I was looking for information on clothing during the Pride and Prejudice time period when I found this info.
Notice the jacket that Elizabeth wears in the picture at the top of the blog is one of these Spencer Jacket talked about below.
A Lady Wearing a Spencer to read. A Spencer was perfect to keep chills away.Earl Spencer and the Short Spencer Jacket 1795 - Regency Fashion history - 1817 - Very Short Cropped Spencer Jacket.The Spencer was a short top coat without tails worn by men during the 1790s as an extra covering over the tailed coat. It had long sleeves and was frequently decorated with military frogging. Picture of woman wearing a Spencer.Its originator is thought to be Earl Spencer who singed the tails of his coat when standing beside a fire. He then had the tails trimmed off and started a fashion.
A female version was soon adopted by gentlewomen who at the time were wearing the thin light muslin dresses of the 1790s.
The Spencer was worn as a cardigan or shrug is worn today. It was a short form of jacket to just above waist level cut on identical lines to the dress.
Left - A very cropped short high waisted Regency Spencer of 1817.The Spencer was worn both indoors and outdoors and for evening wear and was made of silk or a wool material known as kerseymere. When it was worn as an indoor evening Spencer it was called a canezou. Spencers stayed in fashion for about 20 years whilst the waistline remained high.
This lemon Regency Spencer is from a fashion plate of 1818.
When the waist slowly began its drop on dresses so did the waist of the Spencer.
information found at Fashion-era.com/regency_fashionyou can find patterns for the dresses and for the spencer jackets here at Sensibility.com
