About

Our Mission

The Washington Regency Society is a regional organization formed to increase the knowledge and appreciation of the English Regency period for its members and the public through historically based events. The society engages its members by researching, studying and involving its members in learning activities such as workshops and reenactments (which are open to the public, or to which the public is invited) or other public means if interaction.

Rules

1. Everyone is welcome. You don’t need to be a Washington State resident to become a member.
2. Be excellent to each other. This group is about enjoying each other and enjoying Regency life.
3. Respect the event. We have a variety of events ranging from workshops to formal balls. The general rule is costumes are admired but not required. However, every event is unique, so please check the details and make sure that the event suits you and that you can meet the dress or supply requirements for the event.
4. Please direct all comments, inquiries or concerns to society@waregency.org.
5. Have fun!!!

About the Society

Here is a link to our bylaws:  WRSBylaws

We are here for those in need of a change of scene and society!

We are a mix of Jane Austen fans, costumers, reenactors, and history buffs all looking to take a break from the constant bombardment of our modern age.

This society was created from a variety of local interest groups and Washington branches of out-of-state Regency organizations. Washington State members from the Oregon Regency Society, Puget Sound Chapter of the ORS, Somewhere In Time Unlimited (SITU), and local Meetup.com groups are just a few who have helped form the Washington Regency Society!

Example activities from 2012 in which we participated in or hosted:

• Lawn croquet in Seattle’s Volunteer Park
• Toured the Woodland Park Rose Garden
• Joined another costuming group on a “Sari Safari” to the Punjab Bazaar section of Vancouver, BC  for fabric
• Four day Regency Retreat in Oregon: workshops, archery, talent show, movies, picnic lunches, and more!
• Attended a costume “garage sale”
• Book signing from a Regency fiction author
• Hatpin workshop in West Seattle
• Formal dinner with dancing in Lacey, WA
• Attended the dedication of the new Veterans of 1812 Memorial on the Bicentennial of the War of 1812
• Celebrated the Queen with a Diamond Jubilee Tea

Please join us in celebrating an era of bygone elegance and manners.

The Regency Period

We chose to define the English Regency Era as 1790-1825 or so, but many debate which years define the era; there are quite a few political and fashion periods that overlap one another, which can make research difficult!

• “Directoire”
  • The period from 1795-1799, especially in France (which was then ruled by a directorate of five, later three, men).
• “Empire”
  • The period of Napoleon’s declared Empire, from 1804 to 1814/1815 (or starting from 1800, if one includes his “Consulate”).
• “Federal”
  • Insofar as this has an exact meaning, it would refer to the period from 1788/1789 to 1801 — between the establishment of the U.S. Constitution and Thomas Jefferson’s coming into the office of President as a “Republican” (having triumphed over the “Federalist” John Adams) — though dealers in antique furniture apparently use this term in a somewhat different sense.
• “Georgian”
  • Monarchs named George reigned in Great Britain from 1712 to 1830, but if Googling “Georgian” it seems to be used most commonly to refer to a style of eighteenth century architecture, or as a vague synonym for “Eighteenth Century” with special reference to Britain.
• “Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars”
  • France was involved in wars with other European powers (always including Great Britain) from 1792-1802, from 1803-1814, and during the “hundred days” in 1815. The wars of the French Revolution may be considered to last until perhaps about 1795, after which Napoleon began to take an increasingly prominent part in France’s military affairs.
• “Congress”
  • The period from the Congress of Vienna (begun 1814) to the last Congress (of Verona, 1822); the idea was that periodic diplomatic conferences would be held, at which European affairs would be settled — particularly by the five big European powers (Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, and Prussia).

(Note that the terms “Regency,” “Georgian,” and “Victorian” come from British political history, “Directoire” and “Empire” from France, and “Federal” from the U.S. — which can affect how these terms are used.)

The Prince Regent, for which we honor with his own “Regency” Era

(source: Wikipedia)

George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and king of Hanover following the death of his father, George III in 1820, until his own death ten years later in 1830. From 1811 until his accession, he served as Prince Regent during his father’s final mental illness.

George IV led an extravagant lifestyle that contributed to the fashions of the British Regency. He was a patron of new forms of leisure, style, and taste. He commissioned John Nash to build the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and remodel Buckingham Palace, and Sir Jeffry Wyatville to rebuild Windsor Castle. He was instrumental in the foundation of the National Gallery, London and King’s College London.

At the age of 18 he was given a separate establishment, and in dramatic contrast with his prosaic, scandal-free father threw himself with zest into a life of dissipation and wild extravagance involving heavy drinking and numerous mistresses and escapades. He was a witty conversationalist, drunk or sober, and showed good, but grossly expensive, taste in decorating his palace.

What was happening in the Regency Era?  

(source: http://www.usq.edu.au/artsworx/schoolresources/emma/theregencyperiod )

The Regency Era 1795-1830 England, was a time of stark contrasts, of defining styles and tastes and of scandal and gossip. It saw the madness of kings, Napoleon rise and fall (1769–1821), and the struggle for power in the Americas (1812-1815). The charming Lord Byron became a social celebrity with his dark romantic poetry, the cheeky and controversial Beau Brummell defined and shaped the fashions and, in a new style of writing, the likes of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens began their social commentaries on the people and classes of their era through fictional novels which were heavily steeped in truths of the time.

Class

The class system in England during Regency was strictly upheld by the old class land owners and their peers, the Church and the Royals who defined the social scenes. But it was a time of economic and social change as England embraced the industrial age. While it was a time of a widening the gap between the rich and the poor, a new class of bourgeoisie were blossoming. Their new money from rising industries enabled entrepreneurs to achieve riches and experiences that would have otherwise remained unattainable for the middle classes. It was this new middle-class that seemed to threaten the once secure state of aristocracy. Previously the aristocrats instigated an incredibly formal etiquette code, in order to somehow distance the upper class from any crassness of the lower classes or anyone who tried to step out of their traditional roles. It was also the age of submission to ones superiors; once again a hierarchical structure was enforced so that people of the regency period knew the correct way of addressing and showing respect to those with more wealth or higher political or social ranking than themselves.
Regency styles and fashions

The fashions of the Regency Era saw the rise of the ‘Dandy’, led by the infamous Beau Brummell, who would eventually be chased out of England for insulting George IV dress sense. There was also a move away from the traditional aristocratic styles of the periwigs and powder of the eighteenth century as the French Revolution (1789–1799) had made it unfashionable to be overtly aristocratic and in its place came simplistic elegance. Men embraced elegant linen trousers and overcoats with breeches and boots while women abandoned corsets for a high wasted, natural figured, thin, gauzy dresses. Although this new informal fashion had taken hold it had in no way slowed the upper classes desire for lavishness with both men and women changing outfits several times a day in preparation of different activities.

This same simplicity extended to the design of the upper classes environments and homes. The court architect John Nash was prominent in developing the ‘regency style’ drawing from Greek, Roman, Gothic, Egyptian, Asian and neo-classical English influences. This eclectic mix celebrated such features as elegant furniture and vertically pin-striped wallpaper, bay windows, balconies and stucco walls. It was a time where wealth was celebrated and opulence was expected.
The English Industrial Revolution and the poor

While Regents Park and Regent Street of London were celebrating the highlights of ‘regency style’, this opulence very much contrasted with the abject poverty and inflation of the prices of food which crippled many lower class families. Taxes were rife during this era, people were not only expected to pay tax to the Government and King but also to the Church. The wide ranging extent of taxes were extreme, for example, window tax expected from anyone with a window (this extended to small ventilation holes in huts), these taxes rose the larger the windows were and the more there were. As a result those who could not afford the tax were forced to brick up their windows.

England was also in the middle of an industrial revolution during the Regency, so there were growing numbers of people leaving the farms and countryside to find work within the cities in the new and plentiful factories. This shift from rural to urban saw the growth of slums and an increase and intensification of poverty within the major cities.

As with all industrial revolutions, this shift lead to a huge increase in pollution. England, with tons of waste from the factories along with London’s sewerage being dump untreated into the river Thames. The coal being burnt in the factories also created thick smog in the cities, so much so that when a person wore a white dress out for a day, they would return wearing a grey one.

Under George IV, England was industrial, crowded, powerful and troubled. It was a time of convict transportation in which Australia was colonized, but none of this dirty, bleak history is revealed by Jane Austen, as she lived in the English countryside and not in London, and the focus of all her novels were the charms of the countryside and its relative romance.