Free The Jane Austen Handbook by Margaret C. Sullivan

silver buckles. Linen shirts must be spotlessly clean and crisply ironed.

    Fig. E
    •  Undergarments . Traditionally, a gentleman did not wear drawers—instead, he simply crossed the trailing ends of his shirt underneath his crotch inside his breeches or pantaloons. However, as cleanliness becomes more the fashion, more men have taken to wearing knee-length drawers of a knit material to keep breeches or pantaloons from directly touching the skin. These drawers are tied with corset-like strings at the back waist for a close fit and buttoned at the waist, with an opening in the front for convenience.
    •  Outerwear . For cold weather, every gentleman has a great coat; younger men wear them with as many as sixteen capes around the shoulders to keep out cold, snow, and rain while driving an open vehicle.
    •  Accessories .
    •  Hats .
High-crowned hats are worn outdoors; for evening, a gentleman tucks a chapeau-bras or bicorne hat beneath his arm.
    •  Jewelry .
A tasteful watch and fob and perhaps a jeweled pin in the cravat are generally worn both for evening and non-active morning wear, though more foppish gentlemen might accessorize with seals dangling from their watch fob and snuffboxes made of precious metals or painted porcelain.
    • 
Cravat ( Fig. E-3 )
. Made of spotlessly clean starched muslin, usually white, and tied in any number of fashionable methods.
    • 
Walking stick
. In the city, every gentleman has a sleek, elegant walking stick. In the country, a sturdy branch will do to assist one in walking up muddy hills. When paying a morning call, it is impolite to leave one’s hat or walking stick anywhere in the house, lest one be suspected of planning to overstay one’s welcome.
    •  Hairstyles . The taxation of hair powder spurred an au naturel trend in men’s hairstyles; like the ladies, men’s hairstyles tend to imitate classical statuary, with some gentlemen even sporting an exaggerated windblown look.
    LADIES’ HAIRSTYLES,MAKEUP, &BEAUTY TREATMENTS
    Powdering the hair was already passing from fashion when a tax on hair powder in 1795 rang the death knell; thereafter, only patriotic old Tories still used the stuff. Early in the period, young women often wore their hair in long curls for the proper romantic look, with ribbons or beads twined through their hair for the evening. Around the start of the nineteenth century, ladies began wearing their hair up off their nape, with a few curly locks loose around their face. Hair was also occasionally worn short, cropped close to the head, and worn either sleek or curly.
    For makeup, the natural look was the order of the day—the heavily powdered and rouged look of the eighteenth century was abandoned. However, that did not mean that ladies used no cosmetics at all. Jane Austen’s close friend and housemate,Martha Lloyd, compiled a book of recipes that contained several beauty preparations, including milk of roses, used as a skin lotion; hand soap and softening pomatum; cold cream made of wax, spermaceti (whale oil), oil of sweet almonds, and rosewater; coral tooth powder; and lavender water, which was used both as a perfume and to revive those who had fainted.
    In
Persuasion
, Sir Walter Elliot, who is very attentive to everyone’s looks, encourages Mrs. Clay to use Gowland’s Lotion and opines that Lady Russell should use rouge during daylight hours. Gowland’s Lotion was acommercial preparation that contained mercuric chloride, which acted as a chemical peel. No wonder he found ladies’ skin to be “fresher” after they used it! One rather wonders whether the extremely vain Sir Walter used a touch of Gowland’s himself.

HOW TO BUY CLOTHING
    I shall want two coloured gowns for the summer, for my pink one will not do more than clear me from Steventon. I shall not trouble you, however, to get more than one of them, and that is to be a plain brown cambric muslin, for morning wear; the other, which is to be a very pretty yellow and white