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BEAU BONNETS

BEAU BONNETS

June 6, 2022
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Image: Woven straw bonnet, mid-19th Century, United States of America. Image taken from the article, Regency Bonnets, by Sarah Jane Downing in Selvedge issue 101

In a letter dated 6 June 1811 Jane Austen writes to her sister Cassandra from Chawton:

‘I like your new bonnets exceedingly; yours is a shape which always looks well, and I think Fanny's particularly becoming to her.’

Bonnets were a constant fascination as they would govern a first impression more than any other item. And, as La Belle Assemblée cautioned in 1806 ‘A lady is not considered fashionable if she appears in public for two successive days in the same bonnet.’ there was a lot of pressure to always appear in the best choice of headwear. But how to choose wisely? Was it best to go for something ever flattering? Something to make a fashion statement? Or something of a good shape that could be decorated again and again?


Image: 'Promenade Dress', Ackermann's Repository of Arts, July 1811 from Pastimes and Pleasures in the Time of Jane Austen. Image courtesy of Sarah Jane Downing.

In 1811 there was a huge array of styles from which to choose, some with a flattering height to the crown, some with a lace edged brim that receded all the way to the back of the neck, and some with a soft dome like an upturned pudding basin. Brims were available in varying degrees of depth and could be used to shade the eyes from the sun, as a device to conceal, or reveal coquettish glances, or simply to hide. A small additional veil to the brim of the bonnet was also fashionable that year and might have been worn for an air of mystery as much as for sun protection as they feature in some of the fashion plates for winter.


Image: 'Promenade Dress', Ackermann's Repository of Arts, June 1811 from Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen. Image courtesy of Sarah Jane Downing.

In 1811 Jane was completing Sense and Sensibility in which she writes of the gossipy old (nearly 30!) spinster Anne Steele that she has chosen her new bonnet specifically to appeal to a certain man:

‘There now, you are going to laugh at me too. But why should I not wear pink ribbands? I do not care if it is the Doctor’s favourite colour. I am sure, for my part, I should never have known he did like it better than any other colour, if he had not happened to say so.’

Jane Austen and her sister shared numerous millinery projects, and she writes that it was Ann’s sister Lucy who helped her with the bonnet by fashioning the bows which unfortunately did not quite attract her beau!


Image: 'Riding Habit', Ackermann's Repository of Arts December 1811. Image courtesy of Sarah Jane Downing.

Read more about Regency Bonnets in my feature for Selvedge issue 101 Austentacious Style (click on the link to read the full article) and more about Regency needlework in my latest book Pastimes and Pleasures in the Time of Jane Austen.

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