WOW ~ Word of the Week ~ Clan

Short and sweet again this week. I’m on the road to recovery, but the four-seasons-in-one-week-weather of Texas is not exactly helping to speed along my progress. Thanks for your patience in indulging my whimsical posts.

Clan

A family’s tribe or brotherhood.

I found a pretty funny – and pretty accurate – video on YouTube explaining the Georgian era. And since this week’s word is clan, and the vid is about the Georgians, the family must be those wild and crazy Hanovers. Of course we Regency nerds are most familiar with George III. Who said it was Byron, and not His Majesty, that was mad, bad, and dangerous to know?

The host’s demeanor when naming said clan gave me flashbacks to Pip Torrens introducing the Bennet ladies at Netherfield when they came to collect Jane in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation. Again, it may be the Elderberry syrup that heightens my entertainment capabilities.

Please enjoy It’s All a Bit Silly — Georgian Era, this week. (Fair warning: the language is occasionally not completely safe for work, so ear buds in public)

 

Slang word taken from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

WOW ~ Word of the Week ~ Frigate

Fashion is amazing.

I admit to being a blue jeans and t-shirt connoiseur myself, but I do pay attention to Fashion Week each  year, and gawk at what celebrities are wearing on award show red carpets. I understand nothing of the inspiration, vision, or sheer artistry behind the creativity of the designers of each new trend. I cannot fathom how an artist goes from making a-line skirts and coats one season, to sheer bandeaus and capris the next.

So while it makes no sense to me, it’s however no surprise that the gravity-defying pompadours and wider-than-doorway panniers of the late 18th Century gave rise to simple and straight empire gowns and natural hair – fashion evolves in mysterious and myriad ways. Since the styles of mothers from the era of George III dressed vastly different from their Regency-reared daughters, I thought it might be interesting to compare and contrast two styles. And since caricatures and fashion plates are vastly more entertaining than mere portraits ….

Frigate (noun)

A well-dressed wench; a well rigged-frigate.

Fashion Plate #43 in Galerie des Modes for 1778. Caption reads “Jeune Dame de Qualité en grande Robe coëffée avec un Bonnet ou Pouf élégant dit la Victoire Dessiné par Desrai.” Translated means Young Lady in high quality cofeée dress with a hat or stylish pouf designed by Desrai.

Mlle Des Victoire coiffure à la Grenade, 1779 (Miss Victory Hair Style à la Grenada). French propaganda print satirizing the big hair.

Launching a Frigate, 1790s, James Gillray

The Finishing Touch, James Gillray

Tight Lacing, or Fashion before Ease, by Bowles and Carver after John Collet, London, ca. 1770–1775. From the collections of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

The Fashions of the Day -or- Time Past and Present. Respectfully dedicated to the Fashionable Editors of La Belle Assemblé Le Beau Monde &c., &c. 1807, Charles Williams.

Parisian Ladies in their Winter Dress for 1800, Isaac Cruikshank, 1799

The Rage or Shepherds I have lost My Waist, 1790s, Isaac Cruikshank

High-change in Bond Street -ou- la Politesse du Grande Monde, James Gillray, 1796

Fashion Plate: A Lady of Hindoostan, 1809, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

 

• Find this slang terms and hundreds of others in Francis Grose’s 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
• To discover more intriguing fashions of the contrasting father (George III) and son (George IV) eras of the Long Regency, check out these Fashion Plates and Caricatures of Georgian Era.
• See a lovely trip through the fashions of the medieval era through the early 20th Century at Jeanne de Pompadour.