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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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.
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.
Candice’s PowerPoint presentation uses lots and lots of beautiful images from ladies’ magazines of the period. If the event is in-person, she will bring examples of individual issues of some of those magazines.
This presentation 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, and jewelry.
For in-person events, Candice will supplement the presentation with items from her Regency collections to share with attendees, including shawls, purses, and fans.
What Would a Lady Carry in Her Reticule?
In this presentation, which can be either virtual or in-person, 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 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. Candice does not collect reticules, but she does collect many of the items that might have been carried in them, and these items will be included in the PowerPoint presentation. For in-person presentations, items from Candice’s collection will be on display for the audience to view up close.
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.
This PowerPoint talk can be presented either virtually or in person.
Ladies’ Magazines of the Regency Period
In this presentation, Candice will explore what a woman of the Regency, like Jane Austen, would have read to keep abreast of social and political news, fashion, literature, and theatre. The most popular magazines of the day — including the Lady’s Magazine, Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, La Belle Assemblée, the Lady’s Monthly Museum, the Gallery of Fashion, and Le Beau Monde — will be discussed in terms of packaging, circulation numbers, content (including prints), editorial direction, and more.
Candice’s Powerpoint presentation includes lots of images of covers, titles pages, tables of contents, advertisements, fashion plates and other prints, and more. For in-person events, copies of many of the magazines, both bound volumes and individual monthly issues in their original covers (such as the one shown here from La Belle Assemblée of July 1817) will be on hand for attendees to examine.
My Lady’s Boudoir
This is primarily a show-and-tell presentation featuring many of the objects from Candice’s Collections, appropriate for readers, writers, and historians interested in the Regency period. Concentrating on items found on a lady’s dressing table as well as various fashion accessories, the presentation includes scent bottles (such as the Derby porcelain scent bottle shown here), vinaigrettes, cosmetic cases, jewelry, fans, purses, quizzing glasses, and shoe buckles. Candice will explain the historical context of each group of items and describe how they were used. A PowerPoint presentation provides detailed images of the items as well as paintings and fashion prints that show similar items in use.
The items will be on display for all attendees to examine closely.