Concordia Library: Jane Austen curated by Eileen Bach: Clothing, Courtship, and Customs

Regency Era Customs

Social Customs during the Regency Era
What was the average age for a young woman to marry? At what age was an unmarried woman considered unmarriageable and deemed a spinster? What other customs existed that seem out of place today?

Courtship in a Modern World vs Courtship in Regency Times
Published on Valentine's Day 2013, this blog contrasts courtship in Regency England with modern courtship, providing statistics that make the contrasts clear.
Courtship and Romance in Jane Austen's Day
This brief article highlights the steps that lead to engagement in Jane Austen's day, closing with a notation about Austen's own brief engagement.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Images associated with Jane Austen and courtship.
Courtship in Action
Video clips depicting what courtship entailed in Jane Austen's Era.
Code of Conduct for Dating in Austen's Time
The formal Do's and Don'ts that lead to a proposal, including a description of the proposal process.
Mass Marketing Jane Austen: Men, Women, and Courtship
This academic paper by Professor Kaplan discusses "the harlequinization of Jane Austen’s novels [in film]. By harlequinization it is meant that, like the mass-market romance, the focus is on a hero and heroine’s courtship at the expense of other characters and other experiences, which are sketchily represented."

How the comfort of fashion has evolved - Morning Dress in the early 1800s was considerably more formal than the clothing of today.

Morning Dress, Fashion Plate From Ackermann's Repository Of Arts . Fine Art. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 21 Feb 2013.

14-YEAR OLD GIRL RIDING SCOOTER. . Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 21 Feb 2013.

Regency Clothing Styles
The Regency clothing period let women break loose from the corsets, hoop skirts and crinolines of prior eras. Although more practical, they still afforded their wearers the opportunity for adornment and elaborations. Luckily they did not make Elizabeth Bennet look silly!