La Belle Assemblée, May 1818.
“Walking Dress.”
This late Regency period is always a bit too fussy for me. There is way too much going on here, though individual elements alone are quite pretty, like the trimming down the front and the border of the dress. But that trimming combined with the overly ornamented spencer, the triple ruff at the neck, the lace cornette, and the busy decoration of the bonnet, is just too much.
The dress is called a “bridal morning robe.” I’m not sure why it is so called. But in the General Observations of Fashion and Dress, we learn that, “Nothing is reckoned more elegant for the morning costume than the déshabille bridal robe, as given in our print.” I suspect that minus the spencer, bonnet, and shawl, this dress might have served as an intimate indoor morning costume. But why a bridal robe? Who knows.
Also in the General Observations, we learn that spencers, the prevailing outer wear for the spring, “are made chiefly in the form and fashion of that which we have given in our Print, and which is the sole invention of Mrs. Bell, of St. James’s-street.”
The print is described in the magazine as follows:
“Bridal morning robe of fine cambric, richly embroidered, and trimmed with puckered muslin round the border and down the front, which folds over à-la-Sultane. Elizabeth spenser and bonnet of ethereal blue; the spenser elegantly ornamented in a novel style with white satin, &c. The bonnet of blue satin and fine net, crowned with a superb bouquet of full-blown white roses; a Brussels lace cornette is worn with this elegant bonnet. Cachemire shawl drapé, with a rich variegated border; triple ruff of broad Brussels lace. Haulf-boots of ethereal blue kid, the upper part of fine cachemire coloured cloth.”
