Head-Gear, Antique and Modern

What we wore on our heads tells the story of who we were. This delightful Victorian survey traces headwear from the pharaohs of ancient Egypt through the crowned brows of European nobility to the elaborate confections crowning the streets of 1890s Paris. Wadleigh approaches his subject with the taxonomic rigor of a natural historian, classifying each era's headwear as though cataloging specimens: the linen crowns of Egyptian priests, the steel helms of medieval knights, the vertiginous pinnacles of Elizabethan ruffs, and the modest bonnets of Victorian wives all receive their due. The book reveals how hat language encoded rank, religion, wealth, and region, a tradesman's cap declared a man's calling as surely as a coronet announced his blood. For lovers of fashion history, material culture, or anyone who finds it marvelous that humans once devoted entire professions to decorating their craniums, this book offers a charming window into centuries of human vanity and social order.