This is a beautiful French empire evening gown which is also displayed on Cathy Decker’s Regency Fashion Site. This gown was a direct inspiration for my original Regency Gown pattern.

Here is a group of Regency gowns featured in Jane Ashelford’s Book, The Art of Dress. Note the crossover bodice of the early 1800s day dress, the fantastic details of the sleeve embroidery on the 1810 evening gown and the full skirt back of the 1795 day dress. It’s nice to be able to see the actual colors, too. Dispels the myth of pastels and drab colors!

Here is a wonderful evening gown from the Museum of Costume in Bath, England. I love the long train and shimmery look of the material!

This is an original gown from the early Regency, accented with a delicate tulle overlay and featuring slim sleeves. Back when I sewed professionally, a customer sent me this photo so I could reproduce the dress, which was a really fun project. I believe the original garment is in the Kyoto Museum collection.

These beautiful gowns are from the McCord Museum in Canada.

Aren’t these gorgeous? These are from the textile collection at Kent State University

This is a color illustration from Mansfield Park. Fanny’s aunt is “helping” her with her sewing.

An illustration of Henry Crawford helping Fanny Price into her shawl from the 1895 edition of Mansfield Park

English fashion plate showing a lady wearing a cape over her gown.

An English fashion plate from 1810. I love the gent’s crisply tailored suit. This is when trousers really came into vogue for men, displacing breeches for all but formalwear for the young bucks of fashion.