Blog posts about fashion rules are amusing in small doses and tedious when they become long lists of the writers' gripes against high trouser-hems and the perils of mixing white socks with black shoes. While there are some clothing choices that still make me shudder (no dark-colored socks with shorts!), having a child who likes to mix striped trousers with patterned shirts has made me more easy-going these days. However, there is one ladies' fashion item with its accompanying faux pas that I must address: the hennin.
You must have noticed by now that the hennin, a cone-shaped hat traditionally worn by noblewomen in 15th Century Europe, is making a come-back. Individual tastes differ as to whether you should tuck your hair completely under the hennin (tweeze the hairline!) or allow the hair to hang loose in enticing tendrils. Also, whether or not you wear a thin veil pendant draped over the tip of your hennin is completely up to you. Choose a full cone-shape akin to the Burgundian steeple hennin if you have high ceilings or a more minimalistic truncated hennin for cozy dwellings. It is best to leave the hennin with two cones for Halloween parties and practical jokes.
Hennin fashionistas all agree on one thing: you must wear your hennin tiled backward, not pointed straight up. At social functions, staff meetings and parent nights, I repeatedly see hennins worn as if they were dunce caps or party hats.
Wrong
Wrong
Very, Very Wrong
This practice simply will not do. I rely upon you, dear readers, to set good examples for your hennin-wearing peers and gently but firmly correct their fashion errors. I wouldn't be surprised if improperly-worn hennins show up on Go Fug Yourself. Any day now...
Tune in for next week's fashion advice on why wearing hoop skirts with jeans is just a terrible idea. Wearing hoop skirts with jeans only ended in heartbreak for Pecos Bill and Slue-Foot Sue.
