It is easy to overlook or be unaware of the strides that marginalized people made in order to enact changes in society. Sometimes, the impacts of these changes in civil rights can show up in unexpected ways.
When someone thinks of fashion, they think of factories or Milan or New York Fashion Week. In the early 20th century, women’s suffrage was being actively sought. This political and social shift was reflected in women’s fashion and accessories.
Along with the possibilities of women’s suffrage came a sense of women’s independence. Women were permitted to walk to where they needed to go, on their own. Why not look fabulous while doing it? In fashion trends, this presented itself in long hair to do up in extravagant hairstyles and to top with even more ornate hats.
Hatpins were used to hold these elaborate hairstyles in place along with the heavy decorative hats. With hats becoming larger and heavier, hat pins became longer as well- some up to 10 inches! Take a look above at some pretty floral style hatpins, not nearly as long as some recorded! But they definitely give you a sense of what these devices looked like and how they could be decorated to complement one’s outfit. The image above is featured in the May 31, 1921 edition of the Perth Amboy Evening News.
The image above is featured in the March 2, 1910 Perth Amboy Evening News. In it, you can see a headline that details some of the consequences of hatpins. In this headline, an actress attempted to use her hatpin to defend her coworker against a stage hand who had prevented the actress from getting onto stage. The stagehand claimed that the actress stabbed him and sued her for this attack.
This above image is taken from the March 8, 1910 edition of the Perth Amboy Evening News which shows Chicago’s attempt at regulating hatpins. Chicago’s city council had decided hatpins were a public nuisance… at least the ones they claim are as long as scimitars are! Women stood up at the council meeting to protest, stating that the city should not be able to regulate what women wear. Also pointing out that these hatpins were their only means of defense.
In the image below, we see a different opinion of hatpins from the head of police in Washington D.C. The head of police actually approves of the use of hatpins for defensive purposes. He does cite the fact that there may be accidents from time to time, but believes hatpins are a benefit rather than a danger. Although hatpins are largely a thing of the past (too bad, the hats were fabulous), unfortunately, the need for women to think about self-defense is not. Today, women are known to wield pepper spray or hold keys in between their fingers so that they can be quick to defend themselves if physically attacked.
The above image is taken from the March 22, 1910 edition of the Newark Evening Star and Newark Advertiser.
(Contributed by: Natalie Lau)
Source:
Fashion as liberation: Edwardian women’s hatpins. Retrieved March 09, 2021, from https://justhistoryposts.com/2018/03/07/fashion-as-liberation-edwardian-womens-hatpins/