History's Runway: The Pudding Safety Hat, 1775-1800

"Pudding" or "Safety" Hat
Britain, 1775-1800
The Victoria & Albert Museum

A “pudding” hat was essentially a safety hat designed for a young child to wear while learning to walk. The hat was designed to be fastened around the head, horizontally, above the ears. The name comes from the resemblance of the rolled part of the hat to the sort of English sausage known as “pudding.” This horseshoe-shaped roll of glazed cotton would feature four lightly padded triangular flaps attached at regular intervals. Two of these flaps fastened together over the head.

This type of “pudding” hat was very popular for children during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Not only was it cute, but it served to protect a tot’s soft, smooshy head for injury should he or she take a tumble while staggering about in that way that babies have. Clearly, I’m not a parent… 


The sausage-like horseshoe-shaped roll on this “pudding” hat is constructed of glazed pink cotton. This includes a padded white linen inner piece which has been stiffened with wire and card, and a black petersham ribbon tie at each end. The four lightly padded triangular flaps are also stiffened with card and attached to the roll at regular intervals (partly covering the crown of the head). The edges of the triangular flaps and the top seam of the roll are all edged with narrow black velvet ribbon. This hat was made in the U.K. between 1775 and 1800.