Why did victorians wear hats

Decorating piece on the hats were birds and this was in vogue in the last half of the 19th century. The hats were ornamented by bird parts like their wings, breasts or sometimes the whole bird was used.

The Brazilian blackbird was in demand for becoming a showpiece on the hat. Hats also include hatpins which were either the basic hatpins, or stick pins, or cameo hatpins or even novelty hatpins. Hatpin holders may be classified into boot hair pin holder or tall hair pin holder. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address. Viscountess Tullamore, by J. Cochran, Late Victorian fashion plate. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Fleming Hi Debra, there are lots of options. Dana What do you call those cool hats? Fleming Which ones, Dana? Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Recent Posts Recent Comments Apr Ghost in the Gloaming 1 Comment s. I was wondering how we wo Lace was used as part of the fabric of the lighter bonnets, mingled with flowers and feathers.

Beaver appeared again from Straw hats and bonnets were much worn throughout the s, when they lost their seasonal connection and appeared amongst winter as well as summer fashions. The coarser straw plaits were fashionable and fancy straw plaits in openwork patterns appeared again in the s, but the openwork plaits of this period are heavier and less lace-like than the earlier openwork plaits of the s.

The large hat with one side turned up, the Gainsborough, remained fashionable for almost the whole of the s. From , a new style of hat appeared, which was particularly characteristic of the s, although the fashion journals insisted at first that it was a style suitable only to very young faces. This was the postilion or post-boy hat , with high crown like a flowerpot, and narrow brim.

Hats with this shaping of the crown were fashionable between and Some had a fairly narrow brim turned up at one side; some had the brim turned up at the back and straight in the front, a style called Directoire although it bore little resemblance to the bonnet which had been given that name a few years earlier; on others, the brim was turned back at each side.

The high crown also appeared in the toque , with a wide banded brim. This style of hat with the brim jutting out over the face was a characteristic fashion of the years from to Severely plain versions of this shape, in stiffened straw with a ribbon band, were worn for yachting and tennis and, by , hats in this style had become generally worn, not only for all summer sports but with the plainer and more practical styles of everyday dress.

In bonnets the style of continued until During the mids, bonnet crowns also grew higher, though less noticeable than those of hats. Brims often made a pointed shape over the forehead from A fashion for bonnets without strings, which came again in , makes it difficult to distinguish between a bonnet and a toque of this date. The toque was a fashion for younger women, who also wore the very small bonnets without crowns which were once again fashionable by Particularly characteristic of the bonnets of the early s was the edging of the bonnet brim with beads.

The strings of the bonnets at this time were wide. Ribbons, feathers and flowers were all used as trimmings. Lace was often used to trim straw bonnets and hats, as well as being used with plush and velvet.

The brims of straw bonnets and hats of this decade were often lined with velvet and hats of the late s sometimes had trimming beneath the brim. For hats of more informal wear, silk scarves were used as trimming, loosely knotted around the crown. The arrangement of the trimming is a distinguishing mark of hats and bonnets of the second half of the decade.

By , the bonnets were very small, often almost non-existent, or hidden beneath their trimmings of bows or ribbon, flowers, feathers and lace. The difference between a bonnet and toque of this time was marked only by the strings of the bonnet, now narrow—an inch wide or less—and fixed well at the back.

By the end of the century, the bonnet with strings had become a middle-aged fashion. Learn how to make an s bustle era hat with this online class from Historical Sewing.

The hats of the s show great variety of shape and size. After the hat with the brim jutting widely over the face in front went out of fashion. Wide-brimmed hats were still worn, with the brim turned up sometimes at one side, sometimes at both sides, so that the under brim was visible. From the mids, these wide-brimmed hats were worn placed slightly sideways. The still popular sailor shapes, with flat crowns and straight brims of medium width, were worn straight on the head.

Witch- crowned hats, that is, hats with crowns pointed in a cone-shape, were fashionable in the mids. The boat-shape, with brim turned up at the sides, still remained a popular fashion, particularly made in felt as a walking or cycling hat. A cloven-crowned hat with flat brim was also worn. Hats with wide brims upturned in front appeared in If the brim was not upturned, it now often had a curving tilted line from left to right, or was curved up on each side from the centre.

Toques with high crowns were worn in the mids, and three-pointed or four-pointed toques were also a fashion of these years. By the last years of the century, the toque was larger, with a soft, full crown, and often with a wide turned-back brim and high trimming.

The openwork straws which had been fashionable in the s continued to be worn in the s. Straw, chip, velvet and felt were the chief materials used for hats and bonnets but, for the lighter summer millinery, net, chiffon and lace were often used. Violets were particularly fashionable in , and bunches of currants were another favourite trimming of this year.

Bonnet Veils Bonnet veils were worn in part as a protection against sun and dirt, in part as an added elegance for the bonnet and head. Trust us when we say this — you will be anything but bored. Experts believe that the very first item of headwear was created and used as protection against the elements i.

A Thebes tomb is the place where one of the first pictorial depictions of a hat was found. When it comes to headwear for women, it must be said that our female ancestors were expected to cover their heads with veils, kerchiefs, hoods, caps, and wimples, which means they began wearing hats simply because society said so. During the very next century, milliners i.

However, hairstyles have influenced the hat choice as well. Since the Victorian era was filled with unforgettable and quite often peculiar fashion trends, we decided to dig a little bit about Victorian hats. The Victorian bonnets had large crowns and were often trimmed with frills, feathers, artificial flowers, ribbons, lace, or some kind of fruit or vegetable. This means that the bonnet was loved and used by women of all classes. Thirty to forty years later, the bonnet was picked by women who wanted a more modest appearance.

This explains why eventually people began associating bonnets with a matronly look. Morning or breakfast caps are informal Victorian hats. These hats were worn indoors and were either extremely simple or embellished with frills and ribbons. During the last quarter of the 19 th century, bird feathers and whole birds yes, you read that right were some of the most wanted hat ornaments.