Hat pins became popular during the Victorian era, an age when women rarely left their homes without a hat. Encrusted with jewels and long feathers, many hat pins were high fashion statements, but their function was primarily practical: to prevent women's hats from blowing off in a gust of wind or tumbling to a dirty street. The history of hat pins dates to the 1400s, when women used them to secure veils and cloth head coverings called "wimples." Hat pins steadily rose as a fashion accessory until WWII, when hats began to fall out of fashion.





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