A well-dressed woman of any age wore a hat during the Victorian age.
Queen Victoria's era, from 1837 to 1901, was a period during which nearly all women and girls from the queen down to the lowliest scullery maid wore hats every day. Some women wore hats during the night too in the form of loosely fitted nightcaps. Perhaps maintaining very long hair was the reason for hat wearing, perhaps it was just a matter of custom or fashion, but society's observers expected to see a hat on every female head unless she was in her own home.
Bonnets
Bonnets, sunbonnets, gardening bonnets and Sunday bonnets were precursors to the huge hats associated with the Victorian period. The style remained popular among older women and in more conservative circles until the late 1800s. Patterns for bonnets may have crowns and brims of varying sizes, depending on the use and degree of formality desired. Materials for bonnets vary from velvet and silk to homespun, and dressy, formal bonnets may be decorated with flowers, bows, feathers and more. Bonnet patterns are available in the costume section of most pattern catalogs and from Internet vendors.
Picture Hats
As the Victorian period progressed, the variety and size of hats expanded until there were dozens of popular styles; however, the picture hat, the very wide brimmed, shallow crown hat, is the one most often associated with elegant Victorian women. Beginning with a wire frame supported by buckram or straw, the Victorian picture hat can be embellished with everything from ribbons to fruit to feathers to whole birds. Tulle, veiling, chiffon and other diaphanous materials were highly favored among Victorian ladies. Classes in Victorian hat making are available at art schools and universities as well as online. Online vendors and hobby stores sell patterns, directions and materials.
Boaters, Fedoras and More
Toward the end of Victoria's reign, more women were participating in activities such as cycling and tennis. Each fashionable recreation required an appropriate hat, and the enormous picture hat was replaced with much smaller fabric or straw hats, sometimes modeled after popular men's hats, but of course, decorated in a feminine fashion. These smaller, simpler creations often were designed to rest at the top of a woman's head with a distinct forward tilt. They required just as many hatpins as their larger predecessors. You can find these hats illustrated online and in costume catalogs.
Turbans and Toques
At the end of the spectrum furthest away from the picture hat was the little toque, a small, wrapped hat made of straw or fabric. It was worn at the top of the head and decorated modestly with flowers. The much larger turban style hat was also a wrapped style that reached great heights of a foot or more. Usually made of fabric, the turban could also be embellished with veiling, huge feathers and jewels. Of all the Victorian hats, some critics believe the turban was the most sophisticated, probably because of the height it added to a woman wearing the newest slender garments at the turn of the 20th century.
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