Fashion Article Series

1900s: The Feathered Hat

I've always been interested in Fashion and comparing current trends with those from long ago. Using the forum of this blog, I wish to explore styles from a particular period within history and how they have inspired 21st century designers. So every week, I'm going to write about a different topic within the broad realm of "fashion" and hopefully you can learn something new along the way, too!


Many contemporary Fashion Designers base their designs on past styles to create the most fascinating and unexpected clothing. This week I wanted to focus on feathers within fashion - starting with 'the feathered hat.'

Image of 'The Plume Bloom'

This trend soon went out of fashion when the First World War broke out as it was frowned upon to wear these hats in a time when so many were sacrificing so much to end the war. Today, feathers adorn many fashion garments and are widely used on catwalks all over the world - as seen in the image below.

Hats have been worn for centuries; starting in the medieval times when women had to cover their hair because the church considered it improper otherwise. If we jump forward to the early 20th century, it became extremely popular for hats to increase in scale and extravagance through the use of feathers; this was called the "Plume Bloom." Interestingly, taxidermied birds were often used to create this hat - which resulted in not only the decrease in the bird population, but the extinction of some birds!

Modern Day Feathered Garment

Written by: Rebecca Eames [Principal Blogger]