Regency Fashion… or Close Enough
One of the many things I spend weeks researching before I even start drawing for an episode of the Chronicles of the Deathless Stray is 1800’s clothing fashion. In fact, even after I start drawing the research doesn’t stop. Fashion is one of those things that changes continually and can be dependent on the characters, so while not all of my images have been perfectly accurate, I try to keep this in mind every time I storyboard an episode.
In other words, it’s not quite as simple as just looking up clothing specific to 1820 (which is when the story’s “present day” is set). I have to keep in mind the variances that may occur depending on social class, age, gender, culture, occasions (morning dress vs evening, and clothing for outdoor vs indoor, riding, etc) and of course whether a specific character may even be up to date with the fashions. (For example: Kitty starts out dressed in the wrong style for her age and then later wears her mother’s old clothing. It’s common for clothes to be repurposed to keep up with the times, but she may occasionally wear something out of date.)
Kitty in children’s clothing- from episode 6 of "The Chronicles of the Deathless Stray”
And then there are flashback scenes… when I draw scenes from Jade’s past, some of things I keep in mind is whether his memories are taking place in Paris, France or on the roads (since he and his mother are traveling with a Roma group) and also whether Napoleon is currently emperor or exiled during those memories (soldiers uniforms.)
Image from Prologue of “The Chronicles of the Deathless Stray” sketched in ink
The main thing I’ve discovered whenever I’m researching clothing (or anything else relevant to the era for that matter) is that the more I learn, the more I realize how little I actually know. Finding answers to my questions is basically like cutting of the heads of a Hydra—for every one removed, several more spring up. Which is why, at the end of the day, I’ve had to learn with being ok with ‘good enough.’ Unfortunately, I will never know everything, so I’ve settled with just saving as many resources for reference and to try to continually learn more as I go.
In the meantime, if you struggle with a similar thing, and or just need some ideas of where to look, I’ve included some of my own searching strategies and resources that may help :]
First and foremost for images, is Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/FoxBanditArt/regency-era-fashion/ This link is just to one of my boards, but I can find fashion plates and paintings that were actually created during the 1800’s for reference this way. Sometimes I just google to see what pops up, but you’ll find Pinterest is a lot more helpful if you really want to to pinpoint things (no pun intended).
Another source I use is Youtube. I particularly like multitasking, so videos are my friends when I want to be able to work on projects and find information at the same time. There are different channels with individuals who make it there hobby or career to study Era fashions and even recreate clothing, and are a great source for knowledge and also busting inaccuracies you may have taken as truth (like how corsets work). To make it less overwhelming, I’ll add my recommended channels as a list.
Ellie Dashwood (she goes over a variety of things including fashion that is helpful if you need to learn social nuances and rules)
Enchanted Rose Costumes (has some good bite size videos for quick examples and facts).
However my go to’s for when I want to get into a lot of details about dresses are:
The last three ladies have channels where they review Regency Costumes (and other eras) from movies and discuss the accuracies—or lack of— and also will do step by step recreations of clothing themselves so you can learn about the materials and different layers that would be used for specific times. Bonus: Abby Cox also has a video where she teaches you how to research era clothing yourself and what kind of resources to trust versus distrust.
Anyway! I hope this information helps you if you’re currently trying to learning about fashions from other eras—or if you just like learning new things. If you have any go to resources, feel free to comment them as well! Like I mentioned, I’m always learning and more information is always better.
Image from Episode 13 of “The Chronicles of the Deathless Stray”
Thank you!
