Why, precisely, Louisa is so bent out of shape about Caroline slipping out of sight is unclear. The narrator tells us that since Mr. We do know that the Hursts have a house in Grosvenor Street , to which the family retires when they go to London. Since Louisa Bingley was quite well dowered, Hurst may have married her in order to acquire more wealth. Since Caroline claims such a great acquaintance with the Darcys , it is likely that the Hursts have spent significant time with them too.
Imagine Mr. The image above shows Lizzie in a dark green cotton gown and Charlotte in a brown dress. None of the ladies are wearing hair ornaments or gloves, nor holding fans. For a private ball, in which the guest list could be controlled by the host, the guests went all out to show off their finery. Their best gowns were retrieved from storage and were accessorized with long gloves, fancy hair ornaments, a fan, dance card, delicate necklaces and earrings, and a beautiful Norwich or India shawl.
The dresses were made of finer muslin or silk an extremely expensive fabric worn largely by the rich. Under the dresses, the ladies wore bodiced petticoats and silk stockings and slippers. By , trains on full dress gowns were beginning to go out of fashion or were reduced considerably in length, except for court gowns, which followed a different set of rules.
Balls were generally scheduled during a full moon so that carriages traveling over dark roads were guided by lunar light. As the revelers approached the house, brightly lit lanterns dangling from trees or torches planted alongside the road would light the way; and the rooms themselves would be emblazoned from the light of hundreds of beeswax candles, which tended not to drip and would give off a steady flame but were horrifically expensive.
Candlelight made large rooms look smaller, since so many dark corners remained unlit. The resulting low light was kind to aging skin and the badly complected. The hundreds of blazing candles emitted no more light than that of a few 25 watt bulbs.
The light was enhanced by the crystal pendants that acted as reflectors and by mirrors, that were often placed in back of wall sconces. Candlelit rooms became hot over time and ceilings were covered in soot from the smoke.
With the number of people assembled in one space and the great number of burning candles, ball rooms required good ventilation. Most women carried fans. One can imagine how hot the men must have felt wearing long sleeved shirts and waistcoats under coats and cravats that covered the neck up to the chin.
Cruikshank, Inconveniences of a Crowded Drawing Room shows what a "crush" looks like. One can suppose that the gathering at Netherfield was a more sedate affair than the one depicted above by Cruikshank, with only the cream of Meryton crop invited to partake in the festivities. Given the size of Netherfield Park, a crush would have looked more like this:.
The golden glow emanating from chandeliers and wall sconces would alter the color of the gowns that the ladies wore. Colors that looked good in the yellow light would be chosen for greatest effect, colors that clashed would be avoided.
I imagine that a blue gown could look green under yellow light, and that a strong puce could look black or that lavender would turn a sickly gray. Darcy approaches Lizzie and Charlotte. The white dresses look beautiful in candlelight.
Notice the slight differences in the necklines and details of sashes and embellishments, but the gowns look as if they were designed for the same era. In the spring of youth, when all is lovely and gay, then, as the soft green, sparkling in freshness, bedecks the earth; so, light and transparent robes, of tender colours, should adorn the limbs of the young beauty…Her summer evening dress may be of a gossamer texture; but it must still preserve the same simplicity, though its gracefully-diverging folds may fall like the mantle of Juno…In this dress, her arms, and part of her neck and bosom may be unveiled: but only part.
The eye of maternal decorum should draw the virgin zone to the limit where modesty would bid it rest. A Lady of Distinction advised married ladies like Mrs.
Bennet to make more modest choices:. Bennet and other matrons are shown covering their hair with feathers or caps. At their age, they were allowed to wear deeper but more somber colors. If they chose to wear white, they were advised to add a striking color through accessories, such as a richly colored shawl.
The costumes in Pride and Prejudice combine the fashionable dress of women at left below with old-fashioned 18th century gowns that had natural waists Brenda Blethyn and woman at right. It would not make sense for a young lady on the marriage mart to wear anything but the most up to date gown she could afford. In Pride and Prejudice , Mrs. Bennet wears an old-fashioned gown with a natural waistline.
This meant that all the girls would need their own party and ball dresses in addition to their regular gowns, a quite expensive proposition for Mr. Bennet, who, one suspects, would have preferred to spend his money on books. Handmade fabrics were still very costly before the age of mass production and ladies recycled their gowns as a matter of course.
It was the tradition to remake their gowns, or to hand them down to younger or smaller members of the family to be recut in the latest fashion or refurbished with new trim and accessories, which were more affordable. Silks were quite expensive. Bennet could probably afford to dress Jane in silks since she was the eldest daughter and her dresses could be handed down to the younger girls, but the cost would be too prohibitive for him to outfit all his daughters in such a costly fabric.
Print from Georgian Index. Traveling salesmen and local shops could offer only a limited supply of fabrics to choose from, and one imagines that quite a few ladies in a small community would be forced to make dresses or have them made up by a dressmaker from the same bolt of cloth. Local drapers, dressmaker shops, and millinary shops would have looked much like the shop below:.
They could update their gown with lace and ribbon, or embroidery, and make minor adjustments, which is what Jane Austen often wrote about in her letter to Cassandra. In that way they updated their gowns and introduced variety. Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst in their London finery.
Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst, on the other hand, would be decked out in the latest and most elaborate finery that London fashion had to offer. Her decolete is more obvious; not only is she better endowed than her sister, but her neckline is lower and the sleeves are puffier. She, too, wears a more elaborate necklace than the Bennet girls, but is is matched with a simple pair of pearl drop earrings. Compare Mrs. Roman fresco, Pompeii, Aphrodite, after a Greek painting.
Pride and Prejudice shows most of the young women wearing pretty but simple muslin ball gowns, many of which would be embroidered in whitework. Collins Mr. Bennet's ridiculous cousin, who will inherit Longbourn after Mr. Bennet's death. Charlotte Lucas Elizabeth's sensible and intelligent friend, who disappoints Elizabeth by marrying Mr.
Collins for money and security. Gardiner Mrs. Bennet's intelligent and cultivated brother and sister-in-law. Phillips A country attorney and his vulgar wife, who is Mrs. Bennet's sister. Previous About Pride and Prejudice. Next Chapters Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks?
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