Taking a Stand on Hats!

Where did you get that hat?

On May 6th an elderly chap who had just inherited a new job also received a new hat to go with the post. It  was carefully placed on his head by the Archbishop of Canterbury who is no stranger himself to a bit of jaunty headgear. At this point the  historians among you will surely recall the immortal words of King Frederick the Great, who grumbled that: ‘A crown is just a hat the lets the rain in’.

A rather more precise definition of a ‘proper’ hat is available for any women planning to enter the Royal Enclosure at Ascot.

Ladies must wear a hat or headpiece with a solid base of 4 inches in diameter in the Royal Enclosure. Fascinators are not permitted. Novelty hats (i.e. ones which are excessively oversized, or are promoting or marketing any product or brand) are not permitted.

In fact it is really quite remarkable to think about how much time has been squandered on making up rules about what constitutes acceptable headgear. Gender, faith, social status, race, military rank, occupation and age have all at one time or another come under the steely gaze of the self appointed hat-rule-makers. And women have, of course, so often been the ones to suffer for any transgressions, even the  slightest bending of the rules. Just think of the extreme and abhorrent punishments meted out in Iran and Afghanistan for example.

Once you start thinking about hats it’s rather difficult to know when to stop. There are so many avenues to explore, and so many questions to ask. Here in Britain, even  in the relatively recent past, for example, the ‘rules’ for wearing hats in church were entirely gendered – a firm yes for women and a definite no for men. The hat-pegs of Capel Zion in Ponthir, Gwent were specially designed for men’s top hats, famously giving rise to the description of  ‘eyes standing out like chapel hat-pegs’, which in turn was reshaped more recently into a tasteless and sexist comment to decorate horrible T-shirts. But we can leave slogans and logos for another day and spend a bit of time exploring a few of the peculiar links between women and hats.

The Hat Pin Peril

VAWG (violence against women and girls) is an acronym that we have become accustomed to seeing in 2023. The initials may be new but the violence has always been there. There has never been any enthusiasm for tackling systemic issues so women have had to find ways of protecting themselves against violent aggression. This was a growing issue from about 1880 when women were exercising their independence, taking up employment and travelling alone.

Enter the ‘Mashers’, men looking for the opportunity to force their attentions upon women, using those methods that we all know too well, from lascivious comments to physical assault. Rape alarms and pepper spray had yet to be developed.

However, from the 1880s to the end of the First World War women’s hats were large and extravagantly decorated (you can see from photographs of Emmeline Pankhurst just how much she loved a big hat). These hats, precariously perched on top of rolls of hair, needed securing. The starring role here went to  the hat pin, sharp, lethal and anything from 9 to 12 inches long. Just the thing to deter a lecherous yob. There was even a popular music hall ballad:

Never go walking without your hat pin

Not even to a very classy joint

For when a fellow sees you’ve got a hat pin

He’s very much more apt to get the point

Enthusiastic use of the hat pin began to cause moral panics in America, Australia and Europe. The media went mad and laws to limit the length of the pins were introduced. And of course women were blamed for making themselves too alluring and inviting assault. In 1912 in Sydney Australia, 60 women were jailed for refusing to pay fines issued because of their over-long hat pins. They refused to submit and threatened to starve themselves to death. This was all happening at the same time as the women’s suffrage movement and the influence was clear.

Hats Off!

The large and ornate hats were decorated with all kinds of stuff, even fruit, but one woman made it her business to challenge the fashion for including ornate and expensive feathers. Etta Lemon was a conservationist who railed against ‘murderous millinery’ for fifty years. She was not a friend to the suffragettes, whose hats were very extravagant. ‘Her slogan was ‘Wear no feathers’ and she was a founder member of the RSPB (although the senior male scientists later sacked her and removed the records of her achievement).

The fashion for hats changed after the war as bobbed hair became popular and cloches, berets and turbans were the trend, but from the 1920s to the late 1950s, there was still a general expectation that women would wear a hat or a headscarf outdoors and for church attendance (it was actually 1967 before the Catholic Church lifted the requirement for women to cover their heads in church).

But there were always rebels.

Concha Mendez a Spanish artist, was told by her mother that if she went outdoors without a hat the local people would throw rocks at her. Mendez responded by saying that if that happened she would use the rocks to build a monument to herself. She later became a member of Las Sinsombreros,  women committed to going without hats. Their surreal suggestion was that if they were ordered to wear a hat they would carry a balloon and place the hat on it.

Hold on to Your Hats!

Hats might have been loathsome objects to some, but for others they have been an expression of protest. The Phrygian Hats  or ‘Bonnets de La Liberte’ were worn by French and American revolutionaries in the 18th Century. Berets were worn by the French Resistance fighters in the Second World War and later by revolutionary groups like the Black Panthers. More recently, the pink ‘Pussyhats’ took America by storm as a way of showing contempt for Donald Trump’s sexism (though the very fact that the hats were pink caused some controversy) and rainbow hats at the World Cup in Qatar were worn as a gesture of solidarity.

The Violet Protest Craftivist Movement in America, which uses textiles to express dissent, has a mission to provide a politically inspired felted witches hat for every member of Congress. Make of that what you will, but they produce interestingly strange work, focusing on the colour violet because it takes the ‘n’ out of ‘violent’.

Old Hat

The range of head coverings for women has been huge: wimples, fascinators, hennins, bobble-hats, coifs, bonnets, pillboxes, boaters and beanies - there are hundreds of shapes and sizes. They can provoke ridicule, contempt, admiration, oppression, awe, hatred and envy. There are references in the bible,  magnificent portraits in galleries and specimens in museums. There are songs about hats, detailed literary descriptions, photographs and films. As you can see from these ramblings, it’s difficult to stop thinking about them once you have started. And as a postscript, it must be said that the awful conditions endured by 19th century milliners deserve to have a completely separate blog.

But that way madness lies, so for now it’s time to hang up the hat.