Edwardian Ladies' Hat Fashions

Where Did You Get That Hat?

Peter Kimpton

• Publisher: Pen & Sword History
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781473881297
• eBook ISBN:
  9781473881310
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

This history of Edwardian fashion takes the reader on a journey of the millinery trends and social history of the era.

With superb fashion color plates of the day, together with images of amazingly creative and colorful hat pins from both the UK and America, author Peter Kimpton shares the fruits of his forty years of postcard collecting of hats as worn by Edwardian women from over one hundred year ago. Kimpton also details the amazing life story of one of the worlds greatest fashion designers, Coco Chanel, as she set out on her lifetime of fashion in Edwardian Paris.

Reflecting on the darker side of Edwardian fashion, the book delves into the carnage that took place around the world, in which unscrupulous individuals from the Northumbrian coast in England to the Everglades in America, would callously slaughter whole colonies of birds (leaving their young to die) purely to provide the millinery trade with ornate feathers to decorate fashionable hats during that era. Discussing the world of millinery sweatshops of poverty stricken New York, Kimpton describes the conditions and deprivations under which the poorly paid workers, many of them immigrants, worked.

A detailed, illustrated history, Edwardian Ladies' Hat Fashions offers fashion and history enthusiasts a revealing look at the golden age of millinery.

Appendix 1

Hats, Fashion and Textiles Around the World

Did they really used to dress like that? A question often asked. Fashion in all its many forms and from whatever period of history provides an ongoing fascination for millions of people around the planet. Indeed, we can only guess at the overall size of the world’s fashion industry today in all its forms and the contribution it brings to the international economy. For the huge number of people around the globe with an interest in period millinery, fashion in general and textiles, the following list offers details of some of the more notable fashion museums, collections and archives in the United Kingdom, North America, mainland Europe and around the world. These venues offer much to interest both locals and visitors alike and I am greatly indebted to the knowledgeable Anne Bissonnette Phd – Curator, Clothing and Textile Collection, University of Alberta, Canada for her generous input and expertise in providing this information.

United Kingdom:

Victoria & Albert Museum, London. www.vam.ac.uk

Also view – collections.vam.ac.uk

Museum of London. www.museumoflondon.org.uk

Wardown Park Museum. www.wardownparkmuseum.com

Stockport Hat Works Museum. www.stockport.gov.uk/hatworks

The Fashion Museum, Bath. www.museumofcostume.co.uk

Norwich Castle Study Centre.

www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk

North America:

The Hat Museum, Portland, Oregon. www.thehatmuseum.com

Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. www.fitnyc.edu

Philadelphia Museum of Art. www.philamuseum.org

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. www.lacma.org

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. www.mfa.org

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. www.mfah.org

Ohio State University Costume Collection. www.costume.osu.edu

University of Alberta Clothing & Textile Collection. www.ualberta.ca

Costume Museum of Canada. www.costumemuseum.com

Museum of Costume & Textile of Quebec. www.mctq.org

Royal Alberta Museum. www.royalalbertamuseum.ca

Royal Ontario Museum. www.rom.on.ca

Phoenix Art Museum, Costume Department. www.phxart.org

Texas Fashion Collection. www.tfc.unt.edu

Textile Museum (Washinton DC). www.textilemuseum.org

The Valentine Museum, Costumes and Textiles. www.richmondhistorycenter.com

de Young Museum, Textile Arts Collection. www.deyoung.famsf.org

Kent State University Museum. www.kent.edu

FIDM Museum. www.fidmmuseum.org

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Costume/Textiles. www.ridsmuseum.org

Museum of the City of New York. Fashion, Costumes and Textiles. www.collections.mcny.org

Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org

Europe:

Musée des Arts Décoratifs. www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr

Espace Mode Mediterranée. www.m-mmm.fr

Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris, Paris Galliera. www.museums-of-paris.com

Musée de L’impression sur Etoffes, Mulhouse. www.musee-impression.com

Mode Museum, Antwerp. www.momu.be

German Historical Museum. Textiles and Clothes Department. www.dhm.de

International:

The Costume Museum of Japan. www.fashionmuseum.or.jp

Kyoto Costume Institute. www.kci.or.jp

The C.P. Nel Museum, Oudtshoorn, Western Cape Province, South Africa. www.cpnelmuseum.co.za

Professional Organisations:

Costume Society of America. www.costumesocietyamerica.com

Costume Society of Great Britain. www.costumesociety.org.uk

International Council of Museums. www.icom.museum

International Textiles and Apparel Association. www.itaaonline.org

The Textile Society (UK). www.textilesociety.org.uk

The Textile Society of America. www.textilesociety.org

Appendix 2

A Century of Bird Protection

In the enduring words of one time Director of the New York Zoological Park – William Temple Hornaday, the American zoologist and naturalist who wrote in his 1913 book – Our Vanishing Wildlife:

We are weary of witnessing the greed, selfishness and cruelty of ‘civilised’ man toward the wild creatures of the earth. We are sick of the slaughter and pictures of carnage. It is time for sweeping reformation and that is precisely what we now demand.

With those sentiments to the fore and by way of conclusion, I am pleased to include the following direct contributions from both the RSPB here in the UK and the National Audubon Society of America which, in their own words, give the reader a brief insight into the early years of these organisations and reminds us all that both we and the birds are lucky to have them. Without them, the world would be a poorer place and with the sentiments of Hornaday in mind, we should be enduringly grateful for their work.

THE AUDUBON SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Just in Time

A little over 100 years ago, the conservation movement took flight… and not a minute too soon. By 1900, Americans’ belief that our continent’s wildlife was inexhaustible, had led to serious consequences. Bison no longer roamed the Great Plains, and Passenger Pigeons that had once darkened the skies for miles as they passed overhead – had been exterminated. Many other species were on the brink. Overhunting and habitat destruction were key factors. But in the case of birds something else was also at work. A new fashion had swept the nation – bird hats were all the rage.

One day while walking in Manhattan, Fra...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Enter the New Boy
• The Edwardian Craze
• Postcards by the Million
• The Merry Widow
• Goodbye ‘Bertie’
• Lucky Old Edwin
• The Eminence Noir’
• Sleepers
• Rose Tinted Spectacles
• Escape to the Seaside
• Edward Linley Sambourne
• Hatpins
• The Sting of a Hornet
• Who’s a Pretty Boy Then?
• Feather Farms and Breeders
• Ostrich Feather Palaces
• Parisian Humour
• Saving the Birds
• Absolute Butchery
• Plumassiers
• The Feather King
• Monsieur Methot
• Canada’s ‘Greatest Store’
• Maison Lemarié
• The Amazing Coco Chanel
• Paranoia?
• Lost in Time
• Down with the Hun!
• Keeping the Presses Rolling
• Gilding the Lily
• From the Trenches
• Hope for the Birds!
• Appendix 1 - Hats, Fasion and Textiles Around the World
• Appendix 2 – A Century of Bird Protection
• Appendix 3 – Museum, Fashion Archives and Societies
• About the Author