The Victorian Milliner: The Women Who Created Fashionable Hats and Bonnets

The Victorian Milliner: The Women Who Created Fashionable Hats and Bonnets

Today I want to continue our look into Victorian jobs. This time I want to take a look at the Victorian milliner.

A milliner was someone who designed, made, trimmed, and sold hats, bonnets, and other headwear, that were mainly for women. In Victorian Britain, hats often showed a person’s social status, wealth, and of course fashion sense.

The word milliner  originally referred to merchants who sold luxury goods that were imported from places like Milan. Gradually, it came to be more associated with hats and bonnets.

During the early Victorian period, bonnets had become very popular. They were elaborately decorated with ribbons, lace, silk flowers, feathers, and sometimes even beads or jewels. A milliner would start off with a basic bonnet or hat frame. They were  made from things like straw, buckram, or wire. They would then be carefully shaped and decorated with trims, all by hand. This needed amazing patience, skill, and a good eye for detail.

Many milliners were women and it was one of the more socially accepted jobs for Victorian women. There weren’t many jobs that were considered respectable for Victorian women. It was believed a woman’s proper place was in the home. Respectability was hugely important and was closely associated with being modest and “ladylike,” so jobs that involved physical labour or working with men were often frowned upon. Jobs like teaching, sewing, nursing, or domestic service were all seen as more suitable because they were more like traditional female roles. Poorer women though, often had to work in any role they could find, regardless of whether society approved.

 

Some milliners worked in small family businesses or even owned their own shops, but others were employed in city workshops. In large cities like London, fashion was huge. Wealthy customers expected the very latest fashions which could change quickly. Fashion magazines and high society strongly influenced what was en vogue. If a duchess or lady wore a particular style of hat the demand could rise overnight. Just like trends today, which can change like the wind and are often influenced by famous people. It seems that some things never change.

But behind the glamour was very hard work. Many milliners worked long hours, especially during busy seasons. Some of these young women started working as a milliner as an apprentice in their early teens. They learned how to sew, trim, shape, and about customer service. The working conditions were not great, they could be cramped with poor lighting.

There was also the pressure to keep demanding customers happy. Wealthy clients could be very particular, they wanted the finest materials, the most fashionable designs and they wanted high quality.

Later in the Victorian era into the Edwardian era larger hats became popular with increasingly dramatic decorations. Sadly, this growing demand for feathers also contributed to the hunting of birds for fashion.

 

You may have heard the phrase “mad as a hatter.” In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, some hat makers used mercury when making felt hats. Breathing in the fumes over time could make them ill. It could cause shaking, memory problems, mood changes, and strange behaviour. This is where the phrase “mad as a hatter” is believed to come from.

 

Do you think Victorian milliners were artists as much as they were tradeswomen?