By Julie Cooper, author of Abandoned At The Altar
Photo: BBC
It is an author’s delight to dress the character of Elizabeth Bennet for her wedding day—provided, of course, that she is marrying one Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy.
However, in researching the type and colour of the gown she would wear, one must be careful not to confuse Miss Bennet with those likely to have their wedding gowns written up in the papers. John Rising, portrait of Lady Brownlow, National Trust/Public Domain
For the niece of the Earl of Bridgewater to Lord Brownlow—soon to be the first Earl Brownlow, we are likely to see something like this description, from the Stamford Mercury:
On Tuesday evening, by special license, at St George’s Hanover square, London, by the Hon. and Rev. Henry Cust, the Right Hon. Lord Brownlow, of Belton house, near Grantham, to Miss Hume, daughter of Sir Abraham Hume, Bart. and niece to the Earl of
Bridgewater. Among the company present at the marriage ceremony were, the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater, Colonel and Mrs Evelyn, Mr and Mrs Long, the Dowager Lady Brownlow, who was richly dressed in white satin, Miss De Buche, &c. They all retired to Sir Abraham Hume’s where tea and refreshments were prepared. There were no favours[1] worn on the occasion, the late Lord Brownlow having an objection to them. The bride and bridegroom proceeded from church in an elegant new chariot and four, to her sister’s, Mrs Long, Bromley, where they intend to pass some time. The bride wore a superb Brussels lace dress over white satin, her hair simply dressed with jewels, and a beautiful Brussels lace veil, two yards deep, which covered nearly the whole of her figure. The Hon Miss Custs, who attended as a bride-maids, and other ladies who were present, wore fine sprigged muslin dresses over white satin, with installation caps and beautiful Parisian plumes.
The same detailed announcement, it should be noted, appeared in the British Press, the Morning Herald, the Star, the Statesman, the Morning Post, the Morning Advertiser, the Westminster Journal and Old British Spy, and the Ipswich Journal. The groom’s family likely did not place these duplicates—this wedding of two wealthy and powerful families was big news.
Much more common was Dorothy’s Uppleby’s marriage announcement, one of ten recounted in the local newspaper:
On Monday the 10th inst., Robert Marriot, Esq. of Brock Hall, Northamptonshire, to Dorothy, second daughter of George Uppleby, Esq. of Barrow in this county.
Miss Elizabeth Bennet would be in the ‘Dorothy Uppleby category’; hence, a description of her wedding gown, much less those of her improbable bridesmaids, would certainly not have made the papers. What would she have worn, if not white satin and Brussels lace and hair adorned ‘simply’ with jewels?
The answer is this: her Sunday Best. Not very Cinderella-going-to-the ball-ish, true.
When Jane Austen’s niece Anna married Benjamin Lefroy in 1814, she wore “a dress of fine white muslin, and over it a soft silk shawl, white shot with primrose, with embossed white-satin flowers, and very handsome fringe, and on her head a small cap to match, trimmed with lace.” (She did have bridesmaids—two nieces, one aged 9, one aged 6, wearing white frocks and new straw bonnets decked with white ribbons.)[2] No veil, naturally—that was for princesses and earl’s nieces, in general.
But if your Sunday Best was not white, was it unusual to wear it on your wedding day? Not at all, explains Phyllis Magidson, a fashion museum coordinator quoted in The New York Times. “The bridal image has not always been white. Wedding dresses were virtually any color in the 1800’s. It was simply the best dress your family had to offer, meant to be worn at special occasions thereafter.” A very wealthy woman might have her gown made at Maison Worth in Paris, where a dress could cost as much as a middle-class person’s salary for a year, but for most people “wearing something that was specifically and solely intended to be worn for the wedding — the concept that we have of being a fairy princess — is a fairly contemporary perception.”[3]
White was a popular Regency bridal gown colour, simply because it was a popular colour for any gown at all. It was not until Queen Victoria’s 1840 wedding gown was photographed and distributed widely amongst the masses—she wished for white fabric to match her chosen lace—that white became de rigueur for brides and virtues were assigned to it.[4]
Someone in Elizabeth’s Bennet position would, most likely, have received new wedding clothes at the advent of her marriage. This did not usually refer to a special gown for the big day, but a new wardrobe meant to be taken into her new life. Jane Austen’s cousin, Eliza de Feuillide, wrote of the wedding clothes of actress Elizabeth Farren, who married Lord Derby in 1797: “She has thirty Muslin dresses each more beautiful than the other, and all trimmed with the most expensive Laces. Her Wedding Night Cap is the same as the Princess Royal’s and cost Eighty Guineas - I have no patience with such extravagances, and especially in such a Woman.”
While one can assume that the new Mrs Darcy would indeed have a hot new wedding night cap, eighty guineas might be more than the cost of her whole new wardrobe—especially because Mrs Bennet knew just which warehouses to shop. As Hilary Davidson, author of more than one book on fashion during Austen’s era, notes: “It is interesting that in her daydreaming, Isabella Thorpe (Northanger Abbey) resolves upon the quality, not the design or colour of her wedding gown, reflecting Regency dressers’ haptic concerns, and how viewers could identify cost by looking.”[5]
All of this begs the question—just which ‘Sunday Best’ might our dear girl have worn?
Boston Museum of Fine Art
Well, there was a good chance it would be made of muslin—the predominant fabric, by far, of the era. Originally the term for finely spun cotton yarns, different muslin weaves were given different names, e.g., cambric muslin, jaconet muslin, etc. Silk and wool were also popular fabrics.
In September of 1796, Jane Austen wrote, “I have had my new gown made up, and it really makes a very superb surplice.”
A couple of points to note—a ‘gown’ referred to either the fabric for the dress or the finished product. According to Ms Davidson, this use of the term ‘surplice’ implies that the gown was white, light, and voluminous enough to resemble a surplice, a loose wide-sleeved linen garment worn as a liturgical vestment in the Western Christian church.[6] The surplice style was a popular one, and might well have graced the light and pleasing figure of many a bride; in my latest book, Abandoned at the Altar, this is the style I imagined Elizabeth wearing at her first, unfortunately incomplete, wedding.
Over the course of three letters to her sister upon the subject of the makeup and construction of a new gown, Austen never once mentions its colour. She did refer to a ‘robe’ gown, which she already possessed, and which was a popular style after the rise in waistlines. “They were a kind of over-gown that required a petticoat skirt underneath, as they were opeat the front, shorter than ankle-length, or both.”[7] In other letters, a round gown, a cambric muslin gown, a pink gown, a blue gown, a red spotted muslin gown, a cloud gown, and more than one white gown were discussed. Any of those might be suitable for a wedding, especially when newly made for the occasion.
What, oh what, would Elizabeth Bennet wear to her wedding? The answer is as diverse and wide-ranging as the number of Pride and Prejudice variations written since Austen’s original. As long as it is fashionable, elegant, and not too flashy, just about anything goes. (Unless, of course, the author has restyled Miss Bennet into a wealthy earl’s niece, in which case, bring on the jewels and Brussels lace!)
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References
[1] ‘Favours’ refers to a ribbon, cockade, or the like, worn at a ceremony, e.g. a bride’s favour, coronation favour, wedding favour, in evidence of goodwill, worn as a party-badge. OED Second Edition (1989)
[2] Jane Austen: A Family Record, Deirdre Le Faye, Cambridge University Press, Publ. 2003
[3] Requoted from Jane Austen’s World Blog, retrieved 12-6-24, https://janeaustensworld.com/2008/11/12/regency-wedding-dresses-and-later-developments-in-bridal-fashions/
[4] Ibid, https://janeaustensworld.com/2008/11/12/regency-wedding-dresses-and-later-developments-in-bridal-fashions/
[5] Hilary Davidson, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen, p 106, Yale University Press, 2019
[6] Hilary Davidson, Jane Austen’s Wardrobe, pp 18-19, Yale University Press, 2023
[7] Ibid, Davidson, Jane Austen’s Wardrobe, p 26
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