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Regency Ladies' Day
Today was the Riversdale Regency Ladies' Day event - seven eventful hours at a local museum (this area is lousy with Regency/Colonial era houses turned into museums).
People came from all over the area - special shoutout to author Janet Mullany (who at one point let us in on her take in the paranormal Jane Austen anthology coming out next year. Miss Austen is getting quite the paranormal workout these days!) Another attendee - I don't know if she wants her name in LJ - was celebrating her birthday.
Riversdale is the Regency-era home built by the Calvert family, mostly overseen by Rosalie Calvert, whose many letters to her Belgian family survive and have been published. (One of the side conversations was over the very unusual name of the docent, who came from Antwerp just as Rosalie had. "I'm Flemish," the docent explained.
"You call yourself Flemish and not Belgian?"
"Oh, yes, dear!"
We started with candying flowers, dipping hothouse pansies into pasteurized egg white and sugar, to top cupcakes later. This is not at all as easy as the instructions suggest - you really have to push it into the egg white, keep it from collapsing on itself, and then the sugar won't stick if you just tap the flower into the sugar. You have to dust it on.
Then we made perfume, and there was much laughter among the attendees (all but one adult and most Of A Certain Age) that we were being trusted to handle the expensive essential oils, but not the cheap vodka that formed the base. We were putting 25-30 drops into 1/4 cup of vodka. We could do any blend we wanted; suggestions were:
- Bergamont/Lavender/Rose/Jasmine/Orange
- Rose/Bergamont/Citrus
- Lemon/Bergamont/Rose
- Jasmine/Rose/Bergamot
- Rosemary/Lavender/Citrus
Mine is lemon/orange/carnation/rosemary/rose and smells like cough medicine. *sigh*
The highlight of the day was the special presentation on hairstyles and embellishments by Stacy Hampton I know my readers - you're going to want to cut straight to the chase with anything you can use yourselves, so here goes.
RANDOM FACTS:
Bobby pins don't hold volume or weight. The older-fashioned hairpins - rather like a long U, *do,* but the trick is to pinch them shut as you slide them in, so they spring open to hold it. (This explains why I've been told they're wonderful but they slide right out!) What will really hold - to the point that it won't come out, so only use this in fake hair - is to bend one leg back, so the pin looks like a W with the last / off. Pinch that shut and slide it in.
Although it's not a period source, Stacy did give the Emma Thompson Sense & Sensibility a pass for doing their best for accuracy.
Switches and fake hair to match caucasian colors are getting harder to find in beauty supply shops. Google kanekalon if you can't match your hair color. It's a synthetic that can be curled on low heat.
Short hair for women was in fashion for a bit - it was called "a la Titus" - but if you don't want to fuss with it, she suggests making a scarf turban, which was very in fashion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (I'm going to spare myself a crapload of typing and just link to Amazon)
Ackermann's Costume Plates: Women's Fashions in England, 1818-1828
Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years
The Comb: It's History and Development
English Womens Clothing in the Nineteenth Century: A Comprehensive Guide
Regency Era Fashion Plates: 1800-1819
OOP: Beginning Hair Braiding and/or Braid Your Own Hair by Karen Ribble.
WEB SITES
Braided Image Hair Braiding
In a Timely Fashion Hair Styling
Jane Austen's World Blog "She did a hairstyle post just last week"
Jane Austen's World Website (costume links page)
Jessamyn's Regency Costume Companion (hairstyles page)
Regency Fashion Page (costume links and orig. sources)
Regency Fashion Page (lit resources and more costume links)
Sense & Sensibility Patterns
Simitra's Ebay Georgian & Regency Hair Ornament Guide (downloadable pdf explaining styles of the era)
Timely Tresses (books, ornaments, headwear patterns & kits)
Ups and Downs, The Blog of Old Fashioned Hairstyles
We Make History Ladies' Fashions of the Regency Era
SUGGESTED STYLES
Pull hair into a loose ponytail. Make the tailed hair into a "bow" by dividing it into 3 to 5 sections and loosely pulling each section up and pinning it into the ponytail holder. This can be made very fancy by then surrounding the edge of the ponytail with a braided switch (tucking the ends under) and even fancier with flowers or combs.
If you have fake curls, pull your own hair up into a ponytail high on the head. Attach the fake fall of curls below the ponytail. Tuck the real hair up in a bow as described above. Skip the braided switch; use combs or flowers.
For a very simple style, put a long ribbon over loose hair 3-4 fingers back from the hairline, and angle the ribbon toward the back of the head (as if to make a headband). Pull the side hair from the ear area *over* the ribbon and pull it and the back hair up into a loose ponytail. Twist the hair into a French Twist. (I'm not entirely sure what she did with the ribbon ends - wrapped them over the twist, I think.
She didn't mention this one, but I saw it once in a book and loved it, and it would work for the era. It requires long hair that will hold a braid. Pull the side hair up into a loose twist, heading toward the back; when you get there, put all hair in a ponytail about halfway up the head. Slide your fingers between your skull and the ponytail holder to get a little room, and flip the ponytail up and *through* that hole. Divide the ponytail into 3 sections, braid each section (possibly with ribbon or strung beads) and loop them up so you can tuck the ends of all three braids into where the ponytail was flipped.
Luncheon consisted of pumpkin soup, turkey smoked sausage, corn muffins, locally churned butter, and 3 kinds of pickles made from beans, cucumbers, and cabbage grown on site.
We next had our choices of making a commonplace book - basically a scrapbook (one enterprising woman started a scrapbook of that day itself; it made me a bit sorry I've tossed the menu and program from A Taste of Amontillado) or making cards with flowers grown and pressed on site.
After that, we made herbal sashets. (The Russian sage looked pretty but over time, the scent's starting to get to me.)
Final event was to make scones and cupcake icing for the final tea (the cupcakes would also be decorated with the morning's candied pansies. The rest of the menu was rose-water cupcakes, assd. crackers, cottage cheese herbed with site-grown oregano and thyme, the scones with a choice of green tomato marmalade (also from the garden), carrot marmalade, or black cherry preserves, and a pear compote with whipped cream.
On the way out, we were each given two potted pansies, two hyacinth bulbs, and two tulip bulbs.
A very long day - it started at 10 and I walked back into the house at 5 - but a pleasant one. Apparently last year they did cosmetics. I'll keep an eye out for next year... and next year I'll be properly garbed. (They are offering a "Make a Regency Dress in a Weekend" event in January.)
People came from all over the area - special shoutout to author Janet Mullany (who at one point let us in on her take in the paranormal Jane Austen anthology coming out next year. Miss Austen is getting quite the paranormal workout these days!) Another attendee - I don't know if she wants her name in LJ - was celebrating her birthday.
Riversdale is the Regency-era home built by the Calvert family, mostly overseen by Rosalie Calvert, whose many letters to her Belgian family survive and have been published. (One of the side conversations was over the very unusual name of the docent, who came from Antwerp just as Rosalie had. "I'm Flemish," the docent explained.
"You call yourself Flemish and not Belgian?"
"Oh, yes, dear!"
We started with candying flowers, dipping hothouse pansies into pasteurized egg white and sugar, to top cupcakes later. This is not at all as easy as the instructions suggest - you really have to push it into the egg white, keep it from collapsing on itself, and then the sugar won't stick if you just tap the flower into the sugar. You have to dust it on.
Then we made perfume, and there was much laughter among the attendees (all but one adult and most Of A Certain Age) that we were being trusted to handle the expensive essential oils, but not the cheap vodka that formed the base. We were putting 25-30 drops into 1/4 cup of vodka. We could do any blend we wanted; suggestions were:
- Bergamont/Lavender/Rose/Jasmine/Orange
- Rose/Bergamont/Citrus
- Lemon/Bergamont/Rose
- Jasmine/Rose/Bergamot
- Rosemary/Lavender/Citrus
Mine is lemon/orange/carnation/rosemary/rose and smells like cough medicine. *sigh*
The highlight of the day was the special presentation on hairstyles and embellishments by Stacy Hampton I know my readers - you're going to want to cut straight to the chase with anything you can use yourselves, so here goes.
RANDOM FACTS:
Bobby pins don't hold volume or weight. The older-fashioned hairpins - rather like a long U, *do,* but the trick is to pinch them shut as you slide them in, so they spring open to hold it. (This explains why I've been told they're wonderful but they slide right out!) What will really hold - to the point that it won't come out, so only use this in fake hair - is to bend one leg back, so the pin looks like a W with the last / off. Pinch that shut and slide it in.
Although it's not a period source, Stacy did give the Emma Thompson Sense & Sensibility a pass for doing their best for accuracy.
Switches and fake hair to match caucasian colors are getting harder to find in beauty supply shops. Google kanekalon if you can't match your hair color. It's a synthetic that can be curled on low heat.
Short hair for women was in fashion for a bit - it was called "a la Titus" - but if you don't want to fuss with it, she suggests making a scarf turban, which was very in fashion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (I'm going to spare myself a crapload of typing and just link to Amazon)
Ackermann's Costume Plates: Women's Fashions in England, 1818-1828
Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years
The Comb: It's History and Development
English Womens Clothing in the Nineteenth Century: A Comprehensive Guide
Regency Era Fashion Plates: 1800-1819
OOP: Beginning Hair Braiding and/or Braid Your Own Hair by Karen Ribble.
WEB SITES
Braided Image Hair Braiding
In a Timely Fashion Hair Styling
Jane Austen's World Blog "She did a hairstyle post just last week"
Jane Austen's World Website (costume links page)
Jessamyn's Regency Costume Companion (hairstyles page)
Regency Fashion Page (costume links and orig. sources)
Regency Fashion Page (lit resources and more costume links)
Sense & Sensibility Patterns
Simitra's Ebay Georgian & Regency Hair Ornament Guide (downloadable pdf explaining styles of the era)
Timely Tresses (books, ornaments, headwear patterns & kits)
Ups and Downs, The Blog of Old Fashioned Hairstyles
We Make History Ladies' Fashions of the Regency Era
SUGGESTED STYLES
Pull hair into a loose ponytail. Make the tailed hair into a "bow" by dividing it into 3 to 5 sections and loosely pulling each section up and pinning it into the ponytail holder. This can be made very fancy by then surrounding the edge of the ponytail with a braided switch (tucking the ends under) and even fancier with flowers or combs.
If you have fake curls, pull your own hair up into a ponytail high on the head. Attach the fake fall of curls below the ponytail. Tuck the real hair up in a bow as described above. Skip the braided switch; use combs or flowers.
For a very simple style, put a long ribbon over loose hair 3-4 fingers back from the hairline, and angle the ribbon toward the back of the head (as if to make a headband). Pull the side hair from the ear area *over* the ribbon and pull it and the back hair up into a loose ponytail. Twist the hair into a French Twist. (I'm not entirely sure what she did with the ribbon ends - wrapped them over the twist, I think.
She didn't mention this one, but I saw it once in a book and loved it, and it would work for the era. It requires long hair that will hold a braid. Pull the side hair up into a loose twist, heading toward the back; when you get there, put all hair in a ponytail about halfway up the head. Slide your fingers between your skull and the ponytail holder to get a little room, and flip the ponytail up and *through* that hole. Divide the ponytail into 3 sections, braid each section (possibly with ribbon or strung beads) and loop them up so you can tuck the ends of all three braids into where the ponytail was flipped.
Luncheon consisted of pumpkin soup, turkey smoked sausage, corn muffins, locally churned butter, and 3 kinds of pickles made from beans, cucumbers, and cabbage grown on site.
We next had our choices of making a commonplace book - basically a scrapbook (one enterprising woman started a scrapbook of that day itself; it made me a bit sorry I've tossed the menu and program from A Taste of Amontillado) or making cards with flowers grown and pressed on site.
After that, we made herbal sashets. (The Russian sage looked pretty but over time, the scent's starting to get to me.)
Final event was to make scones and cupcake icing for the final tea (the cupcakes would also be decorated with the morning's candied pansies. The rest of the menu was rose-water cupcakes, assd. crackers, cottage cheese herbed with site-grown oregano and thyme, the scones with a choice of green tomato marmalade (also from the garden), carrot marmalade, or black cherry preserves, and a pear compote with whipped cream.
On the way out, we were each given two potted pansies, two hyacinth bulbs, and two tulip bulbs.
A very long day - it started at 10 and I walked back into the house at 5 - but a pleasant one. Apparently last year they did cosmetics. I'll keep an eye out for next year... and next year I'll be properly garbed. (They are offering a "Make a Regency Dress in a Weekend" event in January.)
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I think they used something close to that ribbon hairstyle in Mansfield Park; I remember wanting to know how it was done.
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It was a nifty day. Exhausting, but totally worth it. I'm going to go back again next year.