Harper’s Bazar 1897
Harper’s Bazar 1896
For most of the late 1890s Standing Ostrich Plumes were popular. How did they do it? I have seen two extant examples and have gleaned a lot. One I was able to restore and add to a hat and the other was too brittle to fix but, I did learn from it.
The first one
This plume was made up of three plumes each made up of 4 or 5 ostrich body feathers (drabs). This is how it looked when I got it, one of the plumes was facing the wrong way and the covering on the wire was fraying.
I took them apart so I could work with them separately.
I took off as much of the florist tape as I could and straightened the wires. BTW the wires are very stiff wire.
I went right down to the base of the feather bundles.
And carefully removed all the wire.
I started with new stiff brass wired, some fine wire and black florist tape.
I cut three 6″ lengths of stiff brass wire and bent one end over about 3/4″, stuck it thru the plume between the feather stems then bent it over and down.
I then used the fine wire to wrapped around the fold over and bind it so the stems were secure.
I trimmed off the extra bits of fine wire.
Covered all the wire with florist tape.
I started by picking the two plumes that matched and tapped the covered wire stems so that the plume were opposite to each other.
Then I added the final plume in the middle. This is how it looks from the front.
This is how it looks from the back.
To make sure the plume stayed upright and secure. I twisted the base into a circle and tacked that to the brim of the hat before I added all the other decorations. The other decorations cover the attachment threads which color matched to under brim fabric.
This is how it looked on Any Liebert at South Park City Museum in CO.
The second one
This is what the plume looked like when I got it.
I opened it up to see that the middle plume was on a very long stiff wire and the other two were on short wires. This it good info. If I was to make one for an 1890s hat I would love to reproduce this type.
Unfortunately the stems on these plumes are too fragile to reshape and work with so it’s will just be a study plumes.