The Etiquette of Girls’ Hair Bows

But what about a giant bow on a girl’s hat? Does this send a signal of some sort??

“Girl’s Hairdo Reveals Love Life” 

Really?

As silly as the notion of romantic signals using fans was– not to mention handkerchiefs, parasols and even walking sticks– in the mid-1940’s someone came up with this handy guide for what a young woman’s hairdo signaled regarding her romantic intentions. 

One has to wonder if Ann, Betty, Becky and the other Betty, actually tried this system out to alert others as to whether they were “on the make” or not. Either way, Etiquipedia has found no evidence to back up the validity of this secret code using hair bows, but we do think it’s wonderfully creative.

Bow on the top of her head means that Ann Mitchell is “out to get herself a man.”

Bow worn in back means that Betty Dupree is “not interested in men.”

  

Bow worn on the right side indicates that Becky Brown is deeply in love.

Bow worn at left is a signal and challenge. It means Betty Chaney is “going steady.” — Life Magazine, 1944

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

The Etiquette of Changing Fashions

The new freedoms of women after World War I brought the “flappers” and their shorter hemlines, bare legs, and bare-backed dresses. These styles brought new problems in etiquette... “Several nights ago a dozen barelegged and bare-backed women surprised an exclusive west-end restaurant by appearing on the dance floor. Customers who remembered the Victorian days gasped and several of them hurriedly left ... Complaints were dispatched!”

Half Dressed Women Annoy London Police 

(By United Press) LONDON, July, 27 — The Lord Chamberlain's office was given a new problem in etiquette today, involving the appearance of women dancers without stockings. Several nights ago a dozen barelegged and bare-backed women surprised an exclusive west-end restaurant by appearing on the dance floor. Customers who remembered the Victorian days gasped and several of them hurriedly left the place. Complaints were dispatched to the Lord Chamberlain's office in an effort to force a decision on whether bare-legged women could dance in cabarets. The bare-leg fad has gained popularity among office women, tennis players and suburban shop girls. — 1931

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Early 20th C. Cotillion Fads

“These are the latest cotillion favors sent over from Paris. As you will see, Royalty has been beheaded to please French and American pleasure loving people. The favors are made of paper cut in fanciful designs with papier-mâché heads, respectively of the Emperor of Germany and the Czar of Russia, surmounting the base. The wand-like handles are made of wood round with pretty colored ribbons finished with long streamers and loops.”

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Just 18 years earlier, and 4 years prior to the start of WWI, the popular cotillion favors fad of 1910 made news, due to their unusual nature. They were ribboned  wands with the heads of Royals atop them. By 1928, both men were gone from their once powerful thrones, due to the war and the subsequent Russian Revolution, and nostalgia brought back the cotillion dances of a bygone era.

Back to Old Dances

Washington — Turning completely away from the jazz of recent years, Washington society this winter will revive the stately, old-fashioned cotillion as quite the latest and most correct thing in dancing. Debutantes who figure largely on the season’s calendar are eagerly planning lengthened frocks of frills and furbelows to match the dignified figures of the cotillion. 

They are consulting hair dressers concerning false knots of curls to attach to their bobbed locks. Invitations for the first of the affairs to be given at the Mayflower Hotel, December 10th, by the Washington Bachelors are already out. The list of the committee in charge is thickly sprinkled with honorables and generals and commanders.

All sorts of novel stunts and favors are being planned. There will be two orchestras, one imported from New York. Favors, by which the men will find their partners, will eclipse anything seen in Washington for many a day. The older members of the Bachelors’ club who are versed in the ceremonious etiquette of a former day, when society shone in stately splendor instead of scintillating jazz, will lead the younger generation through the figures of the cotillion. 

Not alone the cotillions, but the fact that many of the season’s debutantes will emerge into the social limelight with not only one coming-out party, but two, makes this season unique. Heretofore, one tea or one ball was deemed sufficient to give Miss Debbie her due, but now many of the younger set are demanding both. — Coronado Eagle and Journal, 1928

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber , is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Baffling Etiquette Starts 1919 Fad

The new fad has come as a bright light of hope to the thousands of people whose formal dinner parties have too often been ruined by the use of the wrong fork or spoon. It is welcomed by the mere man who presides at less formal affairs and is afraid to meet his wife’s eyes for fear that he is serving potatoes with a tomato spoon or asparagus with a pie fork. Indeed—many problems have been solved by the fad. 

New System For Dinners? A Boon for Guests? Come Out Even at the Finish with this New Fad!
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You Can’t Use the Wrong Fork — New Fad Decrees Hostess Shall Bring Forth Proper Implement with Each Course

Here’s help at last for the poor dinner guest who always comes up at the end of the courses with one fork too many or a spoon too few. Here’s relief from those who cross-examine in the art of eating in attempts to sell “Which Fork and When” in 12 volumes with easy illustrations. It is one of society’s latest fads. Dame Grundy has decreed: That henceforth dinner tables shall be set with linen and china —but with no silver; that there shall be no puzzle for the guests—there shall be no silver to choose from. That each individual piece of silver will be brought to the diners with the dish to which it belongs. 

The movement is not just for the relief of the helpless guest, but it is the latest thing in society. The smartest dinners of late were served without a sign of silver on the table when the guests were seated. Already where Dame Grundy reigns supreme, it is considered without style to set dinner tables with silver. The new fad has come as a bright light of hope to the thousands of people whose formal dinner parties have too often been ruined by the use of the wrong fork or spoon. It is welcomed by the mere man who presides at less formal affairs and is afraid to meet his wife’s eyes for fear that he is serving potatoes with a tomato spoon or asparagus with a pie fork. Indeed—many problems have been solved by the fad. 

Dame Grundy has remembered the dinner guest who, many a time, has complimented herself upon her artful eating and then finds at the end of the courses that she has overlooked a puzzler of a funny looking spoon. There is consideration also for those fair diners who habitually pause for the hostess to single out and lead-off with the right fork, and of course, must sip much un-wanted water. No longer will the diner have to solve the what, why, where, when and how of the foreign-looking thing which is half-fork and half jelly spoon. No longer will the guest have cause to slip a valuable piece of silver into an inner pocket and carry it away just because he picked it up, discovered his mistake, and could not get rid of it any other way. 

The timid diner can now draw a deep breath of relief, for henceforth when peas are served they will be accompanied by the “one and only” designed for the consumption of peas. It is predicted in society circles that dinner parties will become more popular under the new silverless regime. At any rate the fad has come and guests are no longer startled on entering the dining room and finding nothing but fingers to eat with.—Fresno Herald, 1919

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette and “Society’s Exquisites”

Going to parties hours after the time named— is only indulged in by those who disregard all considerations  except mistaken ideas of what constitutes “fashion;” but this notion is held by so many, that it has become, as the correspondent says, “an evil almost intolerable by those that give parties.” 

Of Interest to Polite Society

A correspondent of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser calls that paper’s attention to etiquette at parties

He thinks that something ought to be said to correct the false notion that it is polite to go to a party after 10 o’clock, even when invited for 7 o’clock. He mentions an instance of the inconveniences that arise from which occurred at an elegant party given by a prominent Buffalo citizen the other evening. Specified in the cards of invitation for the party to assemble, was 7 o’clock. The more substantial and considerate portion of the guests paid some attention to the time fixed, and arrive there shortly after the hour designated. Others came two hours after, and some of the “extra exquisite” ones did not arrive until than three hours after they were to be present. 

Our correspondent gives the names of some of our most prominent citizens, who in the spirit of true politeness, arrived a very short time after the hour named by their hosts. He truly asks that when the hour is fixed in the invitation, it is to be presumed that it expresses the wish of the giver of the party, und it is etiquette, therefore, for the invited party to pay some attention to that wish, they propone to avail themselves of the hospitality. The contrary practice— that of going to parties hours after the time named— is only indulged in by those who disregard all considerations  except mistaken ideas of what constitutes “fashion;” but this notion is held by so many, that it has become, as the correspondent says, “an evil almost intolerable by those that give parties.” – “Ladies’ Gossip” in the Daly Alta, 1867

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Walking Stick Etiquette

Some walking sticks are dashed backward and forward like lethal bayonets! So never mind if he growls; you are acting in the interests of etiquette and sound citizenship.

Canes and Sound Citizenship

Walking sticks are "In" with a greater virulence than has prevailed since the year 1898, says the London Chronicle. The West End began it with silver-topped and gold-topped ebonies (same as used by the King), and the East has taken up the tale with cherry crooks that also have metal embellishments. In the Fleet Street-Strand Monkey Crawl of promenaders, nine out of every ten male promenaders had sticks, whereas a few years back the crowd was almost stickless. 

The sticks, it may be added, are a menace, so few people having studied the art of carrying them. They are carried at dangerous angles below the armpit; also they are dashed backward and forward like lethal bayonets. When you come upon a man carrying a stick that projects from his armpit upward behind him, turn it down. Never mind if he growls; you are acting in the interests of etiquette and sound citizenship. — 1914

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia