Bonnet (headgear)

In the mid-17th and 18th century house bonnets worn by women and girls were generally brimless headcoverings which were secured by tying under the chin, and which covered no part of the forehead.

[5] With society hairstyles becoming increasingly elaborate after 1770, the calash was worn outdoors to protect hair from wind and weather: a hood of silk stiffened with whalebone or arched cane battens, collapsible like a fan or the calash top of a carriage, they were fitted with ribbons to allow them to be held secure in a gale.

From Waterloo, increasingly structured and fashionable bonnets made by milliners grew larger and less functional among the upper classes.

A plate in La Belle Assemblée 1817 showed a Bonnet of vermillion-coloured satin, embossed with straw, ornamented slightly with straw-coloured ribbands (ribbons), and surmounted by a bouquet formed of a full blown damask rose and buds, with ears of ripe corn.

So long as the hair is piled on top of the head, the little device which takes the place of a dress cap must remain as it is.

Silk bonnets, elaborately pleated and ruched, were worn outdoors, or in public places like shops, galleries, churches, and during visits to acquaintances.

Women would cover their heads with caps simply to keep their hair from getting dirty and perhaps out of modesty, as informed by Christian religious norms.

In France, single women wore elaborate yellow and green bonnets to honor St. Catherine's Day on November 25.

The French expression coiffer Sainte-Catherine ('don St. Catherine's bonnet'), an idiom that describes an unmarried woman of 25 years or older, derives from this custom.

[9] Slave women shipped from Africa, who traditionally wore African head dress in their native countries, were given European styles of bonnets.

Bonnet is also the term for the puffy velvet fabric inside the coronet of some male ranks of nobility,[10] and "the affair of the bonnets" was a furious controversy in the France of Louis XIV over the mutual courtesies due between the magistrates of the Parliament de Paris and the Dukes of France.

While a bonnet may be a fashion choice by caregivers for a baby's headgear, it may also be used for sun protection, since an infant's skin is more vulnerable to sunburn than an adult's.

[citation needed] But it is more likely that these styles of headdress originated from the use of shower caps due to their appearance and application in salons.