What's the Point?

 

I think, at least in the case of this Evening Full Dress from July 1809’s La Belle Assemblée, that the point is (or should I say are) quite apparent, despite the not-very-good quality of my print.

 

Here’s the original description:

THE ELVIRA DRESS. This dress is composed of yellow crape, with a train about half a yard in length; the front of the skirt forming a deep vandyke (to the point of which is suspended a tassel), and is embroidered round the edge in two shades of brown chenille; the sleeves are formed of several rows of plaits crossed on the arm. To complete the whole of this elegant dress, there is worn with it a jacket of yellow satin, which is formed with three deep vandykes behind and two in front; the bosom square, with three straps across the center, which are fastened with diamond brooches; the points of this jacket, front, back, and shoulder straps, are embroidered at the edges the same as the dress, which is worn over a slip of shite satin, likewise embroidered round the bottom, and the sleeves of which appear below the crape over it, and are finished at the bottom with chenille embroidered in form of a vandyke, with the point turned upwards, the center filled up with a sprig.

So many questions, the primary one being, who was Elvira? 😏  Also, the description as written doesn’t quite match the dress, as I see nothing of the straps fastened with diamond brooches on the bodice of the jacket mentioned in the text.

And missing from the text is a description of the accessories—fan, shoes, gloves, pearl jewelry, and headdress—as depicted…and surely that spectacular jeweled diadem and feathers number deserves a few sentences! 

The description of the large triangular points as "vandykes", by the way, comes from the Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyke, who spent most of his career as the leading court painter of King Charles I. He painted a great many portraits of the royal family and nobility...and at the time, lace with deep, indented triangular tongues was highly fashionable, as can be seen in Van Dyke's portrait study of the king (via Wikimedia.)

Looking at the fashion prints from around 1809-1810 in both La Belle Assemblée and Ackermann’s Repository, it is clear that this was a marvelous time to be a modiste: there is such creativity and variability in styles, unlike, say, the early 1820s which were really rather dull. What do you think?