Exploring the fashion of Gentleman Jack
As Gentleman Jack returns to TV, an exhibition in Halifax looks at the remarkable fashions of Anne Lister and her neighbours. Stephanie Smith looks at 1830s style.
As she strode out across her fields and through the streets of Halifax, AnneLister must have cut a striking figure. The nickname “Gentleman Jack” was coined as an insult, to mock her independence, her sexuality and her style, dressing in clothes considered to be men-only as she audaciously went about earning her own money.
Thanks to BBC/HBO drama series Gentleman Jack, her story is famous the world over and it has given us a fascinating insight not only into the style of trendsetter Anne, but also of her contemporaries, welldressed Yorkshire women at the forefront of fashion in early 19th century England, because they lived at the heart of the textile industry.
“We know that Anne Lister had a unique look and style. She chose to wear all black but that wasn’t common for the time,” says Elinor Camille-Wood, curator of Bankfield Museum inHalifax, where an exhibition has opened to tie in with the launch of series two of Gentleman Jack.
Fashion in Anne Lister’s Time (1791-1840) explores the clothes worn during Anne’s lifetime, and shows how her style contrasted starkly with what her female peers wore. There are costumes from the firstseries of Gentleman Jack, in anticipation of another larger exhibition later in the year when there will be a world-exclusive presentation of the series two costumes created by Tom Pye.
StylishHalifax folk would have been among the first to see and wear the latest trends. Elinor says: “This was a time when fashion plates were coming into their own. France was leading the way in what fashionable ladies would have. We were importing fabrics, but also exporting as well, so able to get some of the latest fashions into this area. They had access to all the textiles and cloth that was making these fashionable dresses.”
One exhibit looks at where Anne would have shopped, with dressmaking and hairdressing shops on the high street. “Dressmakers ranged from the local lady who would take in thingsto bigger shops where you would have a whole group of dressmakers creating outfits,” says Elinor. “Hairdressing really came into its own. You hadsome really extravagant hairstyles and we have seen that a little bit with
Ann Walker, who has had some fantastical curls and lots of ribbons.”
Buying a dressin the 1820s and 30s was a major investment. “They learned how to adapt clothing,” says Elinor,
describing how pelisses and spencers were jackets worn over dresses. “You could express yourself by wearing quite an elaborate pelisse or spencer and then match your bonnet to it and your gloves,” she adds.
“There is a lovely quote in the diary where Anne talks about taking off her black winter spencer and deciding that now it’s time for summer, and she puts on her cotton spencer. We have tried to weave Anne’s words throughout, so you get a real sense what high fashion was doing at the time and
There were so many constraints in the 1830s. Women were changing four to six times a day.”
how she was adapting fashion to suit herself.”
Most women would wear light colours. Elinor says: “Anne also talks about purchasing items of men’s clothing, buying men’s braces, men’s trousers.
“Anne was pushing those boundaries of what was acceptable. At the beginning, she talks about being embarrassed and looking different and then she says, ‘you know what, I don’t care. I am just going to go with what I want to wear’. That’s one of the great things about her and quite a freeing thing. There were so many constraints in the 1830s. Women were changing
four to six times a day.”
The exhibition features loans from museums in Bradford, Kirklees, Northampton, North Lincolnshire and Harrogate.“It’s a period of costume that is a real celebration of textiles, of print and pattern,” Elinor says. “It almost feels as if you are walking through the streets of Halifax seeing what these ladies would wear, like Anne would.”
The exhibition of Tom Pye’s costumes for Gentleman Jack series two will launch after all eight episodes have aired.
“This exhibition is going to be even bigger and better than series one,” says Elinor.“Tom Pye was given a much bigger budget and you can see that in the costumes. Lots of the key characters have been given multiple different outfits.”
“What Tom is so good at is that attention to detail. He has gone to historic collections, he’s come here, takenphotographs of pattern books from the mills and looked at the cottons that we were producing.”