As most of you know, I love my vintage clothing and have worn this style for around 6 years now.

I started off with the odd hair flower, moving into circle skirts at the weekend and now tend to exclusively wear forties and early fifties clothing on my days off and days out!

However a recent invitation from my cousin Emma, meant I had to explore a new kind of vintage. One MUCH older than my regular style and certainly one I have never experienced before.

A Different Kind of Vintage

Cutting a story short, Emma and her fiancé Peter are both into Regency clothing and events and are due to get married at the end of June. I have very graciously been invited and all guests have been asked to wear clothing from that era.

Which is a very short time period indeed.

The Regency period in the UK is defined as being 1811 – 1820 and was of huge importance to many sectors; architecture, fashion, literature, politics and art.

It was less than a decade but there were many exceptional events that happened including –

Wars were fought with Napoleon. Charles Dickens was born. Humphrey Davey patented the Miner’s safety lamp.  Frankenstein was published. The last Frost Fair was held on the Frozen River Thames. The Venus De Milo was discovered. The Brighton Pavilion was redesigned and refurbished by John Nash. Sir Stamford Raffles created Singapore.

So a lot of things in a very short space of time.

Anyway, where exactly am I going with this?

Well, I need to get all togged up for the event, don’t I!

More my Style

And this is where the problems started. Actually finding something that would fit this Plus Size Regency Wannabe.

To be fair, it is pretty difficult to find niche clothing in size 26, regardless of which time period, After a few fruitless hours on the internet, I was very lucky to come across company that hires, makes and sells costumes from many eras; Roman, Medieval, Victorian, Wartime and more.

The company, Complete Costumes had a large selection of dresses that I could try, right up to a size 28. Well, there had be some hope there, right?

So, about a month before the wedding, I travelled up to see Amanda, the owner of Complete Costumes which is based in Kidderminster.

I had seen two or three outfits on the internet that I really liked and hoped that these would possibly work for the Wedding.

My favourite was a beautiful golden colour fancy dress with a black polka dot overlay. It was in my size and I thought it would be perfect.

Gold and Brown Evening Dress

There were a couple of plainer dresses that caught my eye too, such as this leaf embroidered cream dress with a brown Spencer jacket, so I had options and Amanda said she would make sure they were available for me to try on.

Day Dress and Ascot Jacket

When I got into Amanda’s dressing room, it was full of every kind of outfit, in every colour. I was mesmerised completely.

Amanda gave me the two dresses I particularly liked, and I went for the golden one first.

That is when disaster struck.

It just didn’t fit!

Would the leaf pattern one be any better? I had to keep my fingers crossed as I wouldn’t have enough time to get something made as it was only five weeks until the wedding.

Thankfully I can confirm that the leaf pattern dress did fit, but it was very snug. I had to tighten my corset as far as I have ever worn it before, and boy did it make the boobs pop out the top!

Beautiful Styling

Anyway, I at least knew I had an option if all else failed.

Amanda was amazing and sorted out some other dresses for me to try one.

I have to admit, they weren’t really ones that I had liked on the website, for one reason or another. However, I needed to try as many options as possible.

The first one was a peachy cream dress with little floral embroidery. This came with a peach Spencer jacket and a peach bonnet.

It hadn’t made my list of ‘likes’ as I felt the peach colour may be a bit insipid with my colouring, but again I wanted to try it and see if it gave a better fit. than the leaf pattern.

Peaches and Cream

However when I put it on, I absolutely loved every part of it. The material was heavy, yet cool. The jacket was a little snug however if the weather is good, I probably wouldn’t need it on.

Pretty as a Peach

The fit was great and there was more room in the bust area which meant I could probably undo the corset a couple of inches (and breathe again)

The only thing I really didn’t like was the bonnet. I felt like Little Bo Peep!

I knew this wasn’t a problem though as Amanda has a whole ream of hats to rent, including one that matched the colours of this dress perfectly. For a few pounds extra I could have a better hat (and you know I love a good hat!)

Terrific Titfer

So, it looked like I was sorted for the Wedding.

Or was I?

Amanda pulled out one last outfit. I had seen it on the website and really didn’t like it at all. Pea Green with gold trim, the pictures just made it look shapeless and unflattering.

Love it or Hate it?

However, it could be one of those outfits that designers call ‘Death on a Hanger’ – Terrible on mannequins and hangers, but wonderful on a person.

Well, I had travelled all that way so I thought I may just as well give it a go.

Dark Green Spencer Jacket

And the verdict?

Well, I plainly and simply fell in love with it.

It fitted like a dream, was comfortable in every part and the colour was really very pretty. It came with the jacket, or for an evening soiree, there was a gold wrap and a gold dolly bag to tie the colours all together.

Well, I already had a golden diadem for my hair and golden shoes, so it would be stupid not to give it a whirl for the evening party.

I spoke to Amanda and told her all the things I like to order and we went to the office to place the order and make payments. I thanked her for all her help and we spoke for awhile about the business and how it had started.

She then mentioned Parasols…..

Perfect Parasols

Well, of course I had to add one of those to the list. After all, no well bred Regency lady goes promenading without the correct accessories.

The down side to all of this, is that I only grabbed a couple of hurried shots to see how it looked and with no hair or make-up done. I didn’t want to get cosmetics on the fabrics as I was trying things.

I thought I would pop one on here though, hopefully to give you all a giggle….

Naughty Bo Peep!

The wedding is on the 30th June so you will get to see the final look with hair, makeup and accessories soon.

Till next time,

SPSG xxx