Thinking of setting a novella in the 1840s because I love the fashion. Had a happy accident with Photostop blend modes with this 1840s Daguerreotype restoration.
Wikimedia Credits: “Mme Riesener, avec voile noir. Photographie de Léon Riesener (1842-1846). Daguerréotype, 1842-1846. Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Petit Palais.”
Inspired by a 1909 photograph by Clarence H. White (public domain via Wikimedia Commons).
I wish I knew the story of this tintype from 1860-1870 (AI restored)
AI restoration of a Victorian photograph by Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822–1865). I’ve struggled to restore it in the past and gave up. I’m so glad to finally see it pulled from its faded shadows.
It’s been quite fun and extremely frustrating diving into AI video generation tools over the last few weeks. To be sure, I’ve had more success with AI-generated video than with AI-generated graphics (see the Magic Tea Shop short stories The Teashop At The Corner Of Worlds and The Teashop on the Longest Night). I’m slowly learning. Here are my two fashion recreation pieces for June! They are from Magasin des Modes Nouvelles in 1787, which I found in the Gallica collections and translated.
The gown is made of striped taffeta, with narrow stripes of green, white, and violet. It is lined with the same fabric. The sleeves, made in the “sabot” style, are trimmed with cutwork cuffs of fine cambric linen.
Beneath the gown is a petticoat of rose-colored taffeta shot with white, together with a bodice of the same fabric. The bodice is laced with broad green silk cords threaded through long, polished steel buckles attached at the sides. Around her neck she wears a large plain fichu, crossed in front and fastened behind at the waist.
She wears an apple-green felt hat, painted dark pink underneath. Beneath the hat is a white gauze “cornette d’Amour.”
Her hair is dressed in many small curls, with two large curls falling on either side of her bosom, while the hair behind hangs loose in the style known as “à la Conseillère.”
On her hands are white kid gloves.
On her feet are pink taffeta shoes trimmed with green ribbon.
The coat worn by the young gentleman depicted in Plate I is made of dark green-black cloth. It is lined with silk of the same color, edged with pink piping, and adorned with large gilt buttons engraved with the capital letters of the alphabet.
Beneath this coat are breeches of canary-yellow gabardine, with seams stitched in sky blue. They are fastened below the knee with the breeches’ garter, which is somewhat long and ends in a tassel of blue silk.
A moiré waistcoat with broad yellow and pink stripes, its pockets cut very high.
Stockings with broad blue and pink stripes.
His shoes are fitted with buckles of a very broad oval shape.
The young gentleman’s hair is dressed in five curls, three below and two above, arranged in a broad square Greek pattern. His hair is tied behind in a queue.
His shirt is trimmed with cuffs and a cambric jabot. The jabot is pleated from top to bottom, as are the cuffs.
In one pocket, he carries a watch suspended from a simple black English leather cord, from which a seal key hangs. In the other, he carries either a portrait or a regulator, also known as a compass-watch, from which a gold chain adorned with gold charms hangs.
Here is a mockup I created for the project. You can see the alphabet buttons on this version and a more accurate hat. I really struggled with the hat during the AI generation. I ultimately had to go with what the AI video rendered. But I think the hat might have looked more like this one at LACMA. While researching breeches, I found these, which are almost an exact match minus the blue tassels.
Such lovely spring weather! It makes you want to jump into your low phaeton and dash down to the Park to see your friends. Or pick up your bestie in the country so you can make calls together.
But wait! Is your bestie married or not? This makes a tremendous difference. Where shall she sit in the carriage? Who gets out first? This is all so vexingly confusing!
It is very much the fashion for ladies to drive themselves, in London, as well as in the country; and those who are good ‘whips,’ generally prefer this way of taking the air, to walking or riding.
Low phætons and pony carriages are the usual carriages; and they always take a groom to stand at the horse or horses’ heads when they stop at a shop, or pull up in Rotten Row for a chat with those of their friends and acquaintances who may be walking or riding.
The groom would be in livery, and he would be provided with a waterproof coat for wet weather, also with a greatcoat.
Good horses and a carriage perfectly turned out are absolute necessities to those ladies who elect to drive themselves, whether in London, the country, or the seaside; and a groom would always accompany them, whether any gentlemen were with them or not.
The fashionable hour for driving in London during the season is four-thirty to six-thirty or seven o’clock. It is generally too hot to drive earlier.
In the winter, from two-thirty to five or five-thirty, as it gets dark so soon then.
When ladies drive themselves in London, they generally choose the morning; from twelve to two or two-thirty is the best and most agreeable time; after that the streets get too crowded to make driving a pleasant occupation.
If a hostess had guests staying with her, they would always get into the carriage before their hostess. Whether driving in an open or shut carriage, the lady of the house always sits with her face to the horses, unless she is accompanied by three other people, and knows that one cannot sit with her back to the horses, when, as an act of courtesy, the hostess would give up her place.
She would do the same in the case of a gentlemen, though etiquette would not demand it; but no hostess would like to know that one of those receiving her hospitality was enduring a feeling of misery and illness.
If two guests were present, one married, one unmarried, the young lady would take her place with her back to the horses-etiquette requires that she should do so. By this means the two married ladies face the horses.
If both guests were sisters and unmarried, the eldest should sit by the hostess.
If a lady were driving with her daughter, whether married or unmarried, and a third lady was of the party, the daughter would give up her place to her as an act of courtesy, even though her rank might be higher than the guest’s, as she would be, so to say, ‘at home’ in her mother’s carriage, and would therefore waive her precedence if she had any.
Gentlemen would step out of the carriage first, whether an open or shut one, whether they intended to resume their seats in it or not, so that they might be ready to help the ladies to alight; and they would also help them to get into the carriage.
Gentlemen always sit with their back to the horses, unless no other lady but one is present, then they would take their place by the lady’s side. If two or more ladies were present, then the gentleman would take his seat with his back to the horses.
This applies in cases of brothers and sisters driving together. If three sons were driving with their mother or sister, the eldest son would take his place next to the lady.
In a case of father, mother, two daughters, two sons, or a daughter and son, going to a ball, the father and mother face the horses, with their sons, daughters, or son and daughter opposite. In the case of a niece or sister-in-law, the host would give her his place and sit opposite.
A lady, when calling upon an acquaintance or friend for the purpose of taking her for a drive, would not alight to let the lady get into the carriage first, but she would keep her place, and the lady would take her place by her, shaking hands with her friend as she did so, and also shaking hands or bowing to any other occupant of the carriage, if she were acquainted with them.
If she were not, her friend would immediately present her to the other lady or gentleman.
AI enhanced from the original
Generally the guest alights from the carriage first; but should she be on the wrong side, or any other reason, the hostess would get out first, making some civil remark to her guest for descending before instead of after her.
If a lady is driving herself and is accompanied by a friend, she usually drives her to make any calls, leave any cards, or execute any shopping she may desire.
When ladies drive in the Park together, whether in the morning or evening, whether they drive themselves or are driven, it is etiquette that, if the carriage takes up a position by the rails, so that people can talk to their friends, and a gentleman or gentlemen come up and talk to the hostess, with whom her guest is unacquainted, that the hostess should introduce them to her, unless there is any special reason against it, as it would be most discourteous for a hostess to talk to her friends without bringing the lady driving with her into the conversation.
It is very bad taste to talk to a lady or gentleman with whom you are acquainted sitting the other side of a lady or gentleman with whom you are not acquainted.
Ladies are generally attended by a groom when they ride in London, also when they go out hunting, except they are exceptionally able to take care of themselves; but it always looks better to have a groom.
Ladies seldom take a groom when they are only going out for a country ride.
A gentleman naturally rides on the off or right-hand side of the lady with whom he is riding, just the same as when she takes his arm out walking.
