Tomorrow I’m going to be doing a tutorial on how to make a mid-late 18th century inspired bergere hat, so I thought that perhaps first I should tell you exactly what a bergere is, and we should look at lots and lots of bergere inspiration. A bergere is a low crowned, wide-brimmed hat, usually of straw, but sometimes made of other materials covered in silk. Bergere hats first appeared in the 1730s, and were popular in various forms throughout the 18th century. The style saw a revival in the 1860s, and the name was occasionally used in the decades after that to describe hats based on similar shapes, though these were more commonly called Gainsborough or picture hats. A 1930s fashion column even makes the link between the two. Bergere literally means shepherdess (the masculine shepherd is a berger), and the style has a strong link with 18th century pastorialism, and pastoral fashions. Bergere hats are also sometimes called milkmaid hats. It’s easy to see how a simple, wide-brimmed straw hat would be a useful …