Byron: The Clothing of a Regency Poet

[kestrell]

I'm currently attempting to answer the question of whether Byron always walked with a cane and, in the process, came across this amazing article which not only includes detailed descriptions of the corrective boot Byron wore, but detailed descriptions of various clothing he wore during different periods of his life. The article also includes various fascinating resources on men's Regency clothing, which is definitely one of my obsessions (am I the only one who thinks waistcoats are sexy? And did anyone else read the K. J. Charles queer Regency romance involving the valet, and all the descriptions of clothing?)
https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/cost.2021.0200

Comments

[cvirtue]

Agree that waistcoats are sexy, if they have interesting woven patterns!

Or embroidery, I suppose - I remember seeing a large piece of fabric on a stretcher (like for a canvas for painting) at the Victoria & Albert Museum, which was the front of a waistcoat and also the embroidered flaps for the pockets for the waistcoat. The waistcoat edges along the front and following through the hem/curve to the side seam, were matched by the pocket flaps. I suppose keeping them all on one piece of fabric meant that each new bit of embroidery (leaf, stamen, etc - it was floral) could be finished on all the pieces at once so they would be identical, and they wouldn't get lost one from each other.

Oh wow

[jesse_the_k]

David Wilcox is a serious scholar of "material culture"!

Waistcoats are indeed sexy but I've never found one that conformed to my body type. I like to imagine some extra-special drugs hiding in their tiny pocketses.

Avery Trufleman's Articles of Interest podcast focuses on clothing (and some home-adjacent stuff, like crockpots). Episode 10 explores the origins and meaning of men's suits. Articles began as a 99% invisible spinoff and now she's doing her own thing--most recently digging into how "Ivy League" clothing became the defacto standard world wide.

https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/american-ivy-chapter-1

[komadori]

Thanks for sharing! I am a huge fan of the Romantic poets.

That queer Regency romance sounds fun too.