“Yes, I know exactly what you will say: Friday, went to the Lower Rooms; wore my sprigged muslin robe with blue trimmings -- plain black shoes -- appeared to much advantage; but was strangely harassed by a queer, half-witted man, who would make me dance with him, and distressed me by his nonsense."
“Indeed I shall say no such thing."
-Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
I’ve been reading and watching rather a lot of Jane Austen recently (as you could probably tell from my last post), and I decided to take some of the ideas from that post and apply them to Austen characters. The leads specifically, though I do not love all of them equally and some have proved very challenging, indeed. And, with Halloween tomorrow, the timing seemed right to do another character-inspired post.
Catherine Morland is a delightful little creature. The youngest of the Austen girls and the most impressionable of the bunch, Catherine is a lover of gothic novels. She also is inclined to think well of those she meets (unless her imagination runs away with her).
With her love of gothic novels, the temptation to dress Cathy in gothic Lolita was great, but, frankly, it doesn't really suit the character. What does suit her are nods to the aesthetic she becomes obsessed with - a small castle black ring here, a book-shaped bag there, black as an accent color in a mostly white outfit. Catherine isn't particularly dark herself, though, so I wanted to keep things as light as possible.
For her hair, I chose something light and young. A lot of regency hairstyles were heavily coiffed and ornamented, but I wanted to keep things simple from our country girl. A white head wrap and loose updo suit the simplicity of the outfit and her character.
The shoes are historically accurate, and I included the black rhinestone shoe clips to keep the touches of black consistent. The clocked silk stockings, while not period accurate, are a great way to add a little more black.
