Figure 1.-- This cabinet card of an unidentified English girls shows here wearing what might be called a lace and ruffled hat turned up in front. It does not seem to be a hat decorated with lace and ruffles, but actually a fabric hat. The studio was C.F Matthews in West London.

The principal headwear worn by girls was hats. The most common hat was a rounded-crown hat with brims of various widths. Wide-brimmed hats were the most common for both women and girls. They were often highly decorated. The basic design of the hat was fairly standard. The decorations were endlessly varied. Plainer sailor hats like younger boys wore were popular in the late-19th and early-20th century. Some were plain like the ones worn by boys. Others were heavily decorated. We see some of them here, we think in the 1910s (figure 1). Note the decoration. The fancy, highly decorated hats seem very prevalent here. They seem almost comical to the midern eye, but they were the heighth of fashion in the early-20th century. Younger boys also wore sailor hats, but not the decorated wide-brimmed hats like the girls. We also note large frilly hats of varied design. We note one fancy hat that looks like a lace hat, but are not entirely sure how to describe it. At mid-century we begin to see sun hats. We also see school styles, boaters and rounded-crown styles. The rounded-crown school hats had narrow brims. While hats were very commn in the early-20th century. We no longer see headwear to any extent by the end of the century.

Created: 9:39 AM 2/16/2019
Last updated: 9:39 AM 2/16/2019