Browsing on the shelves of my favourite book-store, I found a gem of a book (in Danish, unfortunately, but with english captions to the pictures and english resumme of every chapter) concerning fashion in the period 1795-1840. It has lots of pictures, both from the period itself and of dresses and parts of dresses that has survived in Danish museums to this day. In it was a piece of information that I had never considered before:In the period from 1795-1825 saw a new fashion in shoes for laides. The new shoes were flat, round and soft, as opposed to the stiff, pointed, heavy and high-heeled shoes of the rococco, and with these new shoes a it was possible for laides to dance far more vigorous dances, such as the country-dances of JA-times as well as the waltz. The former fashion in shoes were mostly suited to the graver dances like minuets, gavottas etc. (Don't get me started on dancing in the renaissance). Just found it an interesting piece of information.
BTW, there is also - in the same book - a picture of a knitted full-length gown in wool, with fringes on the edges, so there was another possible way to spend the long evenings with a different kind of needlework.
