Published on 12, July, 2020
Covering ones head and or hair has been something humans have done for a very long time and seems to be about much more than warmth. I remember my Mum always weraing a headscarf, Princess Anne style, when I was a child, my Nan would never go out without a hat, I remember watching her fiddling about with her hat pins, and being convinced that she had had holes in the back of her head to stick the pins in and was wiggling the pins about trying to find them.
In medieval times people rarely went out with thier heads uncovered, loose hair was a sign of being unmarried and hair ups were something you did when married.
People still get in dreadful flaps about things like hijabs, let alone veils and covered faces, and yet this has been one of the longest commonly observed customs in human history accross cultures and countries.
Do you alwways wear a hat or head covering? What sort and why?
I'm always hatless, I'd like to be on better terms with hats, I actually look quite good in hats, but my hair disagrees, I'm sure it has invisible arms that reach up and push off any head covering. Me and my boss used to go to a large dept store of a lunch time to play with the hats as we both found it stress busting.
I tend not to but I love the tradition of dressing 'well' in the 40s and 50s where everyone wore a hat.
I spend quite a lot of time looking at old photos of how people dressed in the past (before and after the timespan I've given) and apart from when women were really restricted in what they wore, I find it pleasing.
That doesn't mean of course I'd want to squeeze my feet into high heels, stick a hat on my head and get over heated in gloves!
I feel the same Debbie, clothes back then seem to have been really well tailored and fitted, although I too would not want to have to wear high heels and gloves all the time.
TheCatWoman said:clothes back then seem to have been really well tailored and fitted,
Because this was the days where clothes weren't mass produced, and imports were far fewer, having clothes made for you could equate to buying something from a shop.
My mum was poor but occasionally had something made to fit when she was young (40s + 50s.).
My gr gr aunt was a seemstress, making clothes for people, I would of loved to have learned from her, I don't think she ever used a pattern, I remember having a piece of material held up against me at xmas and a few pins stuck in it and I'd have a new dress at easter. One of the problems with trying to make your own clothes now is finding fabric, I like to feel a fabric and when you shope online the colours aren't always true. I remember when every dept store had a haberdashery with a good range of wools, fabrics and accessories.
Irish, I don't know all the intracasies of the catholic church, is there a rule about mantilla's, is it married women, widows who wear them, at what age are women expected to wear them, are there different colours for unmarried women, married women or widows?
What sort of hats would people like to wear? I'd like a wide brimmed hat for summer and a cloche one for winter, or a baggie woolly one.
Clothes were relatively much more expensive back before the 1980's. I bought some 'T' shirts the other day that were £2-50 each, which is ridiculous, the cost of a cup of coffee in a café. My grandfather played football, briefly at the end of WWI, for the professional club Hibernian and his signing on fee was a new overcoat.