The Jane Austen Fest – Mount Dora welcomed Candice Hern to its 3rd Annual Fest. With a fascinating collection of fashion prints from the Regency Era, Candice presented a colorful history of evolving clothing styles. The historical knowledge she provided was intriguing. Candice’s warm and friendly manner, along with her humor, had everyone looking at Regency wear in a whole new light. Thank you Candice.
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Regency Fashion (or Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen)
Using fashion prints from her collection, Candice will provide an overview of the types of clothing worn during the time of Jane Austen.
Candice will explore fashions for various occasions or activities, including day wear and evening wear. Terms used during the period — such as undress, half dress and full dress — will be explained and illustrated with prints. Popular types of outerwear will also be showcased, including pelisses, spencers, and mantles. The general evolution of style will also be discussed, including changing waistlines, hemlines, and bonnets.
See fashion prints in Candice’s Regency World →
Candice’s presentation uses lots and lots of beautiful images from ladies’ magazines of the period. The presentation can be either in-person or virtual. If the event is in-person, she will bring examples of individual issues of some of those magazines.
This presentation can be either in-person or virtual, and it can be either 50 minutes or 75 minutes, with more detail in the longer version.
Regency Fashion Accessories
Using detailed images from her collection of fashion prints, Candice will provide an overview of fashion accessories used during the time of Jane Austen.
A thorough examination of bonnets will describe the different types, and will trace their rather dramatic evolution during the period. Other accessories discussed will include shoes, shawls, gloves, parasols, muffs, reticules, fans, and jewelry.
Find out about knitted and netted purses in Candice’s Regency World →
This presentation can be either in-person or virtual. For in-person events, Candice will supplement the presentation with items from her Regency collections to share with attendees, including shawls, purses, jewelry, and fans.
Brisé Fans of the Regency Period
Brisé fans have no folded leaf of silk or paper, but consist entirely of pierced sticks of ivory, horn, bone, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, and other materials, held together by a threaded ribbon.
Candice will use fans from her collection to discuss this particular type of fan that was popular during the Regency period. She will also give historical context to the style and size of the fans, as well as the materials and techniques used to make them.
Learn about a rather spectacular fan in Candice’s Regency World →
This presentation can be presented either virtually or in person.
Love and Death: Sentimental Jewelry in the Time of Jane Austen
The grand parures of precious gems worn by royalty and other aristocrats of the Georgian and Regency eras are what we see in paintings and in museums. But the ordinary people, who could never afford such pieces, favored a more sentimental type of jewelry, which was accessible and less expensive.
The sentiment of such jewelry fell into two categories: the sentiment of love and the sentiment of death. In this presentation, Candice will explore both types, including symbols and iconography of mourning and of romance, all of which would have been well understood by people of the time. The use of hair in both types of jewelry will also be discussed.
Find out about neoclassical mourning brooches in Candice’s Regency World →
Candice’s presentation will include lots of images of mourning jewelry and love tokens from museums, jewelry dealers, as well as many examples from her own collections, including mourning brooches, lover’s eyes, Georgian hearts, and lace pins.
Find out about Lover’s Eyes in Candice’s Regency World →
This presentation can be either in-person or virtual. For in-person events, Candice will bring examples of sentimental jewelry from her collections for attendees to view.
What Would a Regency Lady Carry in Her Reticule?
In this presentation, Candice will explain what a reticule was (called a ridicule during the Regency), how and why it developed during the Regency as an early version of the modern day purse, how they were made, and what Regency ladies might have carried in them.
Expanding on the short videos Candice made for the Jane Austen Society of North America in 2020, this presentation will provide a more comprehensive survey of items that might have been carried in a reticule, including calendars, cosmetics, coin purses, fans, vinaigrettes, various étuis, portable writing sets, handkerchiefs, pins, sewing kits, and more.
Find out about vinaigrettes in Candice’s Regency World →
Though Candice does not (yet!) collect reticules, but she does collect many of the items that might have been carried in them, and these items will be included in her presentation.
This presentation can be either in-person or virtual. For in-person presentations, items from Candice’s collection will be on display for the audience to view up close.
Taft Art Museum, Cincinnati Endorsement
Candice was a fabulous speaker on Regency era fashion. Her expertise, paired with her natural flair, had our audience audibly gasping at each new revelation and smiling throughout the presentation. After the talk, guests commented how much they enjoyed the speaker and how her content provided complementary context for the Jane Austen movie adaptation costumes on view at the museum.
Fan Association of North America Endorsement
Candice gave a marvelous presentation on Regency fans from her collection. Our members enjoyed it so very much, and she did a terrific job giving us the background and history of each of her fans. One fan was more beautiful than the next—just jaw dropping!
JASNA-MN Endorsement
Candice’s informative talk about silhouettes in the time of Jane Austen was met with delight and enthusiasm by our members. Candice never fails to bring new perspectives to our understanding of the Regency era in which Jane Austen lived.
Shades, Shadows, and Profiles: Silhouettes During the Time of Jane Austen
Candice will provide a short history of silhouettes, known as shades in Jane Austen’s time, and their various techniques (scissor cut, hollow-cut, painted). Some of the most famous professional “profile miniature” artists will be singled out, as well as a few famous amateurs, including the King’s daughter. The various Austen family silhouettes will be discussed, including two purported to be of Jane herself.
This presentation can be either in-person or virtual. Augmenting her presentation, for in-person events, Candice will bring many examples of silhouettes from her own collection to provide a closer look at some of these miniature treasures.
On display will be both silhouettes framed as pictures and mounted as pieces of jewelry. Magnifying glasses will be available for attendees to more closely examine the exquisite details of the smaller pieces.
Find out about painted silhouettes in Candice’s Regency World →
Many of Candice’s silhouettes, including the locket shown above, were painted by the same artist who painted the famous silhouette of Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra.