“Here we behold a hat, there a bonnet...”

Women, are you tired of wearing a straw hat everywhere you go? Let's look at an alternative: the bonnet. While not as commonly worn as straw hats, we find bonnets just as widely worn, by women of every class and in plain and fancy styles. A bonnet is warmer than a hat, especially in rain or snow, and there's nothing like it for keeping your cloak hood in place. Depending on the shape, it may be better than a hat at keeping the sun out of your eyes. On the other hand, a bonnet can be unpleasant on a hot day, it restricts your view more than a hat does, and depending on the style, it restricts your hearing as well—maybe that's why we find that although bonnets were quite common in the 18^th century, they didn't have the ubiquity of straw hats.

A new article on bonnets, “Here we behold a hat, there a bonnet...”, was recently posted to the Hive website. You can read the full text there.