Victorian Era Hats & Hairstyles
The Victorian Era's penchant for fancy decorations extended to hairstyles and hats. Creating these fashions often required help from personal assistants and professional milliners, or hat makers.
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Hairstyles
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Victorian women favored long hair, either piled on their head in large buns or twists or styled on top with long ringlets trailing down their shoulders.
Hat protocol
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Victorian women considered it unthinkable to leave the house without wearing a hat, often paired with an elaborate hairstyle.
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Hat materials
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Usually layered on a wire base covered with straw braids or twisted fabric, Victorian hat materials included velvet, satin, cotton and tulle fabrics. Milliners also used chiffon and tulle to form narrow quilling strips, similar to modern cording.
Professional milliners
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Considered a high level of female "needle employment," professional hat makers sold both ready-made and custom-designed items. Some girls served a seven-year apprenticeship, which helped prepare them for the milliners' craft of making hats, caps, cloaks, gloves, handkerchiefs, petticoats, capes and other garments.
Accessories
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Milliners added flare and elegance to Victorian hats with plumes, ribbons and flowers. Fake hair pieces added height and depth to some hairstyles and hot irons crimped hair into attractive waves.
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