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I am a lover of historical clothing and fantastical costumes. Part of the reason why I did theatre and ballet was so I could get to dress up. It’s also the reason why one of my hobbies is cosplay.

Whenever I come up with a fantasy novel, I envision the time period primarily through costuming. The Name and the Key is inspired by the 1820s Regency period. I wanted something old, but not too old (like Son of the Siren, whose costumes were based off of the Tudor period). About 200 years ago would suffice.

Clothing was beautiful, everything was about the Season and society and balls and dances and matchmaking, and things were slowly starting to creep towards modernism. Yet at the same time, there were still some ties back to the 18th century, but also a nod to the Classical era. It was a unique time for clothing and a departure for women especially, who were able to wear looser clothes and Empire waists.

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When Lily and her family (the Bellamys) first start out in The Name and the Key, they are considered working class. These dresses might be a smidgen fancier than in the book, but here are dresses that children would wear (Lily is thirteen at the beginning of the trilogy).

At left: Title: Dress Date: 1820–29 Culture: American Medium: cotton
Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. William Reynolds, 1931. Public Domain.

At right: Title: Dress Date: ca. 1813 Culture: American Medium: cotton
Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Louis Loughlin, 1948. Public Domain.

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When the Bellamys come into money and move to Mariner, they work their way up to the upper middle class as a merchant family with a shop called Bellamy Mercantile.

It’s an enormous lifestyle upgrade, and they live well, eat well, and dress well. The book does a time jump from when Lily is thirteen all the way to her eighteenth year, where she is set to debut at the Season. She’s pretty fashionable for her age. Here are some examples of real clothing from the 1820s that she would likely wear:

At right: Figured silk, trimmed with silk, lined with silk, hand-sewn.
Dress and spencer jacket made from silk, England, ca. 1823. Dress and spencer jacket made from pink silk with a figured leaf design. Victoria & Albert Museum.

At center: Ball gown Date: ca. 1820 Culture: American Medium: silk
Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Brooklyn Museum Collection.

At left: Young Woman’s Dress, France, circa 1822. Silk plain weave with supplementary warp and weft patterning, silk lace and silk satin ribbon.
Gift of Helen Larson (AC1999.46.1). Los Angeles Country Museum of Art.

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Here’s the thing, though…as much as I like historical clothing, I like fantastical, romantic clothing more. The Netflix series Bridgerton, based off of the novels by Julia Quinn and produced by Shonda Rhimes, has costumes that are out of this world. Though they are inspired by the Regency period, the costume designers took some liberties and added a touch of modernity, lots of sparkles, bold colors, and elements of the fantastic. First season designer Ellen Mirojnick, who set the tone for the entire series, has pointed out that she has created costumes for a fictionalized version of the Regency in 1813.

These are the sort of things I would picture Lily wearing, all sourced from Bridgerton:

These images come from the website Hollywood Movie Costumes and Props, with photos curated and taken by the site creator Jason. This page features costumes from Bridgerton Season Two, my favorite season.

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These images show the kinds of clothing Lily would be wearing throughout my trilogy, The Name and the Key. Super high waists, incredible detailing, bold colors and gentle pastels…she’d be into all of it.

It’s been so much fun imagining what my lead FMC would be wearing in the book…please look forward to the next installment, where I focus on the MMC, Andresh!