Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen (Shire Library)

I picked up Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen for the sake of getting a free shipment. I participate in English Country Dancing in my county, and once a year my husband and I go to the big Jane Austen ball. I've taken my share of fashion courses in college, including History of Costume, so I wasn't expecting a lot of new information, but this little gem of a book is surprisingly informative with bits of info that I'd never heard previously. For instance the light colored, close fitting trousers that men wore were meant to allude to the nude legs of male antique Greco-Roman statues being unearthed at the time. A lot of good reference illustrations in contemporary cartoons as well as reproductions of paintings and engravings, some familiar, some not so much.As I make our attire for the balls, the more information I have on what is authentic, including colors, fabrics, et al, the better our Austen inspired costumes come off at the events. I know I only gave this book four stars, but only because I wish that the book had been longer with more of the same good info. I read it cover to cover in about an hour. However I do believe it's worth the money for anyone with an appreciation of the Regency or an interest in researching authentic clothing of the period.

This charming small book is full of color pictures. I passed it around at my Jane Austen Reading Group meeting and they all were very enchanted with it. It has been republished several times. So I wonder if this edition includes updates or anything different from the original. We are interested in Regency clothing as we often wear it to our Regional meetings and to Annual General Meeting once a year. The men's clothing is very intricate and detailed. This is a good way to be aware of the huge change in dress at the end of the Georgian Period and the influence of the French Revolution in more comfortable and flowing clothing for women.

Good introduction to Regency Fashion

This is a great little book to have as historical reference if you are interested in the era. It succinctly ties in the historical events (such as the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars) which had an impact on radically changing fashion between 1775, the year of Jane Austen's birth, and the early 1800's. The book is also filled with pictures, taken from a wide variety of sources, which illustrate the author's points. For the Jane Austen fan, there are specific ties between the points made and quotes from Austen's books. Four stars, though, because this is a LITTLE book: more a booklet, actually. Only 63 pages and about 6 inches tall.

Sarah Jane Downing’s tiny book—64 pages, lavishly illustrated—is both more and less than a history of fashion in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (mostly in England).On the “more” side, it places fashion in the context of the shifting ideas and historical events of the age: for instance, the simple, high-waisted shifts that came into the mode for women in the 1790s are seen as reflecting ideas about liberty, interest in neoclassicism, and changing notions about child-rearing. This wide lens is the book’s greatest strength. Sometimes the brush may be a little too broad, the depiction of historical ideas too simplistic, but this explanation of context certainly helps the modern reader understand why clothes were what they were.On the “less” side, the limitation of the book’s size leads to limits in the range of clothing depicted. We get a few examples of dresses for the *haut ton* for each, shall we say, quintile of the period 1790 to 1820, but not a thorough survey of the changes in style year by year. The lower classes are overlooked altogether; men are given a bit of attention, but not enough to get a real sense of male styles.So this book is more a frame than a portrait—a very useful and concisely drawn frame, and I highly recommend the volume on that basis. But I would have liked more to have been put in it! If one had access to issues of fashion magazines from the time period covered, one could easily flesh out the high fashion side of things, but I looked in vain for some of the less easily accessed information.

Excellent treatise on clothing during the Regency period.

This is a small book. What it contains is interesting, with enough detail to justify its title, but I was hoping for more chronological order. It jumps from one period to another and back again, which makes it difficult to know exactly what was popular in which year--or even decade--and how the styles evolved. I give it four stars, rather than three, because it was enjoyable to see a few reproductions of 18th and early 19th century syles I had not seen in other places.

I bought this book for a thesis on Pride & Prejudice, and I can say it's great. It goes over the basics of the fashion of the times, and while there could be a bit more detail at some parts, it's great quality and I could understand everything easily even if I'm clueless as to fashion and trends.

As one would expect from Shire, this is an extremely well produced publication, with plenty of high quality pictures, all of which are artistically laid out, and the text is beautifully printed. Sarah Jane Downing is also an informative, knowledgeable, clear and concise writer, who manages to pack in a great deal of detail to what is essentially a primer for those interested in the dress of the period. My one reservation is that while there is an appropriate acknowledgement set out for the illustrations, there is a lack of explanatory footnotes, for example, there are pictures of genuine items of dress from the time, and some background information about their provenance, location and accessibility would be very helpful. This is a minor criticism, though, for an enlightening books that whets the appetite for further research.

A useful but brief overview of the changes in fashion during Jane Austen's lifetime. Re-read the books afterwards and you will see the difference in fashion between Northangar Abbey and Persuasion.

Bought this as a smaller Christmas gift (along with another Georgian era book) for my wife, who is very interested in this author and period. She enjoyed it, but it seemed to be short on content; nevertheless a recommended book for those interested in this period.

I liked the details of the designs of men’s and women’s clothing of the period, set against a social background. Only downside - it’s too short!

Perfect conditionShort introduction to regency fashion and what influenced it with lots of pictures and a surprising amount of detail. Exactly what I wanted.