Japanese Ladies in Western-Wear

Check out these fabulous Japanese ladies in Victorian Western-wear! These are photos I took of Meiji period prints currently on display at the MET in New York. They've just added a bunch of things to the Japanese Art gallery and, let me say, it's FANTASTIC. Especially the room discussing Western influence on Japanese fashion.

Exhibiting...

So for the past week I've been working with Kiki to plan an exhibit. We've chosen seven bonnets to present in a somewhat Darwinian fashion, displaying the evolution of the bonnet from 1850 to 1890. Today I started a 2D mock-up on the wall of the bulletin boards and cases we'll be using!

Repairs!

So just a quick post regarding some minor repairs I've been making. Less talking, more photos.

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Hat Magic!

Just a quick--mildly narcissistic-- update post. The only pictures I currently have of this hat are of me on my webcam! I'll be uploading more detailed shots to this post later (once I retrieve my camera from my room).

So this gorgeous Edwardian hat is in WONDERFUL shape. The underside of the brim has velvet in nearly flawless condition. The straw upper side of the brim is a little bit warped still. The tulle top was, until recently, very flat. The flowers are still in need of some attention.

Before and after steaming the tulle!

Ageless Patterns

A great site for all things Victorian:

Ageless Patterns

This is where the books mentioned in my Victorian Hair-Do post may be purchased! I suggest checking out the website, it's really fantastic.

Poke Bonnet Update

Referring to this post on poke bonnets and the mysterious hat that may have been for either women or children.

While searching through Victorian Hats Vol. 4, I discovered a picture that leads both Kiki and I to be correct! This style of summer hat may be worn by both women and children at the beach to shield from the sun.

If you click on the picture you can get the large image, which includes the hat description at the bottom and the year at the top.

Victorians Do Do's Best

So Kiki proposed an interesting project on Monday afternoon: To attempt the hairstyles of the times with some of the wigs from the costume shop. Digging through the wigs, I could only find one that was a suitable length to imitate hairstyles from the 1800's.

It took a bit of brushing after finding it in this state, but I eventually managed to get it tame enough to work with. I'm quite grateful that it was such a nice thick wig, as these hairstyles require quite a bit of hair as well as extensions.

First I looked over our bonnets and imagined what sorts of styles might allow each one to be propped up in the proper way. Then, using both Victorian Hairdo's & Coiffures and Victorian Hats Vol. 2 and 4, I began to search for somewhat simple, but appropriate do's. I found the following:

The first was considerably easier to decipher, though I found that I didn't have nearly enough hair to get it looking exactly perfect. The first instruction was to part the hair in the center nearly all the way back like so:

It then instructs to divide the hair into two parts on either side. At first I thought it meant vertically, but after a while of trying this and failing at it, I realized it meant horizontally. The top portion of each side is then to be placed over a crepe, described in the book's glossary as being "a pad with tapered ends formerly used in women's hair styles to give the appearance of greater thickness". Well, I had none available and, as the costume shop was locked and I couldn't make one with the sewing machines, I grabbed some materials from underneath the dressing room table and improvised. My "crepes" are made from rolled up thick cotton lining tied together with rubber bands. As Spock would say "crude, but effective".

The instructions said to comb the hair over the crepe and brush it towards the back, but I found it easier to keep the crepe in by rolling it up into the hair and pinning it with bobby pins. The lower hair is then to be brushed towards the back of the head. With all the hair in the back (saving a little bit at the nape just next to the ear on either side), make a "chingon of braids".

It helps to tie the ends of the braids with rubber bands. Once you make the chingon, they will be tucked under the rest of the hair and thus no longer be visible. I only made two, as I was limited with the amount of wig hair I had, but three or four would make an even more impressive looking chingon! In the picture to the left, you can see that one of the crepes is sticking out. Don't worry about that at all, they're easy to move around, so just wiggle it forward or backward and cover it with more hair. My crepes are a little long (about 6") for this project so I would suggest making them a little shorter, perhaps 4" or 5" so that they sit along the crown from about 1/2" to 1" off the hairline in the front.

Now on to the chingon. The book instructs to "make the chingon of braids, coiled snail-wise...and finish with two Marie Antoinette curls behind the ears". Starting from the outside, curl the braids inwards, tucking the rubber-banded ends underneath the braids. If you have a thicker, longer wig, continue doing this, piling more braids around the initial chingon. Make sure to wrap one around the circumference of the coiled braids [see engraving above, not pictured in my example].

I, of course, couldn't help
but try it on with one of our 1860's bonnets!

Anyway, it came out more messy than I would have liked, but these pictures hopefully give the basic idea. If I'd been able to hairspray and curl the wig, plus add extensions, I would've had a field day! Of course, I totally had a ball doing this anyway!

Finally, I attempted two more hairstyles, which were not successful in the least, but I'll post my attempts here nonetheless! They are two different styles of chingon from the late 1800's, which prop up little hats such as the one shown, which is from the 1890s. The hairstyle is, admittedly, a little early for the hat I chose, but I love that cute little hat with all my soul.


As always, considerably more later.

The New Century

It was originally my intention to display the hats here by year, hoping to achieve some semblance of order. After my initial week of research, however, I began to realize that this will only be somewhat possible. I will most likely jump back and forth in time, though hopefully not within posts.

Some hats and bonnets have all their mysteries unlocked by the rather helpful tags pinned to them, condemning certain ribbons unoriginal to their designs or claiming another unworthy of being keptonce a more alluring sample comes along.

Our more recent additions to the collection still not only lack accession numbers, but any sort of descriptive tags. This is the task I look most forward to this week. One particular hat I was able to trace back to the department store in which it was sold: Woodward & Lothrop Importers. I had guessed the hat to be from the 1900’s and was gratified to find that the main branch of the department store opened in Washington, DC—where this particular hat is from—in 1887, justifying my guess. Kiki has suggested that the hat is from c1910 and I quite believe her.

There are many questions to ask of this hat. My first thought was “French, it must be French,” but perhaps that is simply the genius of the design, aided by the inside tag, which reads “Woodward & Lothrop Importers”, suggesting to the buyer that this is European, and therefore—to the Edwardian American, who takes all her fashion advice from stylish Europe—will make her look sophisticated, chic.

Instead of having been made in the fancy boutique in France one may be meant to imagine, perhaps this hat was commissioned by the store and simply made in bulk in a factory somewhere in the United States. (Or perhaps they had begun outsourcing at the time?) As Woodward & Lothrop closed in 1995, along with its subsidiary Woolworths, which you may remember, this question may not be answered, but I intend to look in to it.


A second hat of a similar nature has also been donated and, having looked through books of advertisements from the same period (c1910, that is). Considering the circumference of the headsize opening (see term here), both hats may have been intended for children. Fig. 524 shows an equivalent for a woman.

Another probable reason for the small circumference of the headsize opening could be that, given the hairstyles of the time, the hat could have sat upon the head instead of being pulled over the crown. Kiki believes the latter while I believe the former. Looking in the advertisement to the left, the hat does sit around the crown of the child's head.

Note the ruching on the underside of the brims of both bonnets. Relating this particular bonnet to the period is the reflection in clothing for both women in girls of layers of lace, hanging off the form (as seen below). While Harper's Bazaar declared the bonnet dead in 1892, this advertisement, from nearly ten years later clearly states that it is selling a hat in the poke bonnet style.

Furthermore, this style of bonnet seems to only appear on young women or older girls, as post adolescent women appear more often to be adorned in larger, more decorative hats.

And finally, a cute little dude in a nice big New Century hat! Enjoy!

What's in a Hat?

Thought I'd post some more interesting and useful hat information. Both scans come from a page of the following absolutely wonderful book: From the Neck Up by Denise Dreher, lent to me by Kiki.




Considerably more later!