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So, Trystan actually started this post but titled it “Kendra will explain the thing about 18th-c. straw hats & ribbon ties.” I guess that’s the joy of being editor-in-chief: she gets to actually assign me homework! And it’s true, it’s something I have complained about in the past on this here blog — it’s literally one of the top errors I pointed out for 18th-century costume during our very first Snark Week. But apparently memories are bad — for all of us! Because I was all set to say it’s more of a reenactorism than something we see constantly on screen, but then I went looking for examples and found FAR TOO MANY, so allow me to explain my problem with dorky ribbons on straw hats in the 18th century:
This looks dumb:
Why? Because while they no doubt exist, 100% of the 18th-century images I can find show any hat ribbons attached UNDERNEATH the hat, NOT yoinking down the sides of the hat:
POST OVER.
Okay, I’ll rant a bit more.
Seriously, people. I literally went through every relevant category I could think of on Wikimedia Commons: straw hats in art. Paintings of peasants. I COULDN’T FIND ANYONE WITH HAT RIBBONS ON TOP OF THE HAT.
The ubiquitous “bergère” (shepherdess) hat? Nope:
Fancy lady painted as a bucolic peasant? Nope:
Idealized peasant in a pastoral landscape? Nope:
1770s, when the hats often curved AROUND the tall hairstyles into the shape we seem to imagine implies yoinked-down-by-ribbon sides? Nope:
Women living in rural areas? Nope:
Late in the century, when the faux-peasant look invaded high fashion with the paintings of Vigée le Brun? Nope:
ACTUAL FRICKIN’ PEASANTS? NOPE:
What I WANT to see on screen is this:
Instead what I get is this:
When IS it okay? I was all set to snark this image of Vivien Leigh as Emma Hamilton in That Hamilton Woman (1941):
Except I looked at the real painting of the real person they were copying, and there’s a SCARF (not ribbons!) tied over the hat:
Ditto Beloved Sisters (2014):
But then I saw this very-late-18th-century image:
So, MAYBE if it’s a scarf and MAYBE if it’s at the very end of the 18th century. But I’m pretty sure the whole look comes from someone at Colonial Williamsburg in 1955 looking at 19th-century bonnets and getting confused.
Do 18th-century straw hats tied on with ribbons bug you as much as it bugs me? Discuss.
Having tried to balance an 18th century replica bergère on top of my head without hat pins, ribbons were the only thing that kept it from sliding off the poufy wig. So I understand why costuming people do that, but maybe someone needs to remind the costuming/hairdresser folk that long-ass hat pins are a necessity. I kind of like the scarf over straw hat look as in the Romney painting. I imagine the real life Marie Antoinette doing that with lace just because she could afford it. I suppose this is one of those details that is the secret sauce in determining historical accuracy.
They could also cheat and attach hair combs to the underside to better secure it. I did that for a friend’s short film – hot glued hair combs to the underside of the hat and then shoved them into the leading lady’s updo to keep it on her head.
That late 18th century style went by a rather unfortunate name, nowadays we would say a traveler or Roma hat. It’s more of an early 19th C thing: https://candicehern.com/regency-world/glossary/gypsy-hat/
There’s also the Pamela hat/bonnet:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chapeau_%C3%A0_la_Pam%C3%A9la_-_Costume_Parisien,_1801-2.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
I rather like this portrait as an example of the late 18th century Pamela style hat.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henrietta_Marchant_Liston_(Mrs._Robert_Liston)_A14809.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
Is this the cousin to derpy bonnets? :)
I had a joke right on the tip of my tongue, but then I hit THE KENT CHRONICLES and for some reason it was lost without a trace…
SCRABBLES ABOUT THE FLOOR –
Aha! There it is, “Don’t you know? Hat pins are a historic myth refuted by CINEMA, just like the idea that the pyramids were NOT built by bored Extraterrestrials!”
I’m pretty sure that even Felicity, the American Girl doll/character, wore her straw hat a lot better than some of these unfortunate examples (the movie screenshots I saw are a bit dark, but I don’t see any yoinking going on either)
It may comfort Kendra to know that the straw hats sold to tourists in Colonial Williamsburg have proper ribbon ties under the hat.
I think you’re right on the money with suspecting this originated with Colonial Williamsburg. Here’s an actual historical example of the ribbons pulled tightly under the chin. I think it might be the only example I’ve ever seen. https://emuseum.colonialwilliamsburg.org/objects/31668/
Was Sarah Allen cross-dressing? it would be fab it that was the case!!
Just a rather plain woman in her mid 30s, dressing a bit too young for her age. The scraped-back hairstyle is v unflattering. She’d have looked better with a softer hairstyle of later 18C.
“Do 18th-century straw hats tied on with ribbons bug you as much as it bugs me?” No, although tied behind does look cooler, but I take your point, and anyway I love it when F.F. mistresses get furious about something; makes me feel more entitled to my own obsessions.
Half of Snark Week is just our random pet peeves!
The other half consists of some truly feral imps of mischief!😈