MADAME FASHION

          During the Georgian Era, "Madame Fashion" showed how unique "She" could become !

We have often seen the pictures of the very extreme gowns --- wider and wider --- with the amazing hair-do's (wigs), some of which were very high and very heavy --- it was not unusual for "scenes" to be designed on top of these wigs --- from farmyards to boats!

This is how you could tell the very rich from the middle class. These sights must have seemed alien to the extreme poor, many of whom wore the same clothes until they were literally threadbare and could not modestly cover the body anymore.
The rich, and even some of the middle class, could afford to have new clothes especially made. The poorer classes "made do" with hand-me-downs and buying from 2nd hand stalls or travelling salespersons. Every girl was taught sewing and was able to make dresses and adapt older clothes, re-inventing them. France, of course, lead the world in Fashion, "Madame Fashion" also changed, with gowns becoming much plainer, smaller (not necessarily shorter) and the style became naturalistic following the classical style. This is the style of dress we recognize in Jane Austen's novels, who herself was very adaptable in sewing.

At this time, the textile industry shifted into factories as technology moved forward. More clothes were made from new cotton fabrics and dyes made the clothes more colourful. All of this we take for granted today, but in the Georgian Era these things were new inventions and, often, the rich young lady was very excited to be the first to wear a new fabric in a new style in a never before worn colour, always with the necessary "corset."

The Corset has always ruled women's fashion, young girls starting to wear them from a very young age and always too tight. The "stays" or "corset" were made of pliable whalebone (baleen) or cane. By 1785, the corset was becoming less popular, prompting one doctor to say :"We now rarely see ladies fainting in public places." Perhaps women now started to dress for comfort instead of just for "Madame Fashion!"
The magnificent Hair-do's of the beginning of the Era, changed to much simpler and shorter styles and not just because the style of dress changed. Fashionable women cut their hair short in sympathetic imitation of the victims' hair before they were guillotined during the French Revolution.