The high-waisted style of Jane Austen heroines, Bridgerton debutantes and famous historical figures like Empress Josephine Bonaparte is as present in popular culture as in a museum.

There is a variety of terms applied to this dress style.

The "Empire" waistline (stress French: „om-peer“) received its name from the first French Empire under Napoleon I. The "Regency" era in the United Kingdom encompasses the period of time when George IV ruled from 1811 to 1820 as Prince Regent for his incapacitated father George III, thus marking the latter part of the time referred to as Georgian era. In the German-speaking lands, the late Regency overlaps with the Biedermeier style period. Empire and Regency style is also referred to as Neoclassicism when referencing Ancient Rome and Greece. Overall, this dress style follows on from the extravagant 18th century styles with wide skirts and powdered wigs and remained until the Victorian era saw the rise of corsets and the cage crinoline hoop-skirt.

The French Revolution took place from 1789 until 1799 and had great influence on the fashion of that time. The people of France, chiefly Paris, fought against absolutism and the arbitrary domination of the kings of the „Ancien régime“, as well as against the extravagances of the nobles while many working-class people famished during bad harvests. Nonetheless, the subtle social and artistic shifts that brought on the new dress style without paniers, wigs and stays had already begun many years prior.

Flowing white robes had already emerged before the Revolution in the form of the Chemise dresses. The increased study of antique works of art, together with the intellectual trend of the Enlightenment and its return to nature and simplicity, brought the flowy gowns into the forefront of fashion in the second half of the 1700s. The famous artist Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, for example, held a much remarked-on dinner where everybody was clothed by her in the manner of antique sculptures and all wore flower or laurel wreaths on their heads. Fashion thus began gradually to follow classical ideals, inspired by the ancient Greek and Roman styles with their draped and gathered dresses (as she details in her memoirs).

Those Chitons and Peplos, together with the Roman tunics, formed the point of inspiration. The Empire silhouette thus defines a dress with a high waist and a long and loosely falling skirt. This portrait of Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Comptesse de Sorcy, was painted in 1790 by Jacques-Louis David. The late Rococo hairstyle with powdered hair, pale skin and rouged cheeks is paired with the simple dress and shawl of the Empire style. This demonstrates the complex and gradual transition between Rococo and Empire styles, rather than being sharply divided into before and after by the French Revolution, as sometimes takes place in pop culture and historical media. Furthermore, at the English court, Empire-waisted dresses were worn over Rococo sized hoops for many years into the 1800s, as reports from the court and fashion plates in magazines attest. 

Making a dress by hand was a great deal of work, and surviving garments in museum and private collections show different kinds of stitches in different parts of the garments. A woman's dress required several metres / yards of fabric. 

In the section "Schneiderei" of this blog, I chronicle my own sewing projects of Regency dresses (in German language). 

Needlework was part of women's education of most ranks. Nearly every young lady learned basic sewing and embroidery techniques at home. Needlework was the most popular pastime. Although linen items were made at home, and dresses were often embroidered and bonnets trimmed by the wearers, most items in a person's possession would have been made by specialists with tailoring experience. Most country towns had dressmaking shops, haberdashers and milliners, and whenever a relative travelled to London, they were charged with bringing back reports of new styles as well as new articles of clothing. 

Another way to embellish the garments was using lace, among which Brussels lace was the most fashionable. Brussels lace is a bobbin lace, first entirely made by hand, later with machines to meet demand. That lace is braided with threat wound on wooden, bone or even ivory bobbins and the already woven lace is held with pins on a (straw-filled) pillow. The complexity of this time-consuming working process is gigantic and thus the cost of the lace very high. It could hence only be purchased by the wealthy.  

Under the visible dress, several undergarments had their place:

First of all, the chemise (also called shift), a thin, low-cut and short-sleeved underdress made of cotton in soft colours, that should protect the upper layers from e. g. body odour; a shift was also worn to bed).

Over this shift go the stays which shape and push up the bust. These are either around the length of a modern sports bra - then called short stays - or reach down to the hip bones - then called long stays. These are not to tight-lace the wearer, as is sometimes made much of in period dramas. Indeed in Empire line dresses, tight-lacing would be of no use as the waist is hidden under the skirt anyway. The stays are, like a bra, a shaping garment. The Regency's idealised bust was separated over the sternum and cupped, pushed upwards (one might say like peaches on a plate...) to match the low necklines of evening dresses.

The stays are followed by the petticoat (not the typical 1950s garment but a sleeveless dress or cut as a long tube skirt starting under the bust held by long shoulder straps). The less expensive and easier to bleach material of the petticoat still covers the legs and ankles even if muddy roads force the wearer to lift the outer skirt. But beware to show yourself like this in the elegant house of "a single man in possession of a good fortune" or be prepared to hear his his sisters spiteful remarks about your hem being "six inches deep in mud" (see Pride and Prejudice).

The bustle pad, a small padded half-moon-shaped pillow the size of a fist, was worn underneath the outer dress. Usually it was attached inside a dress under the bust line or attached to the stays. Its function was to assist the fall of the skirt by holding out the gathering at the back to preclude the skirt from caving in into the small of the back.

Over the petticoat the gown is worn. Long-sleeved and high cut for daytime wear or glamorous, low cut and with short puffed sleeves for a ball - gowns came in an infinite variety and were, due to the bespoke nature of dressmaking in this era just before industrial clothes production, highly personalised. Gowns were made from linen, cotton, silk, wool, or fibre blends. The rise of printing brought many fashion magazines into circulation and fuelled the speed of changing styles. To be always in the first style of fashion was a pastime limited to the upper-classes of independent wealth. Most people bought very few new articles of dress in a year and rather had garments re-tailored to match new cuts or changed decorative trim themselves to go with the times.

A pelisse was a long coat with likewise long sleeves. Pelisses were high-waisted and usually made of fine fabrics. They could be plain or adorned with trimming, fine buttons, braid and embroidery. The colours for autumn could be darker and bolder than those for spring and summer, when light shades were more appropriate. In the same way, fabrics for summer and winter differed.

For a lesser degree of protection from the elements, a Spencer could be just the thing. This short (ending just under the bust) and fitted jacked, was essentially a Pelisse without the skirt. The name Spencer goes back to George Spencer, 2nd Earl of Spencer. Spencer jackets for the colder seasons could be made of thick cloth, or summer versions from light linen or even as sleeveless spencers for decoration (see e.g. fashion plate print Costume Parisien, an.7, 71, or also the sleeveless spencer in the collection of the MET, object no. 1982.132.3). 

For protection from the cold and draughtiness of the houses and to spice the (white) dresses up, colourful shawls and wraps were worn. They were imported from India and later also manufactured in Europe, where the Scottish city Paisley became known for them and lent its name to the distinctive drop-shaped pattern. In Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, for example, Lady Bertram ponders that her nephew William's next journey as a navy lieutenant may take him to India where he may aquire her a fine shawl which she much desires. 

Long overcoats, cloaks, capes and mantelets made of wool, merino and velvet and trimmed with fur were much in demand, too. One of those garments was the Redingote, a top coat quite alike to a dress but in closed in the front and made of hard-wearing and somewhat water-repellant cloth, was useful for journeys on horseback and being out in poor weather. The Redingote had originally been an item of men's clothing and the name is derived from "riding coat." In some cases, several layers and/or shoulder capes were added, inspired by men's greatcoats, to better withstand rain. The skirt was cut long to cover the wearer's feet when up on horseback in side saddle or perched in the box seat of an open carriage.

During the winter months, women resorted to warm cloths like wool, and warming weaves such as velvets. Despite this, illnesses such as consumption were talked about in the early 1800s as resulting from too light clothing. Most illnesses like consumption (tuberculosis), and other bacterial and viral infections, were more likely to be contracted at crowded public events. In the Romanticism of this era with its poetry and sentiment, ailments were sometimes viewed with a curious sense of fascination. In Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Elinor Dashwood says to her romantically-inclined sister Marianne on the subject of their friend Colonel Brandon wearing flannel waistcoats: "Had he been only in a violent fever, you would not have despised him half so much. Confess, Marianne, is not there something interesting to you in the flushed cheek, the hollow eye, and the quick pulse of a fever?"

Influenced by male dress, a military-inspired style was adopted into outerwear, such as spencers and pelisses. This is an old phenomenon, already riding habits of the 1600s and 1700s deploy male-connoted pattern cuts and decorations. The (higher ranked) members of the army in their glamorous uniforms were considered to be fashionable and of respectable rank in society. A well-to-do officer to be a good match for a daughter, which influenced Mrs Bennet in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to repeatedly throw her unmarried daughters into company with the regiment of officers stationed in their town in the hopes that a marriage ensures. The military was highly present in early 19th century society in Europe, glorified and feared. Due to the Napoleonic Wars, armed conflicts were a part of life for many in the 1800s. Morale was important, and regiments were patronised by the royal families of nations to signify pride in them. The Queen of Prussia, Luise, wore dress in the style of men's uniforms when visiting a regiment placed under her patronage by her husband, the king (one of her original military-inspired spencer jackets is kept at Hohenzollern Castle, southwest Germany).  

Wedding gowns were not necessarily white in the early 1800s. Red, yellow, blue, pink and light green, even brown, were also worn, because most women simply wore their best dress for the occasion, Only wealthy ladies had their attire made or bought exclusively for the wedding, consulting the latest fashions in London and Paris and spending great amounts of time on choosing the perfect lace veil, the most luxurious fabrics and the place of every embroidery. In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, wedding clothes are elements of the plot repeatedly. First, Mrs Jennings thought that the Dashwood sisters came with her to London to acquire wedding clothes for Marianne, and later the wedding clothes of Miss Grey could be viewed at a dressmaker's shop in town. 

Flowers could be worn as a floral crown or worked in the hairstyle for festive wear. This print here, though actually from 1822, shows (as is stated in French underneath) 'the hairstyle of a bride the day after her wedding. The hair is adorned with roses and mytle, the robe of fabric from Lyon with decoration invented by Madame Bouhot'.

The Court Dress:

Court Dress for a long time still contained hoop skirts like in the later 1700s. Queen Charlotte was adamant to keep them while she reigned.

The hoops were dropped after her. Court dress then had narrow Empire skirts, following the latest fashion but also remaining distinct in its splendour and use of the highest materials. A long train was a firm part of court dress and this gave rise to a petition in 1834:

THE UNGRACIOUS PETITION. -Our attention has been called to a Petition of a most extraordinary nature, which has recently been presented to the QUEEN, and to which her Majesty has been pleased to reply in a manner which we think will prevent the ladies of the Court of Great Britain from again addressing her Majesty in such ungraceful terms. The Petition we allude to, was the same, or similar, to that which was sent to her Majesty last year, and we should have thought that the marked expression of the Queen's displeasure upon that occasion would have prevented a repetition of the offence.

As it is, to say the least of the matter, the Ladies of England have given existence to a document which will be an everlasting record of their parsimony, and indifference to the interests and well being of the community. They have found the cost of Court-dresses to be so very great, that they implore her Majesty to allow them to discontinue trains!
They plead, that at the Court of France such appendages are disused, and humbly beseech her Majesty to allow them to follow the example of their Parisian contemporaries. The reply of her Majesty is noble and truly patriotic: that right-royal lady, in the boundless generosity of her own affectionate heart, refuses the extraordinary request, and in plain terms commands the Ladies of her Court never to appear in her presence upon Court days, unless attired in that style of splendour and elegance which has ever characterized the Court of Great Britain.
Queen ADELAIDE has expressed her desire of enforcing more rigorously than ever, the Court Costume as established by King George the Fourth; exacting that the train should be attached to a corsage, so as to form a complete dress, and not a separate appendage: alledging the important advantages derived by trade from a continuance of the fashion. Her Majesty here appears in the light of advocate and enforcer of the claims of the manufacturer, trader, and indeed of the humblest artisan, all of whom would suffer if the use of trains at Court were to be discontinued.
Some ladies, we regret to say, are quite indifferent as to other persons, so that they are enabled to save a few guineas, to spend at card-tables, and in other unworthy pastimes. We have seen enough of their disloyalty in their use of old dresses: and they would crown all by throwing off their trains!

 - World of Fashions and Continental Feuilletons, May 1834

Mourning times had their own etiquette. Before mass production, a wardrobe especially for mourning was beyond most women's means so they could only show their mourning by a few dark elements in their dress. The mourning colours were black (for the first period) then it kind of faded out during the half-mourning with colours like grey, dark blue, purple and lilac. The cut allowed only a minimum of visible skin. The dresses were combined with matching pelisses, dark shoes, white or dark gloves, mourning bonnets and caps. If a member of the family or a royal passed away, a certain period of time had to pass before e.g. a marriage could be celebrated. In Jane Austen's Emma, for example, Miss Fairfax and Frank Churchill are obliged to wait for the three months of deep mourning to pass after his aunt had died until they can be married.

The mourning periods expected to be observed by female relatives of the deceased were generally longer than those of male relatives. A husband mourning the loss of his wife was by etiquette only obliged to go into seclusion for a couple of weeks and wear mourning dress or ribbons for some time longer. In Jane Austen's Persuasion, recent widower Mr Elliot makes it clear that he seek to marry his cousin Anne only a few months after having lost his first wife. A widow, however, was not supposed to go much into public for a long time. In Sense and Sensibility, Mrs Palmer offers to Marianne and Elinor Dashwood to be their chaperone, should the recently widowed mother of the two not want to appear at evening events. Reality was likely more flexible than these 'ideal' timelines. People probably did go into society during mourning and even remarried, whether by inclination or financial necessity, compelled by their individual lived realities.

1820s and 30s - the in-between decades between Regency and Victorian:

Towards the end of the Regency/Empire epoch around 1820, the high empire waist began to slip down gradually to the natural waistline of the human form. 

The hour-glass look was created by a clever use of optical illusion, where the waist appears especially narrow to the eye next to the increasingly full skirts and wide shoulder style with puffed sleeves.

These puffed sleeves needed to be supported by inner padding and inserted corset boning. 

Accessories:

Gloves were a vital part of everyday wear, being put on when leaving the house, going to Church and even for social events like dinners and balls. Thus, glove fabrics varied depending on the usage and setting in which the gloves would be worn - from fur-trimmed leather to fine, embroidered silks.

The handkerchief was a very important accessory, often neatly embroidered with whitework or colourful embroidery, or trimmed  with lace. 

I own a pocket notebook of an English lady which is dated 1794, and in which she notes down for one month that she bought pocket handkerchiefs for 6 shillings. This was a not inconsiderable sum at the time. She does not specify how many handkerchiefs she got for that price, nor how costly they were trimmed and made. Nonetheless, 6 shillings were quite a lot. In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Mr Tilney und Mrs Allen discuss shopping for dress fabrics and Mr Tilney is proud to report: „I gave but five shillings a yard for it, and a true Indian muslin.“ This means that these handkerchiefs of this unknown lady cost more than a metre of fine import dress fabric. 

A folding fan, painted with motives, was made of wood, ivory or mother of pearl with painted paper, fabric or lace or feathers. It was used by both ladies and gentlemen to cool themselves. In London there is a special fan museum which has an extensive collection, beautifully presented, and they host changing exhibitions. I have been several times and can recommend a visit. 

To protect the complexion from too much sun, parasols were a great help and also had a fashion-factor. When Lady Catherine de Burgh arrives at Longbourn she forces Elizabeth to walk with her for which the heroine needs an important accessory: "Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble guest down stairs" (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen).

As the Regency dresses left no room for pockets (pockets would deposit and detract the drape of the fabric) women used to carry around their important things (the essential handkerchief and perhaps powder and smelling salts) in little handbags, called reticules. Those small pouches were gathered with a drawstring and beautifully embroidered, usually with floral motives. The shapes are numerous, everything from spherical over pear-shaped to polygonal, or even looking like a pineapple. If you are interested in this, I recommend checking out the digital collection catalogues of big museums with textile collections, they are a treasure trove of original examples. 

Salts or lavender water in pretty vinaigrettes was considered to cure fainting fits, and provided a respite from bad smells in the streets. The strong smell of vinegar or scented salts caused a person to breathe in sharply. In Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, for example, Fanny Price is given Lady Bertram's aromatic vinegar to help her with her headache. 

Shoes:

At this time, in the making process both the left and right shoe was made the same way so that no special shoe for either foot existed like today. 

After the brocade, buckle-closed and high-heeled shoes of the Rococo Era a distinctive change happened. In 1800 and after, fashionable shoes were the flat and thin slippers made of fabric or leather (they looked a bit like ballet shoes or slippers today). As an example, here is a detail from the portrait of Marchesa Marianna Florenzi from 1824, which shows her delicate black shoes. In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the shoe rosettes for the Netherfield Ball are brought to the Bennet sisters who can't leave the house because the weather is so bad.

For bad weather or longer walks, boots or half boots were worn. In Jane Austen's unfinished novel The Watsons, Lord Osbourne talks about yellow-and-black boots for ladies. 

Hair:
Ancient Greek and Roman culture was not only drawn from for inspiration for gowns, but also for hairstyles. The hair was grown out long, if health allowed.  It (or helping hair-pieces) was drawn up to buns or braids, while the hair around the face was worn in fine ringlet curls. Directly after the French Revolution, short hairstyles were en vogue. A whole range of paintings and portrait miniatures attest to this. The hairstyles had names like 'à la Titus' (short, curls), 'à la Victime' (cut short, like the imprisoned during the French Revolution) or 'à la Ninon' (in curls).

About hair decorations Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra from Bath in June, 1799:  "Flowers are very much worn, and fruit is still more the thing. Elizabeth has a bunch of strawberries, and I have seen grapes, cherries, plums, and apricots. There are likewise almonds and raisins, French plums, and tamarinds at the grocers', but I have never seen any of them in hats. A plum or greengage would cost three shillings; cherries and grapes about five [...]". Later in June she wrote mockingly: "I cannot decide on the fruit until I hear from you again. – Besides, I cannot help thinking that it is more natural to have flowers grow out of the head than fruit. – What do you think on that subject?"

Leaving the house as woman meant putting on a head covering. Hats and bonnets were made of straw, buckram, and other dress fabrics. Caps were worn at home by married women. 

There were countless styles of bonnet and cap shapes and their ever-changing decorations for the latest seasons. Bonnets were wide-brimmed, tubular and tight-sitting (poke bonnets), high (stovepipe bonnets) or shaped like an ancient Greek or Roman helmet. A veil of lace or sheer fabric could be added to the brim of the hat or bonnet to add formality. Decorations were frequently exchanged to keep up with changing trends. Jane Austen wittily captures this by having Pride and Prejudice‘s Lydia Bennet speaking about trimming a new bonnet afresh to be more to her taste. 

In Jane Austen's Mansfield Park a conversation of Miss Crawford and the two Mr Betram's conveys how important dress was in society and how it defined the public image of a woman: "A girl not out [who has not yet had an official debut into society, my addition] has always the same sort of dress: a close bonnet, for instance; looks very demure, and never says a word."

Feathers had been used as hair and hat decorations for centuries and their use continued into the Regency.

Here a four examples from the early 1800s to illustrate this matter, depicting hairstyles and headwear, from my own collection: