Simping for head(s)
forecast à la Française
I watched The Other Boleyn Girl for my first time the other night. I don’t know why I slept on it for so long because Anne Boleyn is an icon and I spend a few hours each week contemplating buying Dilara Findikoglu’s Boleyn necklace (the portrait which made that necklace famous has an unknown author and was a replica of an original painting which makes me love it even more because I get off on art historical mysteries). Aside from the fiery rage which blossomed inside me every time I had to hear Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson’s awful British accents, I loved the movie in large part because of the costuming. I simp HAAARD for French hoods. I think they are incredibly beautiful and routinely throughout dress history headcovers have been used to control or contain some aspect of a woman's femininity or sexuality, which ignites a similar frustration within me to the one conjured by American actresses awfully portraying historically significant British women (for more on this, look at Russian Kokoshniks). We very briefly covered French hoods in one of my dress history classes and I stayed after class for about an hour asking my prof for more dirty details on my all time favourite accessory. Much to my dismay my prof didn’t have as much hot gossip as I was hoping for. I was pining for some kind of bizarre reason for the existence of the French hood alongside the other popular style of head covering at the time known as a gable hood, but was met with the banal answer of aesthetics. Gable hoods are more angular and sit farther up on a woman's head, covering her hair, while the French hood is round, sits atop a coif farther back on the head, permitting for the front of her hair to be visible but includes a veil on the back which covers the back of her hair. This might not seem that exciting to most people but for someone who opted to write a 15 page paper on veils and a 10 page paper on Kokoshniks, I love dis shiz.
My MA supervisor often tells me my writing sounds like it could be found in Vogue. Although I assume with is less of a compliment and moreso a way of telling me my voice is passive and not academic, since most academics don’t like Vogue, I’m letting this proclamation of my cultural capital of a certain zeitgeist bolster my obnoxiously confident skills of trend forecasting to predict the return of the French hood.
Long before A$AP Rocky’s affinity with trying to replicate my Bubba’s headscarf, I was wearing head scarves because I hate wearing toques outside of participating in winter sports because they make me look ugly. Headscarves specifically tied in a babushka style have vehemently trickled down into mainstream trends over the past few years and judging by a violently underwhelming NYFW and a so far promising LNDFW there are few signs of head covers fading away anytime soon. As people will try to differentiate themselves within a sea of headscarves, alongside the resurgence of the prominence of the British monarchy, I suspect by the next F/W fashion weeks designers will begin to replicate French hoods. They’ll likely be toned down for production to a more austere style similar to Prada’s oversized headbands but I do think some designers (likely British) will include an element similar to a veil to keep it within the realm of headwear as opposed to hair accessory, and possibly as commentary on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
Hats and headwear are extremely interesting within the scope of dress history. Hats specifically have served various purposes throughout history ranging from utilitarian to semiotics of class. Our present lifetime is the first within history that hats and head coverings have taken a backseat within popular dress. There is no reason for this either which makes it all the more interesting; our heads are still a main focal point and Zoom world acted as a catalyst for many trends centreing around the face/head as it felt very reminiscent of art historical portraiture which focused on the viewers chest up, hats and head coverings were left out of that conversation for reasons beyond my comprehension. I sense a looming resurgence of hats and heads as the mitochondria of an ensemble though. Right now it feels more like feet have taken this crown as socks are having a moment (which I also predicted like 5 years ago when I started wearing ~fun socks~ as an element of surprise), but I stand by my belief that the head is the next showstopper. My all time favourite designer, Simone Rocha, presented her SS23 collection today which included an inaugural mens line. The collection had multiple looks for both genders (ya I know gender is a spectrum) which included veils and head coverings. As Simone is typically quick to the punch on things, I take this as a sign that I am once again correct and am using this substack as an opportunity to invite someone to hire me as trend forecaster. Thank you for your time and consideration🙏🏻
