Originally posted by aychihuahua: Now the $64,000 question: which cloche came first? The hat or the glass domed display
I think the glass domes may have come first but they were used by gardeners to protect seedlings altho also in Victorian times to cover taxidermied birds, etc. That hat style has been used at least since the 1920's, perhaps before. Anyone know for sure?
Lucky
"I have always had an aversion to the concepts of in style and out of style." ~Rose Tarlow
French milliner Caroline Reboux created the cloche hat in 1908, calling it that because it was bell-shaped (cloche is French for bell).
Whether or not she was inspired by the glass bell jar remains to be seen. Apparently, Reboux was very avant-garde and wanted women to wear more modern hats that were simple and closer fitting to the head, as a reaction to the enormous size and excessive ornamentation that characterized the Belle Epoque fashion of the time.
The cloche hat took off after that and remained very popular for decades to come. It even inspired the close-cropped hairstyle made fashionable in the 20s.
