The Bill and Ted Test

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We're so glad this #BTPPAdventCalendar is finding an equally receptive audience over here where the skies are blue.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy Hanukkah, and we wish you all good spirits (liquid or otherwise).

THE END.

The 1995 #PrideAndPrejudice is a thoroughly thought out, lovingly detailed production whose costumes enhance character, tell stories, and conjure the visual spirit of the age beautifully. It's rightly a classic, and will remain so.

And so, as we wend our way out with the wedding party into the snowy day, amidst much happiness and prettiness - and possibly some insufficient stocking wearing down the front there - we say adieu to an outstanding feat of Regency costuming.

Couple number six are pretty, and VERY NAUGHTY. Boo!

These people are also placed next to each other. Er...

We'd like to think that Anne's pink ribbons, like her red dress combo earlier, are signifiers of her incipient seething rebellion breaking out, and that she's eventually going to elope with Colonel Fitzwilliam.

Couple number five are happy and well-matched. Aw!

Mrs Phillips photobombing them is very Mrs Phillips. Here for it.

Mr Gardiner has boteh/paisley patterns on his waistcoat. A smidge ahead of time, perhaps.

Couple number four is happy, in their own particular way. Aw!

Charlotte's cap continues to glory in the sheer capness of itself. She is SO married. If she turns around though, she might get some cap envy.

These people are related, and prettyish. Aw!

Mrs Phillips's glory is lost in the background there. We hope she writes her own fashion column for Meryton.

It's nice to see Mary has pulled out a velvet spencer for a wedding. Maybe Kitty made her, since hers is equally fetching.

These people are four-fifths pretty, and standing next to each other. Oh!

The costume designer said she thought of the Bingley sisters as wearing the Regency equivalent of Gucci. FASHUN!

Georgiana has her seaside pelisse on.

Couple number three are, happy, ish, and pretty, ish. Ehhh....

Mrs Bennet's swansdown trim is fantastic, and she's into her regular turban for church style. Mr B is positively swanking in that silk waistcoat.

Couple number two are happy and pretty and well-matched. Aw!

Love Lizzy's bonnet - lace over a wire structure, suitably covering both bonnety and weddingy requirements.

And you have no idea how long it took Darcy's valet to get that one curl over his forehead like that.

Couple number one are happy and pretty and well-matched. Aw!

Finally, Mr Bingley's trousers fit him, so well we can see that he too dresses to the right. As someone pointed out, Mr Darcy's duds are somewhat baggier - maybe he's been dieting to fit into his clothes for the big day.

24. #BTPPAdventCalendar

Last one, so: one, two, three: AWWWWWWWW!!

The double wedding takes place before Christmas, aptly enough for our purposes. Once again, we're in morning dress for the fellas, and the ladies with day-length sleeves, though in more luxurious fabrics.

Although clearly Lizzy thinks so. This is the first time we've seen her in translucent night attire, and a sleeveless petticoat or nightie. Her negligee perhaps hints at foxy nightwear to come. Onya, Lizzles! (She, also, could potentially run away from a Gothic house in this.)

However, the whole point of this bit of the episode is this:

Successful Proposal Look

Somehow not as hot as the others, though still lovely.

More domestic Bennetudiness. Mr B's waistcoat is worthy of note, and we are always here for depictions of sewing! Lizzy sews a lot more in the book than she gets on TV. Note Mrs B doing somewhat frivolous decorative needlework, rather than useful mending.

Poor Anne. She is also trussed up in the nicest things, and sports an expensive fur(?) tippet, and intricate bonnet, but this beautifully rigged ship is never going to be allowed to sail anywhere.

The 1810s is really when haberdashery details start to take off in fashion though.

Plus our favourite detail, an ERMINE muff. Too good. So aristo.

Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus accessorised?

23. #BTPPAdventCalendar

After that piping-filled lull, we're back to the action. Nothing says 'action' like Lady Catherine de Bourgh sweeping in. Hurricane Catherine, a whirl of luxury fabrics. Lace, silk velvet, a mink(?) tippet and a really high, therefore fashionable, bonnet crown

*curtsies*

It's a six part television series.

You probably won't be able to unsee it now #SorryNotSorry

To wash your mind out, let's finish with the Sneaking A Hot Peek With The Whole Family Right There Look

However however - it's also a way to finish off the edges of garments neatly, and hide the stitches, when you're using a sewing machine to imitate gowns that were made by hand. Which is probably why it appears so often in pre-1800 costumes. Poldark and Bridgerton are chock full of neckline piping.

HOWEVER!! You don't get piping without cord on the inside. The cord was made of cotton. Which tells us that cotton was cheap and plentiful enough to be used as a superfluous trimming detail, and widely available. This is probably part of the post-Napoleonic-war increase in trade.

So sewing the piping in at the neck counteracts some principles of the gowns at the time though it anticipates what's coming. It's starting to be used a bit more on outerwear too so her spencer is getting there.

Having a drawstring or small cord inside allowed for necklines to fit the wearer perfectly no matter what the bust was doing, and vagaries of shape. As stays started to fix their shape, so did busts, so did necklines, and they got cut to exact lines, like Jane's.

BUT! This is relevant for the bigger historical picture in a couple of ways. First, sewing it around the neck of gowns fixes them in place. One of the brilliant thing about Regency frocks is the adjustable neckline, c 1795-1810. Fashion's silhouettes were in flux, uncertain.

Now, this is one of those dress details that is reaaaallllly specific. In original gowns, it slowly increases in the 1810s, but really takes off after around 1815, 1816. The use throughout P&P is a tad anachronistic (oh yeah, we can be *that* pedantic.)