So here it is…my favorite hat in the exhibition. It feels a little sacrilegious to say this as this hat is actually on loan from the Hereford Museum and Learning Resource Centre (If I could do a second blog on the incredible costume collection housed there I would; Over 8000 items!). I do happen to…
Category: Hats & Bonnets
18th century hats and bonnets
Beautiful Bonnets – 19th Century
The time has come for less talk, more bonnets… An 1840s purple-brown silk velvet with a lining of cream silk stamped with the makers name ‘Miss Lincoln, milliner, Broad Row, Yarmouth.’ The complicated plait work on this 1840s bonnet was extremely fashionable during this period. The bonnet below is made from horsehair, cotton and straw….
Bergère and Bonnets – Part II
The Commodification Of Straw… The fashion for straw amongst the European aristocracy was born out of a romantic idealism for the rural existence of the lower classes. The popularity of straw as a material was also due to its practicality and durability against the elements whilst ladies went walking or visiting (See the 1750’s example…
Pandora – or what happened before Vogue
Before Vogue and before The Sartorialist how on earth did Georgian ladies keep up with the fashions across the Channel?? Meet the Pandoras (pictured)…the miniature dolls that were sent over from France in the eighteenth century to keep the Georgian fashion pack in the know about the latest trends, in every detail. These dolls were considered to be more…
Bergères and Bonnets – Part I
One of the earliest hats in the Snowshill costume collection is a mid 18th c. Bergère hat. To the modern eye this hat appears a bland piece of head wear when we think of Georgian fashions; images of the excessive fashions of Marie Antoinette and the Duchess of Devonshire are immediately conjured but thanks to objects such as this beautiful hat…
The Hidden Wardrobe 