1860 Woman's indoor cap
| ||||||||||||||||||
1858-1865 A cotton indoor cap with lace and ribbon trimming
-
The cap from the side
-
Detail of the fabric of the cap
Description
Most women wore caps indoors in the early part of the nineteenth century, but by this date the convention was less observed by unmarried younger women.
The cotton has plain stripes, ⁵⁄₁₆" wide, between stripes, ⁷⁄₁₆" wide, with diagonal lozenge motifs woven in thicker cotton and ⅛" of openwork each side; this forms the crown.
A crescent of plain cotton goes round the edges, 1¾" wide at the front widening to 2½" at the sides where the outer edges curve in to join a straight bias cut band, 2½" wide and 8" long, which goes round the back, and has a channel along its lower edge for a cotton drawstring to pull the back closer in the the wearer's head; the crown is slightly gathered in to this.
The outer edge of the plain cotton crescent has a frill of plain cotton, ⅜" wide, edged with ½" wide machine-made lace; another frill of ¾" wide cotton with the lace edging is ¾" further in on the plain cotton. The back straight section has two frills of 1½" wide plain cotton with the lace edging 1½" above the lower edge and ⅝" apart.
All round the edge of the crown, above these frills, is another frill of ½" of plain cotton joined to a strip of the patterned crown fabric, ¾" wide, with a machine-made lace edging.
A fourth frill of ¾" of cotton with the lace edging is sewn for 5" round the front between the two lower frills, and the cotton crescent base has a tiny dart ½" each side of the centre front to make the edges fan out at the top.
The cap is trimmed with pale pink silk grosgrain ribbon,1" wide, which is knotted at the centre front of the crown and has loops fanning out each side, 3", 3½" and 4¼" long. It then has a twist down the sides, and joins a knot at the centre back with two loops each side, about 2¼" long. Pale pink silk taffeta ribbon, 1⅞" wide, is also attached to the centre back and has been pinned to make a loop each side under the other ribbon and then hang in streamers 14" long on the left and 13" on the right.
Contemporary illustrations
-
Fashion plate in Le Moniteur de la Mode, September 1860
-
Fashion plate from Le Follet, April 1861
-
Portrait of a Lady in a Brown Silk Dress attributed to Johann Baptist Reiter, c.1865
_Portrait_einer_Dame_im_braunen_Seidenkleid.jpg)
Contemporary items
More caps from the Hopkins Collection can be seen in Headwear, published by The School of Historical Dress and available from the Hopkins Costume Trust bookshop.