European Fashion in the 17th Century (4pgs)

1097 Words5 Pages
Each century alters the fashion and hair style slightly. Often the hair styles reflected the latest trend for the time. Queen Anne introduced little change in the beginning of the eighteenth century. Clothing styles rendered little excitement and were often stiff and un appealing. Charles II as well as James wore traditional clothing from the prior century and yielded little desire to alter the clothing styles for the new century. However, given enough time and influence from the French and Italians the English culture became more stylish wearing colorful printed fabrics and stylish head pieces which frequently consisted of wigs. In order to keep up with their mother-country Americans copied the English way of dress. Hair was hard to style during these times, so most people simply wore wigs. The wig consisted mainly of real human hair or horse hair. The wig fell on each side of the face with the ends drooping on to the chest. This proved so helpful, especially for soldiers. The soldiers would tie their hair up in a ribbon and put the ponytail in a silk bag. Small boys did not wear a wig, but kept their own hair long in a kind of curly mop. The large wig was worn by the wealthy. Unconfined by any kind of ribbon or fastening, the extreme fashion was inconvenient for those whose occupations involved rapid physical action. Bag-wigs were at first worn chiefly by soldiers. They made their way into civilian costume and were less dressy. The bag was made of gummed black taffeta with a bow of the same material, and served to give an appearance of neatness without much trouble. The pig-tail was almost as popular as the bag-wig and offered convenience. The toupet, or hair immediately over the forehead, was often natural. The toupet and natural hair was joined between the wig and the real hair. It was disguised and blended to look natural by using a liberal amount of

More about European Fashion in the 17th Century (4pgs)

Open Document