COLUMN by Clair Hughes


Six Hats and a Cap


A photographic mystery of the 1880s


This postcard size photograph of the 1880s, professionally mounted on a thick green card with a gilt edging, was given to me by my friend Dr Jane Whetnall, who takes a lively interest in my hat pursuits. She found it in the north of England in a shop in the Yorkshire Dales selling local mementos and artefacts, so the country garden setting and the people are probably local too. What struck Jane was the dramatic hats. The three young women in the back row


and the woman at the centre front seem to have bought their hats from the same milliner, choosing similar versions of the ultra- fashionable ‘three-storeys-and-a-basement’ hat – so called because of its towering layers of ornament. The style appeared in 1884 and only lasted about four years – probably it could go no higher. It looked like an inverted flowerpot with a turned-up brim, but in fact its shape was hardly visible for the mass of ribbons, feathers and flowers designed to add to its height. However, the two girls on either end of the front row – who look younger – have wider- brimmed hats supporting a more dispersed set of trimmings. This lower-crowned style came in in the late ’80s, so the photograph could be dated to about 1888. Of the four men, only one at the end of the back row, in a light checked suit, is hatted: his matching, rather sportif cap looks oddly informal. His hatless companions (brothers?) are in black; the older man wears a business suit. Being bareheaded, these three would recently have been indoors. But what does the photograph


commemorate? The formal line-up and the terrific hats indicate a wedding; but why then do they look so miserable? There is no hint of bridal white, no veil, no headdress – only the hats


suggest celebration. The absence of a bridal bouquet seems to rule out a wedding as all weddings have flowers, surely? But look more closely. The young lady in the centre of the front row is actually clasping a tiny posy of flowers and the two girls on either end have flowers pinned to the front of their elegant costumes. The sad man behind the lady with the posy has a flower in his buttonhole – so are they not Bride, Groom and Bridesmaids? If this is a wedding, it is a very subdued


one. What lies behind the photograph? Bride and groom are in black; has someone died? Perhaps in the groom’s family, as the man in the business suit looks like the bride’s father? The two young women with their hands on his shoulder are maybe the bride’s sisters, the other sad young man in black – the groom’s brother and Best Man? Mourning etiquette at this period was relaxing but six months’ mourning- black for close relatives of the deceased was considered correct, and applied to daughters or sisters-in-law. Family celebrations during this period would be low-key. The girls, however, might have felt there was nothing in the rules against pretty hats.


And what about the dashing


fellow in the cap? He has his hand on the prettiest bridesmaid’s shoulder, so I guess he is her ‘young man’, invited to join them at the last minute to cheer them all up. All this is speculation, of course – but how else to explain the mystery of Six Hats and a Cap?


february 2022 | 59 Photo: Ellen Logan


Clair Hughes is an independent scholar. She previously held the position of Professor of English and American Literature at the International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan. She is the author of Hats (2017), Dressed in Fiction (2005) and Henry James and the Art of Dress (2001)


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