Figure 1.--One beautiful portrait shows a girl wearing a loose, pink sashed white frock that was the English girl's equivalent of the fashionable lady's chemise dress with a straw hat (1780s). The hat was done with a huge pink ribbon rather than a chin strap. The ribbon tied into a bow and matched the wide pink sash and huge back bow worn with the dress. The artist is famed portaritist George Romney painted 1781-83.

The types and styles of girls' headwear varied with chronological periods. We see quite a range of differenr styles. Baically girls wore styles popular with their mothers, although usually not as elaborate as adult women. We have some information on the 18th century, but is primarily based on the painted portraits. Led by the French court, women might have towering, groteaqly elaborate headwear. Away from court, women had more basic headwear. Simple straw hats, especially for girls were popular. One beautiful portrait shows a girl wearing a loose, sashed white frock that is the English girl's equivalent of the fashionable lady's chemise dress with a straw hat (1780s). The hat was dome with a huge pink ribbon rather than a chin strap. The ribbon tied into a bow and matched a wide pink sash and huge back bow worn with the dress. The mumber of such paintings are miniscule compared to the photographic record that would become available. We thus have very few images comapred to the photograohic record. And because of the cost, paintings primarily depict the wealthy. We do not see destictive girls' styles. Girls' headwear is the same as worn by adults. The one exception was baby bonnets, but they were worn by both boys and girls. Girls basically wore scaled-down versions of their mothers' headwear.

Created: 9:49 PM 4/7/2020
Last updated:9:49 PM 4/7/2020