Re: gloves: a kickback to the Victorian thing of never being tanned; it meant you worked! Same reasoning behind always wearing a hat. A LADY did not get tanned from working in the sun. Some women took arsenic in tiny doses to give them that really pale look. The ideal was to be really pale with your blue veins showing through your skin. Sharon C.
-----Original Message----- From: h-costume-boun...@indra.com [mailto:h-costume-boun...@indra.com] On Behalf Of Linda Walton Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2011 9:40 AM To: Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] Not tying your bonnet strings ? Thank you, Elizabeth W. and Sharon C. - I never realised that wearing a hat could have so many implications! I wonder if the idea is modern of "doing honour to the occasion" by wearing a hat, which seems to be coming back into custom and not just fashion. When I wore a hat as part of my school uniform, ( yes, a very long time ago), I would have been grateful for ribbons. In Summer terms, I must have covered many miles with one hand holding it on my head; Autumn and Spring terms were not so bad, since our school Winter coats had an especially wide hood to cover the hat, and that tied with a gathering string. Thinking back, we must have looked very sweet . . . There were certainly rules about never being seen out of doors without your hat - nor your gloves, (brown leather for Winter, white cotton for Summer). Was there some ettiquette behind glove-wearing too? Linda On 19/11/2011 01:25, Elizabeth W wrote: > I actually recall reading a mid 19th century ettiquette manual which > specifically states that when paying a formal call you don't take your > bonnet off unless sincerely pressed to do so by your host/ess as it's > essentially a sign that you are planning on staying for a while (and > formal calls were supposed to be no more than 15-20 minutes). I've > used the analogy of taking your shoes off in a modern context which > would be interpreted as 'making yourself at home'. A bonnet is not > something you whip on and off every time you move from inside to > outside. > > Elizabeth > > On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 9:36 AM, Sharon Collier<sha...@collierfam.com> wrote: >> Interesting. I wear a bonnet at the Dickens Christmas Fair and I >> often do not tie my bonnet under the chin, but rather lower down. I >> do this purely for practical reasons---it makes the bonnet so much >> easier to get on and off. We have to be going from "inside" to >> "outside", depending on where we are at the fair and just being able >> to pop it on without struggling with the ribbons is so much easier. I >> will add that mine is balanced so that I do not "need" the ribbons or a hatpin to keep it on. >> Sharon C. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
