"Put another pin in your hat, Dot. You're in for a very fast ride."
~Phryne Fisher, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Ever wonder how ladies wore their hats in such gravity-defying angles? The answer is the hat pin. As far back as women were wearing hats for style instead of practicality, they needed something to help anchor the hat to the variety of hairstyles that were worn underneath. This gave a woman the freedom to move around and not worry too much about her hat falling off, and also allowed for more extravagant styles.
The hat pin is just visible, and clearly needed for a style of this sort.
My hat pin collection is a bit of an accident. I was looking for ones that were long enough to use with hats ranging from Victorian and Edwardian to 1940s, and in both black and white, so as to match whatever I decided to wear. While antiquing I found one very long black one, and a shorter black one, but seemed to have a hard time finding a white one for a good price.
First two hat pins.
I passed over many pins before acquiring the perfect find - a lot of hat pins and holder!
Hand painting details.
Lucite, fabric, and possibly ceramic.
All my long pins.
All my short pins.
I wasn't necessarily looking for a hat pin holder, but this set found me and I couldn't pass it up. The holder has plenty of holes for as many hat pins as I could want, with an additional tray at the bottom for hair pins, bobby pins, and the like. It also came with what I had been searching for - a white hat pin! The holder and almost all the pins had rust on them, so I used a wet paper towel to clean the holder and a fine sandpaper on the pins, and with some rubbing alcohol they would be sanitary enough to be worn. However, it seems over time they've started to rust again(I only noticed when I took these photographs), which means they would need a good cleaning before using, and probably every so often as a preventative measure against more rust. Check your hat pins, ladies!
All pins in their holder, with some additional hair pins and bobby pins to show what the dish might have been used for.
I doubt I'll be on the lookout for any more pins, since I surely have enough now. However, there certainly are some beautiful specimens out there, and maybe one will tempt me enough to add it to my humble collection.
These Art Nouveau hat pins are to die for!
For more information about the history of hat pins:
The American Hat Pin Society
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