The Connection Between Celebrities and Fashion

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By J. Moore
You are sitting at home in your comfortably flannel pajama pants and a pizza stained t-shirt. With a bag of potato chips in one hand and the remote in the other, you excitedly switch on the tube to watch the event of the year... well, at least of the week... the Academy Awards.

Which films have been nominated? You are not sure.

Who is the Oscar favorite for "Best Cinematography?" You do not care.

What will Halle be wearing?

How many diamonds will fit around Nicole's thin little wrist?

YES! THOSE ARE THE QUESTIONS!

And thus we see the reason for the relationship between fashion designers and our favorite A-list celebrities. Calvin, Donatella, Marc, and the rest of the gang are certainly not fools! Fashion designers are aesthetically driven - they seek to create physical beauty inspired by their thoughts, ideas, and visions. This physical beauty is known to us as clothing. And how beautiful it truly is!

And what can be better than a meticulously constructed and designed floor length Vera Wang gown? A meticulously constructed and designed floor length Vera Wang gown on Julia Roberts! Fuse the most beautiful fashion designs with someof the most beautiful faces, bodies and people and the result borders on sublime - a sensory delight that keeps us tuned in and left wanting to emulate.

Flashback to the months leading up to my senior prom... just weeks after Gwenyth Paltrow won her Academy Award for "Best Actress", the racks of Macy's were overflowing with replicas of Paltrow's bubblegum pink ball gown. As much as we value our individual tastes and fashion sense, there is at least a part of us (no matter how small), that emulates the beauty we find in the world. This is natural, right?
I have heard that a celebrity wearing your gown/tux/creation to a red carpet event is worth over a million dollars in advertising. Further, they tell me that slipping a gorgeous frock onto an Academy Award winner is worth tens of millions of dollars in advertising. This does not seem to be much of a stretch. Beauty sells - making the relationship between fashion and celebrity brilliant.

Hats

Large romantic wide hats, ornately trimmed with feathers, loops of ribbons and bows complemented the wide shoulder lines of the 1830s. For evening many married ladies liked to wear gauzy silk, satin and velvet exotic turbans or berets especially on one side of the head. The turbans they twisted up from scarves, but as a fashion they were dead by the 1840s.

Bonnets were virtually interchangeable with hats, so little difference was seen between the types. Loose uncut ribbon ties were a feature of the bonnets and by 1828 both bonnets and hats were quite vast affairs. Coal scuttle  bonnet styles with deep crowns accommodated the high Apollo knot coiffure and were a great feature of the Romantic Era. 

Georgian Era

The period 1800-1837 is part of the Georgian era.  George III was insane after 1811, but lived on until 1820.  His son the Prince Regent, George, acted as Regent for nine years of the King's madness, then reigned 1820-1830.  Because of the influence of the Georgian Prince Regent, this is early part of the C19^th is known as The Regency Period, and in costume history terms the Regency fashion era.  Accessories such as those shown on this page were an essential part of the fashion of the Regency period.

Re-enactors and Bath Jane Austen Festival 17th to 25th September 2010

The Bath Jane Austen Festival draws attention to the author with an annual celebration held in Bath. Austen fans dress up in Regency costume every September. At forums months are spent discussing costumes and outfits suitable for the occasion. 

Jane Austen devotees can acquire tickets from Bath Festivals Box Office a few months before September, but I suggest you also check out the Jane Austen Centre for practical details and an enthusiastic look at the Miss Austen. The festival opens with a Regency Costumed Promenade through Bath streets on a Saturday.  Lots of opportunities exist for minor related events, but dancing devotees can buy tickets for the costumed Ball at the Assembly Rooms.

Rococo to the Age of Adam

Earlier in the late 18^th century, a similar move to an uncomplicated taste had taken place in other things including furniture, ceramics and silver. Previously heavily decorated objects had dominated rooms. These were called 'Rococo', a taste that sprang from the French word 'Rocaille' which literally meant rocky or shell encrusted and which flourished between 1730 and 1780.Adam’s influence meant that Rococo waned and was replaced by more delicately balanced items, so that the house and the objects were harmonious. The Age of Adam coincided with the early stages of industrialization so that people like Hepplewhite, Wedgwood and Boulton were greatly influenced by the spirit of Adam.
By the early 1800s even Adam was thought too fanciful and decorative.

Bath Spa

Fashionable young ladies were the core ingredients of Jane Austen's world. When Jane Austen wrote her novels, Bath Spa town was still Britain's most fashionable health resort. Today it is considered a beautiful city, but in the time of Regency England it must have seemed the finest city of the world and an example of refined taste.
Bath town had and still has, colonnaded crescents of immaculate proportions, squares and streets. During the Regency Bath Spa oozed classical grace and proportion, then and now. Right - Architecture in Bath

Earlier in 1705 Beau Nash had become Master of Ceremonies at the Assembly Rooms in Bath. He laid down rules of etiquette relating to behaviour and acceptable dress. By 1730 Bath was the most fashionable city in England. It held this position until the Regency Era, by which time it was highly established as the place to be seen.
In the name of refinement restraint was more evident than ever before. Fashionable women shed their hoop skirts and their high wigs. Make up usually made of lethal ingredients was discarded. Hair powder was abandoned for fresh clean washed cropped hairstyles. Blatant use of jewellery was soon seen as vulgar and outdated.

Soon much simpler styles of dress in plain cotton fabrics resulted in a fresher less artificial look and became quite usual. The simple clothes worn by fashionable women and men were in perfect parallel with the classical mood of the Regency era homes and the delightful streets Austen’s characters occupied. Left - A part of the curved circus area.

Jane Austen's Regency Gentlewomen

Jane Austen wrote six novels published during the Regency period and between 1811 and 1818. The characters are not fabulously rich, but have a comfortable homelife and are wealthy enough to live virtually uninterrupted lives of leisure. Their roles are played out in the drawing room, the assembly room, the Parsonage or Rectory, the fashionable street for promenading, or the grounds of the country house.Her characters spend their time reading, writing letters, walking, riding, dancing, playing cards, listening to music and enjoying the art of conversation. Their conversation speaks of their own safe and comfortable society. They talk about fashion and taste, about acceptable manners and unacceptable behaviour. Above all else, their conversation concentrates on thoughts of love and marriage. Their mothers despair for the lack of suitable suitors.
Surprisingly Regency women of this era have opinions and a knowledge of the facts of life that were denied to later Victorian women. It would be wrong to suggest that all people enjoyed the kind of lifestyle of Jane Austen's characters. Possibly well over half of Europe still lived in discomfort, working hard, living poorly, outside of fashionable clothing and often going to bed hungry.

To learn more about Jane Austen when in Bath you may enjoy a to visit the Jane Austen Centre, see the small museum, browse the book shop and also take tea and light refreshments at the centre.

Earl Spencer and the Short Spencer Jacket 1795

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. 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.

Right - A Lady Wearing a Spencer to read. A Spencer was perfect to keep chills away.
Left - A very cropped short high waisted Regency Spencer of 1817.

The Empire Dress Style 1800

The high waisted graceful styles of early 19^th century are known as the Empire style. The Empire dress which evolved in the late 1790s began as a chemise shift gathered under the breasts and at the neck.

By 1799 the empire line silhouette shown left was well established and is the line we associate with dress of the early 1800s.

The costume history plate of 1800 shown right, is a good example of how the fullness of the muslin shift dress was first drawn together under the bustline with a girdle. The volume in the skirt is still great and bears a relationship with fuller skirts of the 1790s shown above.

Named after The First Empire, by 1800 the gown silhouette had a very décolleté low square neckline as seen right, a short narrow backed bodice attached to a separate skirt.
Left - Dress of 1799 Le Journal Des Dames et Des Modes 1799

Frequently the small neat puff sleeves barely capped the shoulder. They were pulled back by the narrow cut of the bodice and this restricted arm movement to a certain daintiness.

Bonaparte's Influence on Fashion 1804

Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor in 1804 and was keen to make France a leader of fashion and innovator of design and craft skills.  During the French Revolution the French textile industry had suffered and unlike in England, use of textile machinery had been non existent.  Emperor Napoleon stopped the import of English textiles and he revived the Valenciennes lace industry so that fine fabrics like tulle and batiste could be made there.
To make women buy more material he forbade them to wear the same dress more than once to court.  Ladies dresses had extra fabric gathered into the back and trains were seen again for evening.  Bonaparte also had fireplaces at the Tuileries blocked up so that ladies would wear more clothing.
Bonaparte was following a long tradition of promoting the French economy through fashion. Empress Josephine was a great fashion leader. She was an ideal model for the slender fashions of the day.  Many of her Regency fashion dresses were designed by Leroy.
Bonaparte did not ignore men's rôle in the revival of the textile economy and he enforced male military officials to wear white satin breeches on formal occasions.
Above Left - Josephine in Full Regalia.
Right - Post French Revolution simplified dress - Full skirt raised waist Empire dresses from the late 1790s.