Jennifer Kloester Read online

  During the Regency, every article of a gentleman’s wardrobe, except for his stockings, was made by hand, usually in the home by his mother, sister, wife or daughter, or other female relative. Gentlemen of means, however, whose clothing needs or aspirations were beyond the skill of their womenfolk, usually paid for a tailor to measure, cut and fit individual garments. London tailors were considered the best in Europe, having gained an unshakeable ascendancy over the French after the Revolution and there were many who would have agreed with Lady Steeple in Venetia when she declared, ‘No Frenchman can make a riding habit.’ London tailors set the standard, and the best and most exclusive of them were master cutters with a precise eye for line and a passion for detail and a perfect fit. The best-known were Beau Brummell’s tailors Schweitzer and Davidson at 12 Cork Street and John Weston at 27 Old Bond Street, both of whom also made clothes for the Prince Regent, and Stultz and Scott who were favoured by military gentlemen. So superbly cut was the Earl of St Erth’s evening dress in The Quiet Gentleman that his cousin Martin found himself wishing that he too had had his made by Weston. A perfectly fitting coat was a great tailor’s trademark and his reputation could be made by his ability to enhance or highlight nature’s art. Men who were less well-endowed by nature in terms of well-shaped legs or broad shoulders could be helped by the tailor’s skill—along with a little sawdust stuffing or buckram padding.

  A small tailor did all his own measuring, pattern making, cutting and sewing, but a larger business, with a good clientele and a reputation to maintain, employed a staff of tailors overseen by a foreman. It was the foreman’s job to measure customers and cut out the pieces which were then handed to the working tailors for sewing. The master tailor would personally measure and cut only for his most important customers as they were the best advertisement for his business. When visiting Weston’s in Regency Buck, Peregrine Taverner found himself attended by the tailor and advised by him to follow either the Prince Regent’s or Mr Brummell’s taste in coats. To gain the favour of royalty or one of the leading dandies of the day was a guarantee for increased custom from other members of the ton.

  A Regency female’s wardrobe consisted almost entirely of items made by hand—either by herself or by someone skilled in the art. Although industrialisation was making rapid inroads into machine-made fabrics, during the Regency only stockings were made entirely by machine (aside from hand-knitted stockings, of course) and ready-made clothes were still some years away. In the years following the French Revolution in 1789, many French émigrés fled to England—some of whom were dressmakers, milliners, lace makers and embroideresses. A number of these women set up establishments in fashionable streets, such as Bruton or Conduit Streets in London or Milsom Street or South Parade in Bath, and advertised themselves as modistes with elegant French names designed to attract the cream of society ladies to their salons (although in Black Sheep, Madame Lisette was actually Eliza Mudford, formerly in service to the Princess Elizabeth). On visiting a modiste, ladies would be shown delicious examples of the dressmaker’s art from which they could order to suit their needs. In some cases, as when Abigail Wendover returned from a visit to London in Black Sheep, pre-purchased fabrics could be taken to a dressmaker and made into an agreed style of dress or other garment. The modiste, or mantua maker as they were also known, would discuss in detail with a customer the best choice of fabric, style and trimming for a dress before measuring her and taking a pattern. Patterns were generally made of paper or cloth, with cloth patterns sometimes used as the final lining of the dress. An exclusive dressmaker such as Madame Fanchon in Cotillion was expected to have exceptional taste, an eye for colour and line and a talent for designing and creating a garment ideally suited to the shape and complexion of her client. Dressmaking was a demanding occupation with long hours and close, careful work often done in poor light. During the Season when the aristocracy was at its busiest and many gowns were needed for a single debutante or society belle, or when a member of the royal family died and mourning dress became de rigueur, a dressmaker’s life—or that of her workers—could become one of unending toil. For a modiste with a well-established shop and a good name, however, dressmaking could be extremely profitable.

  HOBY’S FOR BOOTS

  The most fashionable bootmaker of the period was George Hoby, whose shop on the corner of Piccadilly and St James’s Street was patronised by all the best-dressed men of the ton. Renowned for a superb fit and the finest leather, Hoby made boots for royalty, officers in the military—including the Duke of Wellington—and for the most notable bucks and dandies of the beau monde. A boot by Hoby was instantly recognisable, as the valet Crimplesham explained to Hugo in The Unknown Ajax. Gentlemen could buy every kind of boot from Hoby’s, including Hussar boots, Wellington boots, military long boots and halfboots. The most popular were the highly polished hessians with their high V-shaped fronts and tassels, or the top-boots used for everyday wear or for hunting. For Court wear, evening wear, formal occasions or for dancing a man could also buy low-cut shoes or pumps. Hoby employed up to 300 workers and the success of his business made him extremely wealthy as well as rather arrogant (despite being a Methodist preacher as well a bootmaker). From his youth, the Duke of Wellington always had his boots made by him and after Wellington’s victory at Vittoria, Hoby was reputed to have attributed the General’s success to the combination of Hoby’s boots and prayers. Neither his arrogance nor his insolence to even his wealthiest customers appears to have affected sales of his magnificent footwear. It was to Hoby’s that Sir Nugent Fotherby in Sylvester went to have his hessian boots with their specially designed tassels made and it was to Hoby’s that the boots went back five times before Sir Nugent was satisfied.

  The best top-boots were made by Hoby.

  A pair of highly polished hessians was the mark of a gentleman.

  Ladies often had their evening shoes and slippers made to match a particular dress.

  As with most Regency trades, the shoemaker was also the shoe seller. In the towns and villages shoemakers often worked from home without a shopfront or display of wares, but in London many shoemakers had shops with goods exhibited in the window. Larger shops catered to both women and men, offering a range of made-to-measure shoes, boots and accessories such as leather gaiters or the cloth leggings known as spatterdashes which were worn to protect one’s stockings from mud splashes. Footwear was rarely bought ready-made by the upper classes, although in The Toll-Gate Captain Staple was forced to find himself a pair of brogues in a warehouse in Tideswell, Derbyshire. For most shoes, however, the shoemaker had to measure his customers’ feet and cut out the leather or fabric for their shoes himself. In a large and successful business the master shoemaker employed a foreman for this task while he waited on customers and oversaw the dressing, cutting and sewing of the leather or other material by his staff. It took a great deal of skill to make an elegant, well-formed shoe, and a shoemaker, or his journeyman, was usually adept at making either women’s or men’s shoes but not both. The material for ladies’ shoes was generally finer than that needed for men’s footwear and so neater seams were essential in order for the finished product to look its best. In the shops catering particularly to the upper class, the shoemaker would often make and keep labelled ‘shoe lasts’ for individual customers. These were wooden moulds, with a left and right last carefully made to match the customer’s feet, from which the shoemaker could construct a pair of shoes to order.

  Half-boots were especially popular for outdoor wear and could be made in a range of colours and fabrics.

  FRIBOURG & TREYER’S FOR SNUFF

  Fribourg & Treyer’s famous shop in Piccadilly.

  One of the most famous tobacconists in Britain was Fribourg & Treyer’s in Piccadilly. Many Regency men—and women—indulged in the fashionable habit of taking powdered tobacco or snuff in small pinches breathed up the nostrils, and over the years it became so popular that the famous Piccadilly tobacconists, Fribourg & Treyer, reported that in