REPORT


Hats & Hair


by Wies Mauduit


Like great nations, and depending on the period, milliners and hairdressers have sometimes been allies, while at other times they seem to be fighting each other in a bitter war. Looking back in time, however, it is clear that both hats and hairstyles have fashioned the silhouette of each period and that they are in fact complementary, even if sometimes reluctantly so. So why, if hairdressers and milliners both work to enhance the features of their clients, can’t relations between the two professions be more smooth and easy? Let’s see what we can do to bridge the gap and forge a better connection between hats and hair!


Friends or Foes?


A little knowledge Part of the discord stems from a lack of knowledge or education. For most people, including hairdressers, hats and headpieces no longer form part of everyday life and therefore they know little about the subject. Milliners in return do not always know how to provide tools to correctly attach the hat to the hair. Another difficulty is the tendency of one profession to think they are more important than the other – maybe not surprising in a field where vanity definitely plays a part! A much-heard argument from ‘anti-


hat’ advocates is that hats are seen as old-fashioned. A recent exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, ‘Des cheveux et des poils’ (‘Hair and Hairs’), gave some explanation of what might be at the bottom of this idea: “In medieval Europe, and into the early modern period, most women covered their head with a veil, hood, or headdress when outside of the home, thus conforming to norms established by the Bible and its interpreters, namely in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, written around AD 55–56. By the end of the 15th century,


november 2023 | 63 Portrait of a Lady by Rogier van der Weyden, 1460


however, veils and high headdresses were progressively replaced by simple velvet hairpieces and, increasingly, hair was uncovered.” Nowadays, apart from some religious


communities, few people believe as Paul would have it that “a woman must cover her head to pray and have long hair. Created for man, she must wear on her head a mark of authority.” (1 Corinthians 11:5–15). Though


Image: Alamy


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