19th century fashion:

One of those dreary days here in New England -- cloudy, cool and damp. Home after a bit of surgery as a result of too many days / years in the sun and at the beach! Yes, remember the days of using baby oil as a suntan lotion? Who was to know back in those days? No heavy lifting or working out (ho, hum, not a problem for me), but the stitches are a bit painful and now I have an amazing hairdo with headband reminiscent of the 1960s!

So I spent some down time going through my collection of ephemera -- papers, kimono scraps, vintage postcards and more. Just want to do something creative and fun in between writing my next Regency romance (sneak peak coming soon!).

I picked up this portfolio years ago. I believe it was produced in the early 1900s and is a collection of 100 years of fashion from the 19th century, one page for each year. Below is 1800 - check out that gown on the right! OMG, how did they keep from popping out of their dresses, I ask you? No wonder the Regency period was so racy!

But I think this will be fun to try and incorporate into my writings -- actual gowns and accessories that existed back then rather than racking my pee brain to come up with something that would probably resemble the Victorian era. Now I can be accurate and pay homage to the era!

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Claire Hadleigh

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