Have you ever wondered where the names of different clothing styles come from?  Ok, some are pretty obvious, like bell-bottoms or straw hat.  But who decided that a sweater that fastens down the front should be called a cardigan?  Or that snood would be a good name for the crocheted thingy that women were tucking their hair into?

So, I put on my Googling gloves once again, and dug up some info on the origins of the names of different hat styles.  I bet you didn’t realize that some of them are derived from the names of people or places.

Take the fedora for instance; this brimmed hat that I described in a recent post was actually named after a woman – well, a character really.  Fedóra was the title character in a play in 1882, played by the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt.  And yes, she wore a fedora as part of her costume.

A tam o’ shanter is a sort of floppy beret (often with a pompom – called a toorie – on top) worn by Scotsmen.  The name comes from a character in a poem by Robert Burns, written in 1790.  The style eventually became popular for women as well, known simply as a tam.

Two other Scottish styles are named for places; the Glengarry and the Balmoral. Both are worn by military units in Scotland, England, and Canada. The Balmoral is smaller and finer than a tam, with a ribbon around the band that hangs down in the back.  The best way to describe the Glengarry is that it looks like a woolen boat with ribbons at the back and a pompom on top.

You probably haven’t heard of the Juliet cap, but check out the picture in the gallery below; they’re pretty.  Juliet caps are small, decorated crocheted or mesh caps worn pinned on top of the hair, popular in the very early 20th century.  Yes, they’re named after Shakespeare’s Juliet; she was depicted as wearing a cap like this in pictures and play costumes when the play first came out.  Juliet caps are now used as bridal headpieces, with a veil attached at the back.  Grace Kelly wore one at her wedding in 1956.

In case you were curious, cardigan sweaters were named after the Earl of Cardigan.  I wonder if he was friends with the Earl of Sandwich?

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