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- French 18th-century fan. 23 Oct., 2008. Photo by Catherine Bosley
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- Display at the Greenwich Fan Museum. Oct. 23, 2008. Photo by Catherine Bosley
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- Fan leaf by Paul Gaugin. 23 Oct., 2008. Photo by Catherine Bosley
LONDON, Oct 24 (Docklands Wire) – Many of Europe’s capitals boast sword and rifle museums, but the only place dedicated to women’s weapon of choice is the Fan Museum in Greenwich.
Mme de Pompadour and Queen Victoria considered fans the ultimate accessory, though fans today have largely fallen from favour.
“Women were armed with fans as men with swords,” said Helene Alexander, the museum’s director. “You carried a fan for all sorts of reasons, not only to flirt.”
In 1760 a London magazine described fans as “a screen before the whisper of malicious scandal”.
“Another reason women used fans was to hide bad teeth,” Alexander said, adding that during the 18th century women carried them to display their political allegiances.
One fan in the Greenwich collection lampoons the marriage in 1795 of future English king George IV to a woman he was known to detest. Another on display has cut-outs for eyes, so the bearer could use it for a masquerade.
“It’s not just a cooling method,” said Ayesha Faruk, 21, visiting the museum with a friend. “It’s the most feminine accessory a woman can have.”
AS OLD AS HOT WEATHER
Fans made of ostrich feathers can be found on friezes in ancient Egyptian tombs, while women in ancient Rome carried club-shaped fans made out of hide stretched over a wooden frame, Alexander explained.
“Fans are as old as hot weather,” she said.
A walk amongst the Greenwich museum’s display cases reveals Baroque fans made of ivory, ones made with enormous fuscia feathers, and one of rainbow-striped paper advertising a parade.
The museum, which opened in 1991 and attracts 8-10,000 visitors per year, also has a fan by the French artist Paul Gaugin depicting a Tahitian landscape.
The current exhibit, called “Fashion in the Palm of Your Hand,” explores how fans have evolved since antiquity. At any time about 50 fans are on display.
Folding fans first arrived in Europe during the Renaissance, brought back from the Far East by traders and Jesuit missionaries, and swiftly became sought-after among fashionable women.
Queen Elizabeth I favoured fans with jewelled handles, to show off her long fingers, Alexander said.
Fan use peaked in Victorian times but declined after World War One, as women cropped their hair and exchanged their corseted gowns for more functional clothing.
Since then, fans have chiefly been used for advertisements such as perfume, cruise liners, and restaurants, Alexander said.
“Like people, like society in general, they applied themselves to the modern way of thinking,” she explained. “It’s not very convenient for modern life to run around with a fan,” she added.
But Alexander suspects fans may be experiencing a comeback. In 1999 couturier Jean-Paul Gaultier designed an evening gown made out of fans, while in 2007 Christian Dior distributed them to fashion show guests.
Fans would be ideal in a sweltering underground carriage, Alexander said, adding: “With global warming we might bring them back.”
