Women’s History: Suffragette fashion

Published on by macjam47

A lovely and informative post from Catherine Haustein on suffragette fashion.

Catherine Haustein

Despite the inaccurate portrayal of our early feminist sisters as ugly and unlovable, Suffragettes/suffragists were aware of fashion and used it to their advantage.

They embraced a tri-color palette to hint at their cause no matter where they went:

“Suffragettes wore purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity, and green for hope.”  Not inconsequently, Green, White, and Violet also stood for Give Women the Vote.

Hats were importantly symbolic. They were larger than life and adorned with feminine flowers.  (As the movement gained steam and those opposed became afraid, hatpins were regulated to be short  so that they could not be used as weapons and the hats needed to be smaller or they wouldn’t stay on.)

hats Thanks to this website for the image: http://www.beyondretro.com/en/blog/2014/04/07/the-suffragettes-fashion-activists/

By necessity, stores began to support the cause.imagesreplica-of-an-english-suffragettes-purple-woven-plant-fibre-hat

Oh those backwards, unfashionable folks who did not support equality for women. They would soon be left…

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9 thoughts on “Women’s History: Suffragette fashion”

  4. An interesting insight into something I knew nothing about. I love finding new things out, especially things I had previously never come across, or even thought of looking up.

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  5. This is an excellent story. I had no idea the hats were consciously chosen by the Suffragettes. I guess the pussy hats we’ve been wearing are part of a historic pattern.

    Liked by 1 person

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