The Scepter of Feminine Beauty: The Fan

Handheld Fans

The Greeks called handheld fans 'scepters of feminine beauty'. These pretty accessories have always been admired, but they have not always been in fashion. The sight of Kirsten Dunst as the French Queen, Marie Antoinette, holding a rococo fan in the new eponymous film, has heightened interest in these objects and led to their revival in fashion recently. Jovovich Hawk featured fans from their collection at the Los Angeles Fashion Week this year and they have also appeared recently at New York fashion shows. Fans add a glamorous touch to most evening outfits and they can also be very useful if the room becomes too hot!

Fans date from ancient times when they were used for cooling and for ceremonial purposes by the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. They probably originated in Japan in the eighth century. They then spread to China where, according to the ancient practice of Feng Shui, they can deflect negative 'chi' or bad energy from enemies. Many Chinese Gods use this ancient symbol to drive away evil.

Catherine de Medici introduced the new folding fans, first seen in Europe in Ferrara, to France. They became a fashionable item of royalty and the upper classes for many years. Many of the fans were exquisite and made with ivory, mother-of-pearl or tortoiseshell sticks and guards. These lovely objects could be used for cooling, hiding blushes or preventing unfashionable tans. They were often hand painted with chinoiserie scenes or pastoral scenes showing flirtatious shepherdesses.

In the eighteenth century, wealthy Georgian ladies, especially English ones, waved them at masquerade balls, and wore them as a fashion accessory with almost every outfit that they owned. There were daytime fans, white satin bridal fans and even mourning fans painted with grisaille, i.e. black, white and grey. Classical fans, brought from Italy, replaced the luscious rococo of the French. As well as drawing attention to beautiful and perfectly manicured hands, these items played a big part in delicate flirtations. In fact, a whole 'language of the fan' had developed in England in Tudor times which became especially popular for middle and upper-class Victorian women who were courting. A folded fan placed against a lady's chin told a gentleman that she found him attractive, for example, while snapping a fan shut was a curt dismissal! No wonder that the sixteenth century English writer, Joseph Addison, stated: "Men have the sword, women have the fan and the fan is probably as effective a weapon!"

Later in the nineteenth century fans began to feature popular songs or current events. They also commemorated special events, such as coronations and royal weddings. Cardboard fans began to be used for advertising. They unfortunately began to decline as a fashion item in the early twentieth century but they became popular as a collector's item and a few museums exist, such as The Fan Museum, in Greenwich, London and the Hand fan Museum in Healdsburg, California.

As well as being very fashionable at the moment, fans are a timeless way to find some relief in hot climates or stuffy, over-heated rooms. 

by Lisa-Anne Sanderson