Walking Dress – Autumn 1812

Regency Era Empire Waist Walking Dress and Garden Setting

This classic 1812 fashion plate from Ackermann’s Repository of Arts depicts a delicate ladies’ walking dress characteristic of the high Regency period. The hand-colored antique engraving shows a woman seated gracefully on a neoclassical stone bench in an outdoor garden setting surrounded by blooming rose bushes. She wears a lightweight, high-waisted white muslin gown featuring long slender sleeves, a softly ruffled neckline, and a prominent satin turquoise blue sash tied elegantly around the high Empire waistline.

Early Nineteenth-Century Summer Promenade Accessories and Millinery

The seated figure is styled with a woven straw bonnet adorned with soft pink floral blossoms and a white ribbon chin strap, capturing the essence of early 19th-century summer millinery. Over her shoulders rests a sheer black lace shawl or pelerine cape, providing a stark, elegant contrast to the bright white gown. She holds a matching mint-green fringed parasol with a slender handle and wears delicate yellow flats, offering fashion historians a complete view of a historical daytime promenade outfit.