Regency Gothic Banquet

Bookings Close Sunday September 23

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Following on from the success of last year's Medieval Feast, Conflux 4 will be holding a Regency Gothic Banquet in the form of an English Regency dinner party.

The banquet costs $50, and tickets can be bought when you take out your membership. If you have any questions or enquiries, send an email to banquet@conflux.org.au.

What is Regency Gothic?

Regency

England's Regency period, called the "Age of Elegance", covers the years between 1795 and 1820. England was a true Regency for nine of those years, when the Prince Regent ruled for his father - "Mad" King George the Third.

Gothic Fiction

The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw the rise of romanticism with it's neo medieval imagery and gothic fiction with its obsession with brooding heros, forbidding gothic architecture and chilling apparitions which paved the way for modern Fantasy and Horror fiction.

Themes and Influences

So what's Regency Gothic about? Change and conflict - between order and passion, war and soldiers, and Romance. Think:
  • French revolution, English Regency, Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington
  • Industrial revolution and social revolution, abolition of slavery.
  • Regency bluestockings and Mary Wollstonecraft's vindication of the rights of woman
  • Empire dresses and tight knee-breeches, ringlets and top hats
  • Music by Mozart and Beethoven, art by Constable & Turner, the visionary poet-painter-engraver William Blake Romantic poetry by Lord Byron, Shelley, Keats & Coleridge
  • Books & more books - Gothic romances, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, novels by Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott, stories by Maria Edgeworth
  • Inventors and scientists, steam power, locomotives and steam boats, gas light

What is a Banquet?

You're kidding, right?

The Regency Gothic Banquet gives you a chance to enjoy genuine Regency food, just like in Jane Austen's and Mary Shelly's time. Regency food is rich and scrumptious and our intrepid group of recipe testers are busy trying out authentic period recipes ready for this amazing event!

Dinner parties were very popular entertainment during the Regency Period. Historian and fiction writer Gillian Polack has gathered recipes from cookbooks published in 1800 and 1830.

Costume and Dress

Of course, you don't have to dress up to come to the Conflux Regency Gothic banquet, but if you want to immerse yourself in the experience, why not consider going in an elegant Regency costume, or even as a creature right out of a gothic horror?

Women

Regency women wore thin, gauzy Empire line dresses with high waists and loose graceful skirts, often made of lawn or muslin. This classical line was embellished according to the latest fashion trends--classical Greek, Egyptian, Gothic or otherwise. By 1811 a Gothic (Middle Ages) influence resulted in looser cut bodices, with more shaping and broader shoulder lines.

Regularly wearing white showed social status as white soiled easily. Young women wore white or pastels. Older, or married women could wear richer, darker colours.

"Morning dress" was worn at home, in the afternoons as well as mornings. Women also wore afternoon dresses, walking dresses, dinner dresses and evening dresses. Evening dresses were low cut with short sleeves, trimmed with lace, ribbons, and netting, and worn with long white gloves.

Hairstyles and hats - Bandeaux or fillets made of muslin or of strips of embroidery were fashionable. Women wore curls or ringlets over their forehead and ears, with longer back hair drawn up. Adventurous women even wore short hairstyles. Conservative married women continued to cover their hair with linen mob caps. Antique head-dress, Chinese hats, turbans, and Highland helmets were popular. Bonnets were trimmed with feathers (including enormous ostrich plumes) and ribbons.

Accessories

For warmth, women wore fur muffs, wraps, cashmere shawls or Spencers (short cardigans). When worn indoors in the evening, Spencers were made of silk or fine woolen material. Empire line dresses lacked pockets, so women carried small draw string bags called reticules and scrumptious beaded purses. Women wore coloured slippers, made of satin for evening wear and of Morocco leather for day-time.

Jewellery

Semi-precious stones and corals were popular, worn as brooches, pins, cross necklaces, pendants and cameos.

Men

(from 1795-1820 in fashion on wikipedia.)

This period saw the final abandonment of lace, embroidery, and other embellishment from serious men's clothing. Instead, cut and tailoring became much more important as an indicator of quality.

Breeches became longer - tightly-fitted leather riding breeches reached almost to the boot tops - and were replaced by pantaloons or trousers for fashionable street wear.

Coats were cutaway in front with long skirts or tails behind, and had tall standing collars. The lapels featured an M-shaped notch unique to the period.

Shirts were made of linen, had attached collars, and were worn with stocks or wrapped in a cravat tied in various fashions. Pleated frills at the cuffs and front opening went out of fashion by the end of the period.

Waistcoats were relatively high-waisted, and squared off at the bottom, but came in a broad variety of styles. They were often double-breasted, with wide lapels and stand collars.

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