Welcome back for the continuation of The Life and Times of Hope for Charity blog series! If you are new, you can jump right in or return to the beginning here. Today we learn a little about men's wigs, tricorns, and shoes in the Georgian Era of the 18th-Century. Enjoy!
Men's Historical Fashions: Wigs
Hope for Charity has some characters who wear wigs and some who do not. Although they were fashionable, all did not love them. They were hot, itchy, and sometimes heavy.
Men continued to wear powdered wigs well into the 1700s. The style conveyed a look of dignity and high status to its wearers. The wigs were cumbersome and expensive to purchase and maintain. Wigs featured hair that fell past the shoulders. Military men introduced the campaign wig for men following active lifestyles.
Wigs could be worn with sculpted sides or tied locks. Some wigs were chin length at the sides with long extensions of curls that tumbled down the back. Bog wigs ended in a roll behind the neck. Long wigs could be tied at the back with a ribbon into a neat queue.
Men's Historical Fashions: Tricorn Hats
The tricorn is the most popular men's hat worn in the Georgian era. As you can see in the examples below, they came in various styles. Tricorns could be plain or embellished depending on the man and the occasion.
Cocked hats were also generally dark in color — black, gray, or brown. Some the cocked hats included cockades to show a political affiliations or alliances. The hats could also been worn in one of two ways: “fore-and-aft” (front-and-back) or “athwart” (peaks at the sides).
Men often pinned up the entire brim in three places creating the “tricorned” hat that would be the hat of choice throughout the eighteenth century. The hat was often trimmed with braid or lace and a bunch of feathers.
-The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History:
Men's Historical Fashions: Shoes
The Hessian boots shown are the favorites of my male protagonist in Hope for Charity and are mentioned in the story. As you can see in the last photo (bottom right) sometimes in this period of men's historical fashions their heels were higher than on the women's shoes.
Shoes in the early years of the eighteenth century, for both men and women, were designed to complement the luxurious fashions of the period, adding a final flourish and touch of opulence to an outfit. For men, shoes formed a prominent and highly visible feature of their attire, punctuating the end of an elegantly stockinged leg.
For those in pursuit of à la mode shoe design, France was the unrivalled leader and trend-setter. The influence of French fashion on footwear was felt widely in Britain throughout the century and could be seen most visibly in the 1750s with the importation of the highly fashionable French pompadour heel.
I hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse of men's historical fashions during the Georgian era, focusing on wigs, the tricorn hat, and shoes. Next time I plan to finish this series with men's accessories. If you haven't yet subscribed, please hit the button below so you won't miss a thing!
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Always interesting blogs! They were a long way from tee shirts and tennis shoes!😄