Book thoughts
(Reposted and translated from an entry on FB)
I've had time to browse a bit through "Empirens döttrar" (="Daughters of the Regency", a Swedish book by Helen Persson, Anette Kindahl, Katarina Olsson and Ingrid Roos) and read the first chapter. It seems like a nice book, but I'm wondering about a couple of things that I've read. She/they write on p. 18 that "jewellery was very popular during this time period" (my translation). But this is at least in part contradicted by the image sources. I looked up all the portraits in the book (i.e., all the depictions of women that weren't fashion plates or where they weren't wearing outer garments) and out of 24 depicted women, only seven show visible jewellery, and out of those seven, three show only simple earrings or an arm ring. In most pictures the women wear basically no jewellery, not even in the offical portraits in oil. In what way is that "very popular"?
On p. 24 she/they writes about the increasing use of trousers (pantaloons), but the reference images show breeches on all gentlemen except the two that are *in uniform*. That's hardly significant as a fashion reference.
I also find myself rather quizzical toward the statement on p. 28 that the lady in the portrait, Catharina Charlotta Leijonhufvud, wore "artificial breasts" ("artificiella bröst"). :)
This entry was originally posted at http://therru.dreamwidth.org/366670.html. Comments are read in either place.
I've had time to browse a bit through "Empirens döttrar" (="Daughters of the Regency", a Swedish book by Helen Persson, Anette Kindahl, Katarina Olsson and Ingrid Roos) and read the first chapter. It seems like a nice book, but I'm wondering about a couple of things that I've read. She/they write on p. 18 that "jewellery was very popular during this time period" (my translation). But this is at least in part contradicted by the image sources. I looked up all the portraits in the book (i.e., all the depictions of women that weren't fashion plates or where they weren't wearing outer garments) and out of 24 depicted women, only seven show visible jewellery, and out of those seven, three show only simple earrings or an arm ring. In most pictures the women wear basically no jewellery, not even in the offical portraits in oil. In what way is that "very popular"?
On p. 24 she/they writes about the increasing use of trousers (pantaloons), but the reference images show breeches on all gentlemen except the two that are *in uniform*. That's hardly significant as a fashion reference.
I also find myself rather quizzical toward the statement on p. 28 that the lady in the portrait, Catharina Charlotta Leijonhufvud, wore "artificial breasts" ("artificiella bröst"). :)
This entry was originally posted at http://therru.dreamwidth.org/366670.html. Comments are read in either place.