The Beginnings
No one is truly certain where or why the tradition of wearing hats began, but ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Roman illustrations depict men and women wearing head coverings. For early hats, the rule was most certainly that form follows function. Turbans, wraps, and other caps were effective ways to keep hair clean from the grease and grime of daily life, since these “hats” were easier wash than hair. Brimmed hats protected the face and neck from the harshness of the sun and were used by men and women. However, following St. Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians that women should have their heads covered while praying, women’s hats really began to come into their own. Women began regularly wearing hoods, wimples, and mob caps indoors, and adding wide-brimmed structured bonnets to the top when going out.
The Renaissance
Art, music, literature, and architecture were not the only significant cultural developments during the Renaissance, as fashion also flourished. Clothing and hats stopped being solely functional and became more capricious. Some of the most elaborate and outlandish hats ever worn come from this period. One example is the hennin, a tall, conical hat made from silk and velvet, and draped with a veil. These tall hats could be pointed or flat on top and were worn tilted back at an angle so the veil, which emerged from the top of the hat, could drape down the wearer’s back. Other Renaissance styles include the stuffed bourrelet molded into enormous horns, beehive-shaped hats, and braids laced with pearls and covered with an elaborate wired-gauze wimple. During this time, hats became a symbol of status and wealth.
The Enlightenment
Western culture experienced a significant shift in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The Enlightenment, as this shift is called, valued reason and individualism over tradition. New fashions introduced by royalty and aristocracy began to have an influence on the middle and low classes. Fashion designers and fashion magazines began to be popular during this period and attracted the attention of all fashion-minded women. Wide skirts, called panniers, tight corsets, plunging necklines, and progressively higher and higher hair are hallmarks of style from this period. These towering tresses called for complex, almost architectural headwear. Curls were molded with wire and artfully adorned with feathers, flowers, figurines, and ribbons. In contrast, a pastoral style also appeared during this period. Many women wore “shepherdess” hats, made famous by Marie Antoinette, which were broad-brimmed straw creations decorated with wide ribbons, artificial flowers, and large plumes. Wigmakers and milliners competed with one another to create and set headwear fashions for the Enlightenment crowd.
The Romantic Age
The excesses of the Enlightenment came to a dramatic end with the cultural and social upheaval of the French and American Revolutions. Women’s hat fashions reflect this change, becoming simpler and more in line with new, middle-class values. The age of Romanticism brought chin-tied bonnets in all their many variations to the heads of women everywhere. The calash was a version of the bonnet that featured folding hoops like a covered wagon, and the poke bonnet, also called the Napoleonic bonnet, was a version of the bonnet that had a small crown and a wide, round front brim that extended far beyond the face. Adding luxurious materials such as feathers, lace, flowers, and even fruit to these and other styles communicated status. The Merry Widow was another popular style of the time. These wide-brimmed plumed hats with chiffon over wraps and decorated with rosettes and tulle were meant to look diaphanous and frothy. Their extreme width balanced the popular pompadour hairstyles and flowing skirts of the period.
During this period, millinery shops began to grow in popularity. Sewing machines made producing hats more inexpensive than ever, and advances in transportation meant hats could be shipped around the world. Major cities all featured their own large emporiums—Marshall Field's in Chicago, Bloomingdale’s in New York, and Selfridges in London—that sold ready-made and bespoke hats to an ever-expanding middle-class clientele. For women who didn’t live close enough to a big city to shop regularly, fashion magazines such as the Godey's Lady's Book (1830–1898) and catalogs from Sears and Montgomery Ward made reasonably-priced, ready-made hats easily available. Women everywhere could wear stylish, beautiful hats.
At the end of the 1800s, hat fashion expanded to include designs suited to more leisurely pursuits. Tailoring in general began to lean toward more comfortable fashions, and hats were no exception. Women could be spotted in white linen peaked caps while rowing or yachting, straw boaters while cycling, stiff felt bowlers or derbies while on horseback, fetching tam o’shanters while playing tennis, and even knit stocking caps while on the ice. These styles represented the “new woman,” who was independent, free, and politically relevant.
The Modern Age
The world wars of the 20th century brought about dramatic changes in women’s fashion. Short hair led to hats that sat closer to the head. The best cloche hats and turbans were adorned with feathers and jewels. Military styles influenced millenary designs during both wars. Designers regularly included hats, purses, and other accessories as part of their seasonal lines. During WWII, while many fashion materials were rationed, millinery materials remained available. While clothing and shoes were, of necessity, drab and worn, women boost their morale by wearing bright and cheery hats made from whatever materials were on hand. Following the war, Halston hats and the popular pillbox hat came into vogue.
While hat wearing has fallen out fashion, there are segments of the population and significant events that still call for hats. African-American women continue to wear elegant and beautiful hats to Sunday worship services. Races, such as Ascot and the Kentucky Derby, require stylish women to wear elaborate confections of ribbons, roses, straw, and tulle. And let’s not forget the spectacle of a royal wedding, where observers of all kinds come out to enjoy the festivities. Straw hats, silk turbans, and felt cloche hats for sale online put style and high fashion on the heads of women everywhere.
There’s really nothing humble about hats. Their evolution tells the story of women throughout history.
