Fashions In The Era Of Jane Austen

This beautifully illustrated book explores the rich complexity of Regency clothing through the lens of the collected writings of Jane Austen.

The broader Regency period 1795 to 1820, stands alone as an incredible moment in fashion history, unlike anything that went before it. For the first time England became a fashion influence, especially for menswear, and became the toast of Paris, as court dress became secondary to the season-by-season flux of fashion as we know it today. Sarah Jane Downing explores the fashion revolution and the innovation that inspired a flood of fashions taking influence from far afield. It was an era of contradiction immortalised by Jane Austen, who adeptly used the new-found diversity of fashion to enliven her characters: Wickham's military splendour; Mr Darcy's understated elegance; and Miss Tilney's romantic fixation with white muslin.

What gown would you have worn to be the belle of the ball in April 1811? Choose any month in any year between 1809 and 1820 and find the most fashionable attire in England. Fashions in the Era of Jane Austen is a comprehensive pictorial guide of ladies' fashions collected from one of the most influential periodicals of Austen's lifetime - Ackermann's Repository of Arts. Ackermann's Repository was published in London over two hundred years ago and it provided ladies with monthly etchings of exquisite hand-painted plates featuring the latest fashions. Discover splendid illustrations of morning, evening, riding, and walking dresses with their coordinated accessories: hats, shoes, scarves, jewelry, parasols and more. The book contains more than 275 exquisite illustrations which are accompanied by the original descriptions, as published more than two hundred years ago. Fashions in the Era of Jane Austen covers twelve years of fashion in the Georgian and Regency periods (1809-1820). Costume designers, researchers, authors, and fashion lovers will all treasure these authentic examples of fashionable dress in the era of Jane Austen. * This book is best viewed in the paperback version and includes a full color illustration on nearly every page. The physical book price is set by CreateSpace, a company of Amazon.com approx. pages: 325 word count: 52,217

What would Jane Austen knit? Enter the world of Jane Austen through timeless knitting patterns inspired by the places and characters in her beloved novels. Designers including Susanna IC, Vicki Square, Annie Modesitt, Heather Zoppetti, Karen Joan Raz, and Kathleen Dames have translated their love for Jane Austen's novels into a stunning tribute to the beloved author. The gorgeously evocative pieces include cardigans, knitted shawls, bags and other accessories, and knitted projects for men and children. While the knitting projects are inspired by the fashions of the regency era, they are every bit as relevant today. Knitters obsessed with Jane Austen as well as stitchers just looking for wonderfully appealing projects will fall in love with the beautiful knitting designs. Essays on fascinating aspects of Austen's life and the regency era round out this inspiring collection. Topics include the places where Austen lived, knitting in Regency England, the yarns available to Austen and her contemporaries, and dressmaking during the time period.

Jane Austen loved clothes, and followed fashion with enthusiasm. She was also an expert needlewoman. Her novels use the clothes people wore and their attitudes to dress to convey their characters. Her lively letters, extensively quoted, are full of shopping trips and visits to dressmakers. Penelope Byrde, an expert in the costume of the time, explains all, from corsets to topcoats: how clothes were made and bought, what they cost, and what was worn when and by whom.

DIV Why are words so important to so many Jews? Novelist Amos Oz and historian Fania Oz-Salzberger roam the gamut of Jewish history to explain the integral relationship of Jews and words. Through a blend of storytelling and scholarship, conversation and argument, father and daughter tell the tales behind Judaism’s most enduring names, adages, disputes, texts, and quips. These words, they argue, compose the chain connecting Abraham with the Jews of every subsequent generation. Framing the discussion within such topics as continuity, women, timelessness, and individualism, Oz and Oz-Salzberger deftly engage Jewish personalities across the ages, from the unnamed, possibly female author of the Song of Songs through obscure Talmudists to contemporary writers. They suggest that Jewish continuity, even Jewish uniqueness, depends not on central places, monuments, heroic personalities, or rituals but rather on written words and an ongoing debate between the generations. Full of learning, lyricism, and humor, Jews and Words offers an extraordinary tour of the words at the heart of Jewish culture and extends a hand to the reader, any reader, to join the conversation. /div

The source of tremendous power and the focus of incredible devotion, throughout history notions of beauty have been integral to social life and culture. Each age has had its own standards: a gleaming white brow during the Renaissance, the black eyebrows considered charming in the early eighteenth century, and the thin lips thought desirable by Victorians. Beauty has ensured good marriages, enabled social mobility and offered fame and notoriety, and has led women – and some men – to remarkable lengths in cultivating it, from the dangerous quantities of lead applied by Elizabeth I, to the women of the 1940s and '50s, who employed face powder, lipstick and mascara to look their best during the privations of war and austerity, creating a chic appearance to which many still aspire.

“Poignant . . . deeply personal . . . an indelible history of the largely forgotten Jews of Egypt . . . ” —Miami Herald In vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years before Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rise to power. With Nasser’s nationalization of Egyptian industry, her father, Leon, a boulevardier who conducted business in his white sharkskin suit, loses everything, and departs with the family for any land that will take them. The poverty and hardships they encounter in their flight from Cairo to Paris to New York are strikingly juxtaposed against the beauty and comforts of the lives they left behind. An inversion of the American dream set against the stunning portraits of three world cities, Lucette Lagnado’s memoir offers a grand and sweeping story of faith, tradition, tragedy, and triumph.

The distinctive style of the Regency period is a source of endless fascination for fashion academics and historians, living historians, re-enactors and costume designers for stage and screen. Author and fashion historian Cassidy Percoco has delved into little-known museum hoards to create a stunning collection of 26 garments, many with clear provenance tied to a specific location, which have never before been published and never – or very rarely – displayed. Most of the garments have an aspect in their construction that has not been previously documented, from a style of skirt trim to the method of gown closure. This practical guide begins with a general history of the early 19th-century women's dress. This is followed by 26 patterns of gowns, spencers, chemises, and corsets, each with an illustration of the finished piece and description of its construction. This must-have guide is an essential reference for anyone interested in the fashions or the history of the period, or for anyone wishing to recreate their own beautiful Regency clothing.

This classic biography of the medieval Jewish philosopher, in its first English translation, recounts the events of Maimonides's life and provides an illuminating analysis of his thought, including his greatest work The Guide for the Perplexed..