Gilded Age Hat Tipping Fashion

Gilded Age Fashionistas claimed bragging rights! – What the girls are now doing … A San Francisco invention that has caught on in New York and Chicago…

TIP THEIR HATS

It is the fashion in the East now for girls to tip their hats by way of salutation.

The New York damsels were the first who had the courage to expose their pre- cious bangs to the elements whenever they met a friend. Then the Chicago girls followed their example, and now the fashion has reached San Francisco.

Etiquette has not yet asked ladies to tip those dainty little creations, all lace and feathers, nor yet the towering flower-gardens that are the bane of our theaters. The hat that girls tip is a special headgear, warranted to be put on and taken off easily, and to stand hard wear and tear. It was patented by a San Francisco firm, so that for once we can claim the glory of having dictated fashion to the East.

Untrimmed the hat looks a sort of cross between a cook's cap dyed black and a man-of-war’s man's hat. It is only when examined conscientiously that its entire originality is discovered. Upon a circular band of straw, an inch and a half in depth, is posed a plate of fine chip straw about ten inches in diameter. The front of the band is pleasingly ornamented with a strong peak of glazed leather, which can be firmly grasped and used to raise the hat, without any injury to the entire construction.

The hat has quite a rakish appearance when trimmed. This is usually done by encircling the band of straw with ribbon and velvet and gracefully tilting up one side of the brim, with flowers or a plume of feathers. –San Francisco all, 1893

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Gilded Age Fasion Attire Etiquette

In the gilded age, women of means changed clothing several times a day. When traveling abroad, women and men with money could expect to change clothing several times during a day. A woman would need daily; a morning dress, a day dress, a tea gown, a dinner gown and a combing or morning jacket.

The Line of Demarcation

One of the most encouraging signs of the times is that the line of demarcation between house and walking costumes is growing more and more distinct. The canon of good taste in this respect has been notoriously disregarded, even by those who might have been supposed to know better. Bright colors, it is true, are still to be seen on the streets, but women with refined feeling have set their faces like a flint against the use of them, and choose tints of the least conspicuousness for out-door toilettes.

On the other hand, home and ceremonious dress increases in richness. This is in accordance with the eternal fitness of things. It is the high prerogative of woman to adorn herself for the home and drawing-room, where she holds intercourse with her equals in the social sphere; and it is equally her province to be modest and inconspicuous in her best attire, where she comes in contact with the promiscuous crowd, who may jostle her at every turn.-New York Commercial Advertiser, 1886

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

Gilded Age Bloomer Etiquette

Bloomers were quite fashionable for the newly created cycling set, among other fads and cultural trends for younger women, during the gilded age. Cycling gave young women a freedom they had not felt before and wearing bloomers, or pants, were part of that freedom. They were not welcome in many business or social settings, however. Image source, Pinterest

Explaining the Etiquette of Bloomers

It is not denied that woman has a right to wear bloomers or anything else that may suit her fancy, but she mustn’t complain if a man insists that she shall wear skirts in his office, just as she insists that he shall wear a coat in her dining-room. A San Francisco woman is suing a dentist for $250.00 because though he had engaged to put her teeth in good condition when she appeared before him in skirts, he wouldn’t even look into her mouth when she came to his office in bloomers. 

It wasn’t so much that he couldn't stand the trousers himself; he could, because he was quite used to them, having a few pairs of his own, but there were others in the office who would be shocked by them and so he spoke quite harshly to her, just to show her and the others that he was posted on bloomer etiquette. It seems that bloomers on the street, or in the park, are all right, but they don't go in a dentist’s office – if there are other women present.— Expositor, Volume XXXI, August 1897 

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

Gilded Age Resort Sojourn Fashions

“Every watering place demands a different set of dresses. Richfield and Sharon demand cool, fresh ‘cottons,’ as our English friends call them. Saratoga demands everything, from the elaborate Valenciennes, Maltese or Breton, with India mull and ribbons, up to the magnificent gauze with satin and brocade. Newport demands thick silks and wraps, and carriage dresses, dinner dresses and evening ball dresses, morning dresses of every shade…” American or European Dress from 1888 – Public domain image from the Metropolitan Museum

Pity the Slaves to Fashion

Mrs. Sherwood, who is usually authority on clothes and manners, says in her latest letter, after speaking of the large outfits ladies must prepare for summer resort sojourns:

“Every watering place demands a different set of dresses. Richfield and Sharon demand cool, fresh ‘cottons,’ as our English friends call them. Saratoga demands everything, from the elaborate Valenciennes, Maltese or Breton, with India mull and ribbons, up to the magnificent gauze with satin and brocade. Newport demands thick silks and wraps, and carriage dresses, dinner dresses and evening ball dresses, morning dresses of every shade and of thickness, batiste, momie cloth, camel's hair, cashmere and barège, the tussore silks, the endless varieties of foulards (and could one see the ladies driving in the park of an afternoon they could see foulards of such an alarming and splashed pattern that they would fear that the well-dressed creatures had been under a shower of whitewash), all these are needed in the most variable of summer climates. 

“Mount Desert demands another set of garments. The percales, the cambrics, the woolens, the heavy ulster, the light cloak, the flannel, the yachting suits. Then come the bonnets. We must have one good one for church and several poor ones for every day; we must have a hat with yellow plumes and one crowned with poppies. These for the every-day, one for horse watering-places. But we must have an ‘edition deluxe’ for Newport, and two dozen of each for Saratoga. Then a good brown straw for traveling and a black bat for rainy days. And having got all these, how many boxes will it take to hold them?” –San Jose Herald, 1888

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

Gilded Age New Year’s Fashions, 1883

It is not in good taste to wear low-necked or sleeveless dresses for the daytime. It is done by brides on their wedding day sometimes, but for receptions or on New-Year’s scarcely ever in these latter days. It once was the foolish fashion. Indeed, the range of dress proper for this unique occasion is a wide one. One only custom is peremptory— a lady must wear gloves.

“Le jour de l’an,” as the French call it, is, indeed, the principal day of the year to many who still keep up the custom of calling and of receiving calls— a custom which has been in danger of falling into desuetude, through the size of the city and its immense growth of population, in New York. There are, however, other towns and “much country” (as the Natives say) outside of New York, and there are warm hearts and hospitable boards in it still, where the happy and the light-hearted, the gay and the thoughtful, will meet and exchange wishes for a happy New-Year.

To those who will receive calls, we would say that the best plan is, if possible, to have every arrangement made two or three days before New Year’s, so that the lady, or ladies, will not feel flurried, as calls begin early, even at eleven o’clock, if the caller means to make a goodly day of it. A lady should have her hair dressed for the day when she rises, and if her dress be not too elaborate, put it on then, so that she be not upstairs but down in the parlor when the first of the gentlemen callers arrive. 

In regard to the question of dress, as to what to wear, we should say that for elderly ladies black velvet, or black satin, or any of the handsome combination dresses so fashionable now, with handsome laces, with always a pair of Swedish gloves (of pearl or tan color, not white kids; these are decidedly rococo, and not in fashion), would be appropriate. A black satin, elegantly made up with beaded passementerie, is perhaps the handsomest dress for anybody. Brocaded silk, plain gros-grain — any thing even which a lady would wear at the wedding reception of her daughter is allowable, although the plainer dresses are in better taste.

For young ladies nothing is so pretty as a dress of light cashmere and silk, made high. These dresses, in the very pretty tints worn now, are extremely becoming, warm-looking, and appropriate for a reception, when the door is being thrown open often. White dresses of thick silk or cashmere, trimmed around the neck with lace, are also exceedingly elegant. In all countries young married ladies are allowed to be as magnificent as a picture of Marie de Medicis, and can wear on New-Year's Day rose-colored and white brocaded silk, pearl trimmings, or plain ciel blue, or prawn-colored silk over white, or embossed velvet, or what they please, so that the dress is cut high, with long sleeves to the elbow; and each lady should have near her an ermine cape or small camel's-hair shawl in case of draughts. 

It is not in good taste to wear low-necked or sleeveless dresses for the daytime. It is done by brides on their wedding day sometimes, but for receptions or on New-Year’s scarcely ever in these latter days. It once was the foolish fashion. Indeed, the range of dress proper for this unique occasion is a wide one. One only custom is peremptory— a lady must wear gloves.

Whilst much magnificence is allowable, still a plain black or dark silk dress, if well made, with fresh ruffles at neck and wrist, is quite as proper as anything else, and men generally admire it more. But where a lady has several daughters to receive with her, she should study the effect of her rooms, and dress the young ladies in prettily contrasting colors, now so easily and cheaply done since the pretty merinos have come in in the fashionable shades. Short dresses are usually worn in these materials. Imported dresses are now so cheap and so easily obtained that a mother with many daughters can not do better than to buy what the economical French make up for their jour de l'an dresses. They have no idea in France of our extravagant way of doing things. — Harper’s Bazar, 1883 

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

Gilded Age Bathing Fashion

Larking about with a “ride” on the beach, two young women in their proper sea bathing attire.— Manners, Culture and Dress of the Best American Society detailed the fabric and shape of the garment, which “should be made of flannel.” A “gray tint” was advisable because “it does not soon fade and grow ugly from contact with salt water.” The “best” style was either a “loose sacque” or “yoke waist.” The dress was belted at the waist, and the skirt reached “mid way between the knee and the ankle.”

- Image source, Etiquipedia private image library

At the Newport shoreline, Bailey’s Beach offered “a dip in the sea at the society bathing grounds on which the public were not permitted to trespass.” Guarded by a low wall, Bailey’s Beach, according to May Van Rensselaer, was "the favorite bathing beach of the fashionable world" Elizabeth Lehr called it “Newport's most exclusive club. A syndicate called the Spouting Rock Beach Association (aka Bailey’s Beach,) purchased the beach in the little cove in 1896, having constructed one hundred new oceanfront bathhouses and a pavilion was guarded by a “watchman in his gold-laced uniform” who “protected its sanctity from all interlopers” (“He knew every carriage on sight, fixed newcomers with an eagle eye, swooped down upon them and demanded their names.”) Those who did not have proper credentials were dispatched to Easton's Beach, "the Common Beach," as the habitués of Bailey's were wont to call it.

Some few ventured to swim, but a lady's bathing costume, when wet, almost nullified the effort. The apparel for Bailey's Beach (or any seashore of the Gilded Age) was better termed a “bathing dress.” Manners, Culture and Dress of the Best American Society detailed the fabric and shape of the garment, which “should be made of flannel.” A “gray tint” was advisable because “it does not soon fade and grow ugly from contact with salt water.” The “best” style was either a “loose sacque” or “yoke waist.” The dress was belted at the waist, and the skirt reached “mid way between the knee and the ankle.” Beneath this dress were “full trowsers” with the pant legs “gathered” into bands at each ankle. An “oilskin cap” was suggested “to protect the hair, which becomes harsh in salt water.” A pair of “socks the color of the dress complete the costume.” — From Cecelia Tichi, in “What Would Mrs. Astor Do?” 2018

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

Etiquette and a Bare Era of Arms

“Because a woman's arms must be kept well within the picture and backed against the person, it does not follow that she should move her arms, as most women do, only from the elbows. No gesture could be worse possibly. It expresses the little, the petty, the ungracious, the over anxious to enter the camp of the 400. It stamps a woman at once as nervous and awkward, an overgrown school girl.” —
— The most common image exhibited on the cover of the popular Delineator’s Women’s Magazine throughout the 1890’s, was a bare-armed woman reclining in Grecian style gown. Etiquipedia has no idea whether she was “over anxious to enter the camp of the 400.”
  — Photo from the Etiquipedia private photo library

We are going to have an era of arms. In a general way, arms are things we have with us always, but the chances we are we shall see more of them. The long glove has moderated its ambition: it stops as soon as it is turned the corner of the elbow. One woman in twenty has a prettily modeled elbow and she, you may be sure, does not cover it's dimples with either glove or sleeve. Glove etiquette seems to be a little more liberal than it was before we wore the Greek gown. There are daring spirits who regard its classic folds as a warrant for baring the arm from the finger-tip to shoulder. There are even those who maintain that by wearing the Récamier dress, the same dispensation from gloves may be obtained. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, for example, when she puts on a short wasted white silk is never shy about exposing her long, rounded arms.

The smoke of the fight about the decollete bodice has never enveloped the arm. Annie Jenness Miller says that if a woman's arm is pretty she should give its shapeliness frankly to the world; if it is not pretty she should study sleeves. The ideal arm has a beauty of wholesome, almost a pastoral order; it bears showing. It is clear skinned and rounded, and there is a gracious dimple just at the side of the elbow. The skin is soft, but the flesh is firm. Beneath it's smooth contour it is instinct with the strength that supports a tired child. It is a blemish if the lines are so full as to suggest the seraglio rather than the green fields.

Women who know anything about arms, have thrown their bracelets away. It is a mistaken policy to call attention to a poor arm, and a good one is never so beautiful as when naked. One often sees the value of a wrist absolutely destroyed by a bangle. Gloved or ungloved, sleeved or unsleeved, braceleted or without jewels, the arm grows in importance every day. Genevieve Stebbins Thompson and Madame Albertti and Henrietta Crane Russell and Mabel Jenness and the rest of the esthetes and physical culturists and Delsarteans have been teaching us all winter to pose, and the pity is we begin to “make” our arms before we have taken our degrees. The results are commonly ridiculous or harassing.

The arms of the woman who is not naturally graceful always look stiff and harsh as they lie in her lap motionless. If she is not bitten with any of the artistic fads, she makes an awkward hoop of them, with fingers interlaced. If she has been doing a little amateurish studying of classical collections, she extends them or lets them hang at full length, unflexed in hard, straight lines. The first piece of advice which a well-wisher would give such a woman would be that she allow both arms to fall in free, easy positions, slightly relaxed at the elbows or with the hand drooping a little at the wrist, but she should not allow her left arm to know what her right arm is doing. One ought usually take a somewhat different position from the other, else you overdo the bilateral and look like a jointed doll.

But it is when a woman moves that real difficulties arise. Many a girl makes capital out of handsome arms when she throws them into relief on the tennis ground, flaps like a seal if she shakes hands in a drawing room. The difference is partly in the environment; partly, sometimes in the gown. There's no getting a graceful motion if your dress has a French-fit at the shoulder seams. Most women think there's a fine reserve in restrained gesticulation, and it is true that the woman does not exist who can attitudinize in private life without considerable danger of making herself ridiculous. 

It is commonly assumed that the effect has been calculated if a pretty girl indulges in movement as charming and natural as that of raising her arms to adjust her hair. But because a woman's arms must be kept well within the picture and backed against the person, it does not follow that she should move her arms, as most women do, only from the elbows. No gesture could be worse possibly. It expresses the little, the petty, the ungracious, the over anxious to enter the camp of the 400. It stamps a woman at once as nervous and awkward, an overgrown school girl. Every dignified arm motion starts from the shoulder. In this way only can one get curve or swing. Elbow motion is mechanical, all angles.

You can tell much about a woman by the way in which she shakes hands. The pump-handle motion, fashionable this past winter, was distinctly vulgar, almost as much so as the present squaring of the shoulders, extensions of the elbows and swaggering clutch of the pocket which is sold to one girl in every four with her best spring jacket. Many a woman who is gracefully cordial with an intimate, falls back on a marionette-like wagging from the elbow if called upon to say, “How do you do?” to an important person of whom she stands somewhat in awe. The giving of the hand must be a whole arm motion, but the arm should not be extended full length, except in impulsive welcome; it may be kept rather near the body and the hand allowed to fall low. —San Francisco Call, 1890

Glove etiquette seems to be a little more liberal than it was before we wore the Greek gown. There are daring spirits who regard its classic folds as a warrant for baring the arm from the finger-tip to shoulder. There are even those who maintain that by wearing the Récamier dress, the same dispensation from gloves may be obtained. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, for example, when she puts on a short wasted white silk is never shy about exposing her long, rounded arms.   
— A public domain image of a Récamier dress in Portrait of Madame Récamier by Jacques Louis David, 1800

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