Saturday, February 4, 2023

Hairpins in the Medieval Era

Hello!   Is this thing on? I know it's been a long while since I've posted.  I'm back in the States, working at a wonderful new fully remote job where I get to do research all day!   

I thought to post because I came across yet another "Medieval Myth" today that bugged me.  Someone said that they didn't have bobby pins in the middle ages and they always did hair taping.





Now, hair taping was a thing but it was not the only thing going on.  There is more than enough archeological evidence for hairpins.  Here are just some of the examples we have:


V & A Museum, C. 900's-1200's


That's pretty clearly a hairpin as we would know them today but here's some more.

V & A c. 960-1279

V & A c. 960-1279



Basically, we have plenty of extant evidence for hairpins.  While these are all medieval and I haven't seen any in the 15th or 16th C, I also haven't researched more than 10 minutes on this.  I just knew it was wrong.   :-)


3 comments:

  1. So happy you're back! I've missed reading your posts. ~Val

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    1. Thank you! I hope to post something else in another few days. I'm working on an 16th C Italian surcote and we'll see how that comes out. Maybe.

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  2. Hi! Been digging through your blog lately for research, I'm a pattern maker and got a job making costumes for a 1860s TV series so a lot of research needed, thanks for sharing such inside out pictures of the gowns, they are so hard to find :)

    Xx
    @raquelbrandao.atelier

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