeved coat with a wrap front and short, cutaway skirt over her white dress. She wears elbow length white gloves, a straw hat and a long yellow scarf."

The slim lines of the dresses accentuate the women's movements, which were governed by strict rules of etiquette. Promenading in public parks- dressed in the latest fashions, of course- was a  popular pastime during the Regency era.