A hatpin is a decorative and functional pin for holding a hat to the head, often used in a pair and usually by the hair. They are typically around 6–10 inches in length, with the pinhead being the most decorated part.
Notes: During the late 1890s and 1900s a scourge of unscrupulous characters, including the so-called ‘Mashers’, partially spurned out of the panics of suffragette autonomy, targeted and harassed women in public. A solution was put forth by utilizing this fashionable accessory to stand up to the perpetrators – what better deterrent than the long spear already carried around in one’s hat. Thus, the Hatpin Panic was born. Insecure men across the country rallied to have hatpins banned lest they take stock of each others actions and a series of ordinances were born banning hatpins longer than 9” and requiring all hatpins to have protective tips. This was no localized affair but an International uprising – “Ten thousand miles away, in Sydney, Australia, sixty women went to jail rather than pay fines for wearing ‘murderous weapons’ in their hats … The furor over hatpins subsided at the onset of World War I, and died entirely when bobbed hair and cloche hats came into fashion—at which point emerged a new “social menace”: the flapper.”[mfn]Smithsonian Magazine. ‘The Hatpin Peril’ 2014.04.24 (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hatpin-peril-terrorized-men-who-couldnt-handle-20th-century-woman-180951219/)[/mfn]
