Fashion — Blog

What's old in fashion is always new again -- and I would certainly rather steal from the Regency period than from the 1980s. While the west coast hipsters gradually descend into '80s-ville and drag the rest of us with them, I'm fighting the trend and trying to stay true to my own style. The biggest style issue I'm facing right now is the search for an evening dress for the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart/RITA awards ceremony. It's a posh, glittery affair, and since I'm a Golden Heart finalist this year, I'd like to look my best. But where, in the name of all that's holy, can I find a dress that is both demure and cutting-edge, classic and modern? And is there any magic potion that can make me look taller than 5'0"? I can't find anything for my height problem (other than unwearably high heels), but I may be onto something for the dress...

During the Regency, vertical stripes were in. The dress on the left is from 1810, and you can see the usual odd tradeoffs made by Regency women -- anything above the ankle was much too scandalous to be shown, but one's breasts could (and should!) be displayed just above a precariously high waist. For evening, sleeves could be quite short, but some desultory attempt to cover at least a bit of the shoulder was de rigueur. While this lady has taken one of her gloves off (she's such a shameless hussy), gloves were always worn when out of doors, and ladies usually wore quite long gloves with their evening gowns.

Sadly, I don't own any hats or bonnets; I haven't even had a baseball cap since I was in high school, and since I wasn't invited to the royal wedding, I haven't invested in any grand hats or fascinators. I may be living the hip Regency writer life, but there's little use for dress hats when my social life typically consists of going out for casual dinners. But, the vertical stripes are quite flattering for someone of my, er, modest height. And, I've always found the empire waistline to be more flattering for my figure than anything else -- so perhaps stealing from the Regency will work for me.

During my search, I stumbled across this dress from Betsey Johnson. I usually avert my gaze when I walk past her store in the mall, since most of the dresses seem to just barely cover one's girly parts and I have nowhere to wear them to even if I wasn't afraid of a Britney Spears circa 2008 display of all my goods whenever sitting down or exiting cars. But, this dress is lovely. It's made of taffeta, which existed during the Regency, and it has the lovely striped theme that I'm looking for. It also has a banded empire waist like so many Regency dresses, without giving me a thrust-up shelf of cleavage that would be utterly wasted on an audience of 2000 women with hardly a male in sight. It's hip, fresh, feminine, interesting...and, sadly, $450. A Regency heiress wouldn't bat an eyelash at that, but I'm not quite an heiress, so I suppose it's back to the drawing board.

Are you looking for a dress for a special occasion? What have you found? If you're not looking for a dress but would like to contribute to my dress fund, please feel free to email me :)

For this week's Regency edition of Steal This Look, I am biased towards considering fashions that can mask the pound (or five) that I may gain from the usual gauntlet of holiday parties, family feasts, and generally slothlike activity. While our Regency heroines were free from the tyranny of the dreaded Christmas sweater, and they would certainly never show up to a house party in a Playboy-style bunny costume a la Bridget Jones, they still had to wear those low-necked, high-waisted clingy white dresses - a silhouette that was extremely unforgiving to all but the willowiest of girls. So how did they make their dresses look more svelte and less sacklike? It all starts with a good pair of stays. While Regency fashions were much lighter and less restrictive than what you would have seen in the Tudor, Restoration, or even the Georgian period, almost all women wore stays to smooth out their shape and add support (how else do you think all those Regency cover models get their breasts elevated so close to their chins?). Unlike modern corsets, stays were usually laced in front and back, and almost always had shoulder straps to provide additional support.

When I went to England in 2008, I was thrilled to go to the Fashion Museum in Bath. It's a must-stop if you go to Bath, particularly since it's located in the Assembly Rooms - you can check out both the dancing and card rooms of the Assembly Rooms and see some incredible fashions in the same building. They had a small exhibit on undergarments; most undergarments haven't survived the test of time (but really, as I don't intend to leave my prized underwear to my grandchildren, this shouldn't be a surprise), but the museum does have a few pieces that are worth seeing.

So how can you steal this look? If you are into steampunk or fetishwear, or if you go to much more interesting places than I do, you can rock a gorgeous, custom-made corset in place of the usual tshirt. Dark Garden looks interesting - I know absolutely nothing about them and can't vouch for them, but they're based in San Francisco, so if you go to them and they treat you badly, let me know so that I can avoid them :). They also make bridal corsets, which would be a really fun way to take the corset from the bedroom to the runway (er, aisle) on your big day.

You can also make your own corset - Simplicity pattern 2890 is for both a corset and drawers, although it looks quite costumey and not particularly period perfect. This pattern at Truly Victorian looks more appropriate, while CorsetMaking.com sells all manner of material, busks, boning, and lacing to make your corset dreams come true. Again, I haven't tried any of these myself, but if you are more intrepid than I am, please report back with your findings.

However, the easiest way I've found to steal the look and smooth out my shape doesn't involve corsetry - instead, it involves the thoroughly modern smoke-and-mirrors made possible by Spanx. Armed with their weapons-grade nylon/spandex, I might just be able to wear one of those white muslin dresses without looking pregnant. And while Spanx are more expensive than, say, a three-pack of Hanes, they are much less expensive than a custom-made corset, and without any of the discomfort of having steel or boning digging into your lungs.

For the record, I have tried Spanx, so I know that of which I speak. What do you think? Do you secretly wish that corsets were back in style, or are you quite happy with the more relaxed silhouettes of the future?