The London Lounge

Some time ago I acquired a complete bound, and original set of the Gentleman's Magazine of Fashion, London - from January to December, 1830. I must say I have few more precious things in my collection. There are a lot of fashion plates here, and I thought I would start to share them with everyone else. Here is the cover:



I have decided to start with an example of evening dress from March, 1830:



The illustration is almost certainly hand painted. The accompanying text is absolutely fascinating:



It is quite extraordinary to think that dandies of this period would go to the opera dressed in a violet coloured overcoat lined with sable, and a burgundy coloured dress coat I have always noticed that names for colours are highly mutable with time. In this case, burgundy is decribed as flamme d'enfer. Notice that the waistcoat is cut to show 1/2" below the dress coat, as was correct in this period. The spelling of lapel with two ps is also charming.

I cannot say what the significance is of the uneven number of show buttons on the dress coat. However, the looseness of the overcoat was intended to avoid disturbing the dress clothes underneath. The "rolling collar" on the waistcoat likely means it has a shawl collar (ie a roll collar).

I will update this thread from time to time, so watch out! There are some real gems.

http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum

Can I ask what the "Regimentals of the Army" heading refers to? Fashion plates of dress uniforms, perhaps?

Sator - post away!!
NJS

Thank you Sator! Looking forward to more posts.

Cordovan

pvpatty wrote:Can I ask what the "Regimentals of the Army" heading refers to? Fashion plates of dress uniforms, perhaps?

There are a few British uniforms in the pages. Officers would go to the finest tailors to have their uniforms made up. Only an officer would be able to afford a journal with expensive hand painted plates like this one.

Sator wrote:

pvpatty wrote:Can I ask what the "Regimentals of the Army" heading refers to? Fashion plates of dress uniforms, perhaps?

There are a few British uniforms in the pages. Officers would go to the finest tailors to have their uniforms made up. Only an officer would be able to afford a journal with expensive hand painted plates like this one.

Thought so; would you mind posting some of this material at some stage?

The next example comes from July, 1830. In this period dress coats were still worn as daywear. A debate as to whether dress or frock coat are preferred for summer is mentioned. The dress coat is mentioned as being preferred by some due to it being cooler - as beachwear, of course. The tendency for the frock coat to run too warm is overcome by cutting the skirt front away like a dress coats. Personally, I don't see why that doesn't make it a dress coat. The emerald green colour for the coat is, once again, remarkably daring and bold. Notice too how high the collars are during this period, and how tight the sleeves are. It is also interesting that the text specifically mentions that the waistcoat is cut to show "about an inch" below the front of the coat.

A frock coat with a cutaway skirt for summer beachwear! That must make a lounge suit suitable only for pajamas. Fitting, given the typical suit material of today. Perhaps we don't give enough credit to modern fashion.

I've often thought it's a shame we don't have photographs of dress from the turn of the 19th century through the 1830s. The best painters are instructive, but show us a limited wardrobe and social context. The idealizing figural distortions in fashion plates help us understand how the taste of each moment saw beauty of body and clothing line, but make it challenging to judge proportions on actual people. (No doubt someone with Sator's depth of archival research has a better picture than I). Here, for instance, the chin sits a forearm's height above the shoulder (a swan's neck!) and the hands and (especially) feet are minuscule. To achieve the calf line shown would have certainly required padding, which was not, I gather, uncommon in Brummell's heyday. And I believe that waistline would have required a corset and tight lacing on almost any male frame with hip and shoulder dimensions as shown. So I'm left to wonder whether in life a fashionable young man and his tailor would have discounted the proportional exaggerations and adapted the look more or less to the body, or whether the lacing and pads required to approximate these proportions would have been in common use, at least among the more dandiacal.

couch wrote:I've often thought it's a shame we don't have photographs of dress from the turn of the 19th century through the 1830s. The best painters are instructive, but show us a limited wardrobe and social context. The idealizing figural distortions in fashion plates help us understand how the taste of each moment saw beauty of body and clothing line, but make it challenging to judge proportions on actual people. (No doubt someone with Sator's depth of archival research has a better picture than I). Here, for instance, the chin sits a forearm's height above the shoulder (a swan's neck!) and the hands and (especially) feet are minuscule. To achieve the calf line shown would have certainly required padding, which was not, I gather, uncommon in Brummell's heyday. And I believe that waistline would have required a corset and tight lacing on almost any male frame with hip and shoulder dimensions as shown. So I'm left to wonder whether in life a fashionable young man and his tailor would have discounted the proportional exaggerations and adapted the look more or less to the body, or whether the lacing and pads required to approximate these proportions would have been in common use, at least among the more dandiacal.

I don't know about the padding of shoulders and constriction of waists but, certainly, calf padding was common in the era of breeches and stockings - which exaggerated thin legs and, of course, drew attention to deformity - such as Byron's club foot. Moreover, this padding was ridiculed.
NJS

you need to be tall and slender to look like that, but if you are too tall or too wide you would stop looking refined and gracious. to me that look was achieved with some well cut trousers, they are very tight, and a small waist on the overcoat.a tight waistcoat helps you look skinny too.
also, it would be unacceptable to wear calf padding.
the reason modern fashion models can't achieve that look with their tight clothes is because first they don't have good tailors and second their bodies are square and unnatural for all the exercise they do.
you need to be aristocratically slender to look like that, and those illustrations are also exaggerated, like a caricature.

Thanks for making this information available. Too many people who have resources of this kind treat "knowledge as power" and just sit on them. You don't by chance have a similar volume from the 1850's or 60's, do you?

Regards,

Jim Ruley

Dear Gentlemen,

For those living in the U.K., may I take the opportunity to promote our National Libraries. This title is available at the British Library, Oxford, Cambridge, and Trinity Coll. Dublin, from a cursory reading of COPAC (www.copac.ac.uk).

Inspired by Sator, esq.,'s fine example, I have called from our Bookstacks the v. for 1858-61, which now sits on my desk, and I will attempt to post a few pictures, which are indeed beautiful, let alone the title page and type-setting.

Sorry, can't see how to add jpegs to this. Bother.

With all good wishes,

Neil.

Sorry, can't see how to add jpegs to this. Bother.

Dear Sir,

Go to your favorite image hosting site. I use Photobucket.com, which is free. Set up an account and upload your images there.

After uploading the images, if you move the cursor over them you should be able to view and copy the "image code", which looks like this:

[img]...name...[/img]

Copy the image code and paste it into your reply. When the reply is viewed, the image will be displayed. You can verify this with the "Preview" button before submitting your message.

Apologies if you knew this already, and I'm looking forward to seeing the images!

Thanks,

Jim Ruley

I agree that this is brilliant stuff and I'd like to see more. It's wonderful to think of the genesis and evolution of our clothes. To view 19th century fashion illustrations, and have a sense of what is so similar (objectively, it is similar) and yet so different to what we wear now, is to enjoy the sense of being formed by (and situated in) history.