Revue de la Mode, Gazette de la Famille, dimanche 11 juin 1882, 11e année, No. 545: Costumes d´Enfants (...) 1882

This fashion plate, created by E. Cheffer in 1882, presents an array of children’s costumes, each adorned with elaborate hats. The hat, a symbol of status and identity, carries a weight far beyond mere utility. These hats, embellished with ribbons and flowers, speak to the aspirations and social roles prescribed to young girls. Consider the recurring motif of the ribbon. Here, it constrains the hair and adorns the hats, but venture back to ancient Greece and you’ll find ribbons binding the brows of victorious athletes, or adorning the necks of sacrificial animals. From symbols of triumph to emblems of restraint, the ribbon’s presence carries the subconscious weight of these ancestral memories, evoking a complex interplay of freedom and obligation. This image, like so many others, demonstrates how symbols possess a life of their own, evolving and adapting as they traverse the currents of history and human experience. We may see the hats of the 1880s, but the echoes of ancient rituals and societal structures reverberate within them.