King George III – 1760-1820 Georgian Men’s Coats | English History by Calthrop

King George III - 1760-1820 English Costume History by Dion Clayton Calthrop Part 1 - Georgian Men's Coats

• A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III - 1760-1820 (Early)
• MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III - 1760-1820 (Later)
• Men's English Costume Drawings
• DRAWINGS (1768-1820) TO ILLUSTRATE THE COSTUME OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD

This text and the costume history illustrations shown are from Pages 432-441 of the chapter on late C18th dress in the reign of King George III 1760-1820, and taken from English Costume by Dion Clayton Calthrop. As there are so many illustrations to this particular chapter, I have divided it into 3 sections. Page 1 (this page) - is as Calthrop intended it to be with the text matching the line drawing illustrations and is primarily focused on the ADDITIONAL sketches of Georgian men's coats and hairstyles, plus two colour plates of male dress at the start and end of this Georgian era. Page 2 - Focuses on the female line drawing sketches of costumes of the same George III era, plus two colour plates. Page 3 - Shows the occupational dress plates of men's clothing of this 60 year Georgian reign. For the Introduction to this book see this introduction written by Dion Clayton Calthrop.  My comments are in italics.

GEORGE THE THIRD

Reigned sixty years: 1760-1820. Born 1738. Married, 1761, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Near Left A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III -1760-1820

The full-skirted coat, though still worn, has given way, in general, to the tail-coat. The waistcoat is much shorter. Black silk knee-breeches and stockings are very general.

Right MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III - 1760-1820

The cuffs have gone, and now the sleeve is left unbuttoned at the wrist. The coat is long and full-skirted, but not stiffened. The cravat is loosely tied, and the frilled ends stick out. These frills were, in the end, made on the shirt, and were called chitterlings.

THE MEN AND WOMEN

Throughout this long reign the changes of costume are so frequent, so varied, and so jumbled together, that any precise account of them would be impossible. I have endeavoured to give a leading example of most kind of styles in the budget of drawings which goes with this chapter. Details concerning this reign are so numerous: Fashion books, fashion articles in the London Magazine, the St. James's Chronicle, works innumerable on hair-dressing, tailors' patterns - these are easily within the reach of those who hunt the second-hand shops, or are within reasonable distance of a library.

DRAWINGS TO ILLUSTRATE THE COSTUME OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD

THE FIRST FORTY-EIGHT DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR (Calthrop), AND THE REMAINING TWELVE BY THE DIGHTONS, FATHER AND SON.

Men's English Costume Drawings GEORGE III

DRAWINGS 1 & 2

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 1 & 2, 1768 -1772.

Calthrop writes:- Following my drawings, you will see in the first the ordinary wig, skirted coat, knee-breeches, chapeau-bras, cravat or waistcoat, of the man about town. I do not mean of the exquisite about town, but, if you will take it kindly, just such clothes as you or I might have worn. In the second drawing we see a fashionable man, who might have strutted past the first fellow in the Park. His hair is dressed in a twisted roll; he wears a tight-brimmed little hat, a frogged coat, a fringed waistcoat, striped breeches, and buckled shoes.

Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats 3 & 4 The Macaroni

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 3 & 4, 1773.

In the third we see the dress of a Macaroni. On his absurd wig he wears a little Nevernoise hat; his cravat is tied in a bow; his breeches are loose, and beribboned at the knee. Many of these Macaronis wore coloured strings at the knee of their breeches, but the fashion died away when Jack Rann, 'Sixteen String Jack,' as he was called after this fashion, had been hung in this make of breeches. In number four we see the development of the tail-coat and the high-buttoned waistcoat. The tail-coat is, of course, son to the frock-coat, the skirts of which, being inconvenient for riding, had first been buttoned back and then cut back to give more play.

Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats 5 & 6

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 5 & 6, 1773-1782.

In the fifth drawing we see the double-breasted cut-away coat. Number six is but a further tail-coat design.

Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats 7 & 8

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 7 & 8, 1783-1786

Number seven shows how different were the styles at one time. Indeed, except for the Macaroni and other extreme fashions, the entire budget of men as shown might have formed a crowd in the Park on one day about twenty years before the end of the reign. There would not be much powdered hair after 1795, but a few examples would remain. A distinct change is shown in the eighth drawing of the long-tailed, full coat, the broad hat, the hair powdered, but not tied.

Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats 9 & 10

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 9 & 10, 1787-1789.

Number nine is another example of the same style. The tenth drawing shows the kind of hat we associate with Napoleon, and, in fact, very Napoleonic garments.

§

Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats 11 & 12 - The Zebra

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 11 & 12, 1791.

In eleven we have a distinct change in the appearance of English dress. The gentleman is a Zebra, and is so-called from his striped clothes. He is, of course, in the extreme of fashion, which did not last for long; but it shows a tendency towards later Georgian appearance - the top-hat, the shorter hair, the larger neckcloth, the pantaloons - forerunners of Brummell's invention - the open sleeve. Number twelve shows us an ordinary gentleman in a coat and waistcoat, with square flaps, called dog's ears. As the Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats continue you can see that the dress became more and more simple, more like modern evening dress as to the coats, more like modern stiff fashion about the neck.

DRAWINGS 13 & 14

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats 13 & 14, 1793.

DRAWINGS 15 & 16

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 15 & 16, 1793.

Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats 17 & 18

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 17 & 18, 1795.

Drawings of Georgian Men's Coats 19 & 20

ABOVE - MEN'S COAT DRAWINGS 19 & 20, 1797.

DRAWING 21

ABOVE - DRAWING OF MAN 1803

Georgian Men's Headwear, Hats, Hairstyles, Wigs & Queues

Mid-Georgian Bag Wigs & Queues Illustration

Men's Neater Hairstyles Illustration

Beaver & Round Hats 1786+ Illustration

See a large number of images on the Georgian women's page here .... Calthrop continues the last part of the chapter with these few paragraphs:-

Georgian Women

These colour plates show the last of the pannier dresses, which gave way in 1794 or 1795 to Empire dresses. After the French Revolution all dress of both men and women underwent radical changes. The drawings of the women's dresses should also speak for themselves.

Georgian Wigs

You may watch the growth of the wig and the decline of the hoop - I trust with ease. You may see those towers of hair of which there are so many stories. Those masses of meal and stuffing, powder and pomatum, the dressing of which took many hours. Those piles of decorated, perfumed, reeking mess, by which a lady could show her fancy for the navy by balancing a straw ship on her head, for sport by showing a coach, for gardening by a regular bed of flowers. Heads which were only dressed, perhaps, once in three weeks, and were then rescented because it was necessary. Monstrous germ-gatherers of horse-hair, hemp-wool, and powder, laid on in a paste, the cleaning of which is too awful to give in full detail. 'Three weeks,' says my lady's hairdresser, 'is as long as a head can go well in the summer without being opened.'

The Pouter Pigeon Fashion Look

Then we go on to the absurd idea which came over womankind that it was most becoming to look like a pouter pigeon. She took to a buffon, a gauze or fine linen kerchief, which stuck out pigeon-like in front, giving an exaggerated bosom to those who wore it. With this fashion of 1786 came the broad-brimmed hat.

Travel a little further and you have the mob cap. All of a sudden out go hoops, full skirts, high hair, powder, buffons, broad-brimmed hats, patches, high-heeled shoes, and in come willowy figures and thin, nearly transparent dresses, turbans, low shoes, straight fringes. I am going to give a chapter from a fashion book, to show you how impossible it is to deal with the vagaries of fashion in the next reign, and if I chose to occupy the space, I could give a similar chapter to make the confusion of this reign more confounded. See a large number of images on the clothing of Georgian Women.

DRAWINGS TO ILLUSTRATE THE COSTUME OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD

THE FIRST FORTY-EIGHT DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR, AND THE REMAINING TWELVE BY THE DIGHTONS, FATHER AND SON.  See the Occupational Dress for Men page. The King. The Navy. The Army. Pensioners. The Church. The Law. The Stage. The Universities. The Country. The Duke of Norfolk. The City. The Duke of Queensberry. You have been reading English Costume History at www.fashion-era.com © from the chapter on Hanoverian King George III 1760-1820, from Dion Clayton Calthrop's book English Costume. Page Added 23 August 2010. Ref:-816.