Friday, December 10, 2010
Yellow Regency Dresses
Recently I was wearing my mother's yellow silk regency dress. A gentleman started telling me about the history of dyes, and was postulating that in the regency period dresses were black, white, or grey, with the occasional red dress for someone extravagant. Now, I understand that the aniline dyes opened a whole world of exciting possibilities (I do love doing 1860s clothes!), but this struck me as excessive. I got a little paranoid. But now I've done some research and I feel much better. I present to you three original dresses in yellow silk (various dates in the 1800-1818 range), plus a portrait of Amelie Augustes von Bayerne done by Joseph Karl Stieler in 1823. Actually, I really adore all of these (check out that fringe!), so take a look.
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Hey there,
ReplyDeleteGoogle sent me to your site after doing another search on "Yellow Regency Dresses." I'm a fashion historian, and I focus on the early 19th century... I don't know who this gentleman was but I can promise you he's very, very wrong. : ) There are very few colors I haven't seen extant examples in (including highlighter yellow trim on a barbie pink dress from 1811) so feel free to wear what you want, and how you want.
Besides, even if something DOESN'T exist today it doesn't mean it wasn't ever done. Everything we've got in the modern day is just the result of a happy accident.