Austentacious Style: Regency Bonnets
As 16 December approaches, readers around the world prepare to mark Jane Austen Day — the annual celebration of the writer whose wit, clarity and exquisitely observed worlds have shaped English literature for more than two centuries. This year carries particular resonance: 2025 marks 250 years since Austen’s birth in 1775, and events across Bath, Hampshire and beyond are already underway, honouring not only her novels but the enduring cultural landscape she portrayed.
At Selvedge, Austen has long been a touchstone. Her finely woven narratives, attentive to clothing, craft and the textures of domestic life, have inspired articles throughout our archive — from explorations of Regency dressmaking to the textile traditions that framed the world she knew. As we share one such piece in the days leading up to her birthday, we celebrate Austen not just as a beloved novelist, but as a chronicler of material culture whose influence continues to thread through our pages.
We hope you enjoy the following article, featured in Selvedge Issue 101, Grow:
Austentacious Style: Regency Bonnets
During the turbulent years of the Regency, almost every style of hat and bonnet was tried on for size. The hairstyle excesses of the 18th century were abandoned in favour of natural concoctions of pretty ringlets or even a postrevolutionary style crop, meaning that a far greater range of styles of headwear was newly possible. The Neo-Classical reigned with filets and diadems as well as cauls, capotes, and veils allowing for a wealth of decoration and expression. There were styles inspired by military uniform, Gothic Romanticism, and a fond nostalgia for English rural country life.
Fashions in headwear became so important that the influential fashion magazines of the day devoted whole pages to them at a time when accessories were only ever featured with a full ensemble. La Belle Assemblée announced in 1806 ‘A lady is not considered fashionable if she appears in public for two successive days in the same bonnet.’
It would appear that Jane Austen not only read fashion magazines, but also adhered to their recommendations. In August 1814, within a month of seeing a fashion plate in Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, Austen wrote to a friend: ‘I am amused by the present style of female dress; the coloured petticoats with braces over the white Spencers and enormous Bonnets upon the full stretch, are quite entertaining. It seems to me a more marked change than one has lately seen.’
Millinery fashion plate from German magazine 'Neues Journal für Fabriken, Manufakturen, Handlung, Kunst und Mode', 1809.
Bonnets were of consistent interest as they contributed largely to a first impression; writing from Southampton in February 1807 Jane Austen notes: ‘Mrs. B. is ill, but she is a nice-looking woman, and wears one of the prettiest straw bonnets in the place’. When in Bath in 1801 she writes: ‘I find my straw bonnet looking very much like other people's, and quite as smart. Bonnets of cambric muslin on the plan of Lady Bridges' are a good deal worn, and some of them are very pretty.’
Staying in stylish Bath presented a valuable occasion to shop for fashion. Austen and her mother ordered new bonnets whilst there. She wrote in May 1801: ‘My mother has ordered a new bonnet, and so have I; both white strip, trimmed with white ribbon’. While white bonnets were increasingly fashionable for weddings, the most popular were straw bonnets made with the split straw reversed with the white pithy inner ‘rice side’ out. This gave a charming matt effect perfect to be adorned by a white lace veil. There was also chip made with split wood shavings of soft white willow or cedar which could be woven to look like straw or used to construct a base to be covered with the fabric of choice.
Austen’s ‘white strip’ is more mysterious, but a patent of 1864 reveals a method of attaching split straw to stiffen muslin, thereby making it stiff, light, and multi-directionally flexible whilst remaining semi-transparent. This might be the formalisation of a method already used in making the sheer bonnets of the era. When staying with her brother in London in 1813 Austen shopped at the fashionable Grafton House, where she bought trimming; ‘the edging there is very cheap, I was tempted by some, and bought some very nice plaiting lace at 3-4'.
Bonnet American, About 1860, Straw, taffeta, 69.5 cm
It is likely that this was the inspiration for Ford’s, the haberdasher featured in Emma written the following year. The value of judicious shopping is also noted in Northanger Abbey, when on her arrival in Bath, Catherine was at pains to observe what is worn there first, to make a few shrewd purchases before even considering venturing to appear at the Assembly Rooms.
Whereas Austen shopped carefully, in Pride and Prejudice she fittingly has Lydia Bennet take a far less cautious approach: ‘Look here, I have bought this bonnet. I do not think it is very pretty; but I thought I might as well buy it as not. I shall pull it to pieces as soon as I get home, and see if I can make it up any better.’
A vogue for artificial flowers and fruits appeared in the late 1790s and many of the flowers were also fashioned in straw or ribbon. On March 5th 1814, Austen writes of her purchase of: ‘black satin ribbon with a proper perl edge, and now I am trying to draw it up into kind of roses instead of putting it in plain double plaits’.
With her characteristic playful wit, Austen wrote in a letter to her sister Cassandra: ‘Flowers are very much worn, & Fruit is still more the thing. – Elizth has a bunch of Strawberries, & I have seen Grapes, cherries, Plumbs, & Apricots – There are likewise Almonds & raisins, French plumbs & Tamarinds at the Grocers, but I have never seen any of them in hats’, in her next letter she adds, ‘besides I cannot help thinking that it is more natural to have flowers grow out of the head than fruit.’
Millinery fashion plate from 'Journal des Dames et des Modes', Costumes Parisiens (plate No 2005), 1821. The second bonnet is described as 'Chapeau de paille d'Italie' - Italian leghorn straw.
Austen was an experienced and renowned needlewoman, and she was no stranger to the art Museum of unmaking and remaking a cap or decorating a bonnet. In December 1798 when she is deeply involved in making a new cap, she writes to Cassandra: ‘I took the liberty a few days ago of asking your black velvet bonnet to lend me its cawl, which it very readily did, and by which I have been enabled to give a considerable improvement of dignity to my cap, which was before too nidgetty to please me. I shall wear it on Thursday, but I hope you will not be offended with me for following your advice as to its ornaments only in part. I still venture to retain the narrow silver round it, Put twice round without any bow, and instead of the black military feather shall put in the Coquelicot one, as being smarter; and besides Coquelicot is to be all the fashion this winter. After the ball, I shall probably make it entirely black…’
In addition to glamorous evening caps, caps with a pretty decorative edge were worn under bonnets to frame the face. Caps were also frequently worn indoors, especially by older married ladies, but even Austen at 23 was very fond of wearing one. Her niece Caroline recalled ‘she always wore a cap – Such was the custom with ladies who were not quite young – at least of a morning – but I never saw her without one, to the best of my remembrance either morning or evening.’ The reason for this rather dowdy affectation was bad hair days! Austen stated that she always wore a cap ‘as they save me a world of torment as to hairdressing.’
Written by Sarah Jane Downing
Read more about an era of Jane Austen style in Sarah Jane Downing's latest publication:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of good looks must be in want of ways to enhance her beauty..."
Lavishly illustrated with Georgian and Regency art works, illustrations, and satirical drawings, the latest title from Sarah Jane Downing is visually rich. Within the pretty pages lie the secrets that every Regency heroine should know about being beautiful, from her glossy ringlets to her well-turned toes.
Taking the span of Jane Austen’s life (1775- 1817) she explores the trends and changes in philosophy, literature, and art that transformed the concept of beauty from the pretty porcelain doll of the Georgian court to the fresh complexion of Elizabeth Bennet.
Delving into Jane Austen’s beloved works and letters, she examines how Jane represented beauty –Lizzie Bennet’s ‘fine eyes’, Emma’s perfect beauty, Harriet’s plump prettiness, and the elegance of Jane Fairfax – and the advantages it could bring. As well as the perils of being ‘plain’ and the horrors of aging, and Austen’s lament for Ann Eliot’s lost ‘bloom’, only safely restored once her heartbreak was healed.
Whether an avid reader of Austen and Regency fiction, a dedicated costumed re-enactor, or simply a lover of period dramas, this book will be a delight for any Austen-ite!
Beauty and Cosmetics in the Time of Jane Austen by Sarah Jane Downing
Published by Amberley Publishing at £14.99
Beauty and Cosmetics in the Time of Jane Austen - Amberley Publishing
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Further Information:
Featured in Selvedge Issue 101, Grow
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Image Credits:
Lead: Bonnet, American, mid-19th century, Woven straw, 70 cm. Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Gift of Miss Eleanor E. Barr.
All further images as credited in photo captions.