The Secret Duke

[chocolatepot]

So I decided I needed to read a romance novel, because I haven't done that in a while, but I only read Jo Beverley and Eloisa James now because the rest have too high a frequency of irritation for me. I hadn't read a Jo Bev in a long time so I can't remember what exactly it was that put her on my good list, but I saw one of hers at the book sale and it involved kidnappings, so yeah.

Anyway it's interesting to me because of the way RegencyWorld gets into people's heads. There have been a couple of instances where I'm impressed with Beverley's comparative understanding of 1760s clothing (like, she knows the difference between stays and jumps, that clothes are going to fit differently with them, and that stomachers are a thing), but there are these little things that don't bother me, it's just that I notice them and it's funny to me.

Like, she wants to show that Bella used to be frivolous, so she says that she never had to make decisions more stressful than how to trim a bonnet. Which isn't impossible, but with 18thc bonnets there just isn't that much trimming and it's not as changeable as Regency bonnet fashions. And then later on a guy wraps her up in a shawl.

It's just interesting, insert some academic-sounding line about clothing and the way it affects the way we think and conceptualize the world and the way it gets in our heads.

(There's also the gripe I have that applies to pretty much everyone - referring to a particular dress as the "[color] [fabric]". It's the logic of it. Do you have a dress in two materials for every color for every part of the day? If you don't, do you really need to specify that you want to wear the blue silk to the fabulous ball rather than the blue serge? Or that you're going to go for a long walk in the forest in the grey wool rather than the grey velvet?

OR JUST SAY "ONE" AFTER THE FABRIC, PLEASE.)

Comments

[lliira]

Shawls weren't common before the Regency period?

[chocolatepot]

Nope. They come in around the same time as the high-waisted floaty cotton gowns, around 1794, as part of the Greek look. Prior to that, you could, you know, wrap yourself in a blanket if you wanted, but the fashionable way to deal with it was mantelets and pelisses (the main difference being that pelisses have slits for the arms and mantelets just go over them).