THE  SOCIAL  HISTORY  OF  FLATBUSH


by Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt

1887


HATS AND BONNETS

    There is in this present day an improvement in the covering worn upon the 
head. Hats and bonnets are more tasteful and pretty than those formerly worn. 
For children the Normandy cap is comfortable and child-like, as also are the 
round straw hats worn in summer. The shady hats used by young ladies and the 
stylish shapes of their dress hats, are also very picturesque and becoming. 
Even the bonnets of elderly ladies, when not overladen with trimming, are 
more tasteful than the poke bonnets formerly worn. [my dictionary illustrates 
a poke bonnet]

    When children were out at play in the summer they wore gingham 
sun-bonnets; as these were made over stiff pasteboard, they were heavy and 
very uncomfortable. A child has been many a time punished for throwing off 
these scoops in its out-door games, when the fault really lay with the parent 
who required the child to wear such an uncomfortable covering upon the head.

    The elaborate bonnets worn some 30 years ago consisted of a front piece, 
a crown, and a cape at the back of the neck; they were varied in their 
general outline every season-- the front flared more or less, the crown was 
at a greater or less angle of inclination, the cape was very full and deep, 
or it was scant; it was plain or it had frill trimming. the face trimming in 
these fanciful results of the milliner's art was an elaborate, semicircle of 
lace, ribbons and flowers. There were generally tabs of lace against the 
cheeks, and flowers above the forehead; or there were lace and flowers 
intermingled at the sides, and bows of pink, blue or yellow ribbon above, 
alike the keystone uniting the arch. These bonnets met under the chin, and 
were tied there with broad ribbon, but, in some of the senseless changes of 
fashion, were worn so far back upon the head that the strings were useless; 
the bonnet almost rested upon the back of the neck, and if it was not apt to 
drop off, it had at least that appearance.

    There is a picture of Queen Victoria in one of these large bonnets, of 
the style when they were drawn forward over the face.

    On or about 1835 a covering for the head, known as a caleche [a variation 
of calash, a bonnet resembling the folding top of a two-wheeled carriage], 
was much worn while walking or driving. These were somewhat in shape of a 
gig-top. They were made of reeds covered with silk; black was the color for 
elderly ladies, green for young ladies; they were lined with white. When laid 
aside, they were perfectly flat; when worn, they were drawn forward over the 
face with a ribbon fastened on both sides about three inches from the top, 
which was held in the hand.

    A writer in "Scribner's Magazine" for August 1879, on New York fashions 
in 1814-1830, says: "Chip and Leghorn bonnets were the favorites for summer 
wear. Twenty dollars, or even more, were paid for an untrimmed Leghorn 
bonnet. But then we expected a nice thing, once bought, would last a long 
time; our bonnets were done over and retrimmed, and came out again as good as 
new next season -- or, if we were of a frugal mind, for several seasons.

    "...Merino or raw-silk underwear, or anything resembling it, hadnot yet 
been heard of.

    "...Merino long shawls, with a broad border at the ends, and a narrow one 
along the length, came up during the war, and were considered a part of a 
nice toilet. At first they were white, but black and scarlet soon appeared.

    "Tortoise-shell combs and thread-lace were among the desirable 
possessions of ordinarily well-dressed people; of jewels we heard but little. 
A person had a set of pearls, perhaps, or sometimes you saw a ruby or a 
diamond finger-ring, but precious stones of a high rank were very infrequent."

    Water-proof  cloaks, whether of the rubber silk or the water-proof cloth, 
were unknown until within the last 20 years. They are now almost a necessary 
part of a lady's outfit, and we hope there may be some significance in the 
fact that these modern inventions of women's wear are in the direction of the 
comfortable and the useful.

    The long trains and tieback style of overskirt which are at present worn 
may soon be followed by some other absurdity; but it is, at least, a cause 
for congratulation that that which is fantastic and arbitrary does not retain 
its hold as long as that which is natural and graceful.

    Now that intercourse between this country and Paris is so easy and frequent, 
the fashions of France are adopted almost as quickly here as they obtain 
favor abroad.

    In the beginning of this century, instead of the fashion-plates, with 
their full directions as to the changes in costume, a doll was dressed in 
Paris in the height of the prevailing mode, and sent by the "regular 
fast-sailing packet" to the mantua-makers in New York as a model to be copied.

    As early as 1712, these dolls, dressed in the fashion of the period, were 
sent from Paris to London; it was by this means that the changes of fashion 
were introduced before steam opened up the facilities for constant 
intercourse. We have a vivid remembrance of the old age of one of these 
fashionable mantua-makers in New York. When the dress had changed as to 
style, the dressmaker sold the doll to one of her customers, and "Miss Nancy 
DAWSON" passed into the obscurity of humbler dollies who had never been sent 
as ministers plenipotentiary from the court of fashion.

    Let us hope that in time women will not be subservient to the dictates of 
French modistes, but will select for themselves that which is healthful, 
becoming, tasteful, and simple.



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