Fashion & Dress · 1830s · London, England

The Poke Bonnet

The deep-brimmed bonnet of the 1830s

The poke bonnet was the defining headwear of the early 1830s: a small crown at the back of the head and a deep, projecting brim that jutted forward like the poke of a cap, framing the face in a tunnel of silk, straw, or velvet. Worn over ringlets clustered at the cheeks, it all but hid the wearer in profile — this November 1832 fashion plate shows the look at its height. The brim could be so deep that a lady was said to need to turn her whole head to see what was beside her.

The young Victoria wore poke bonnets in the first years of her reign, and the style's severity suited the new queen's image: modest, sheltered, respectable. Bonnets were trimmed to within an inch of their lives — ribbons, bows, feathers, artificial flowers — the brim's interior framing the face like a picture frame.

By the 1840s the poke was giving way to smaller, closer-fitting bonnets that sat further back on the head, and the great brim never returned to daywear. But the silhouette survived in mourning bonnets and, most visibly, in the Salvation Army's famous poke bonnet of the 1880s — the 'Hallelujah bonnet' worn by its lassies on street corners, a direct echo of the 1830s.

Frequently asked

Why was it called a poke bonnet?

For its deep, forward-projecting brim — like the poke of a cap — which jutted out and framed the face in a tunnel of silk or straw.

Who wore poke bonnets?

Fashionable women of the early 1830s, including the young Queen Victoria in the first years of her reign.

What replaced the poke bonnet?

Smaller, closer-fitting bonnets in the 1840s that sat further back on the head — though the deep-brimmed silhouette survived in mourning dress and the Salvation Army's 1880s 'Hallelujah' bonnet.