Browse by Subject
Abbreviations
Actors
Aircraft
Architecture
Computer Viruses
Costume
Dictionary
Food & Drink
Gazetteer
General Information
Heraldry
Language
Latin
Medicine
Money
Movies
Music
Mythology
Nature
People
Recreation
Rocks & Minerals
SciTech
Shakespeare
Ships
Slang
Warfare

Downloads
e-Books

The Probert Encyclopaedia of Costume

FAN

In terms of costume, a fan is a portable, usually folding in Europe, rigid and mounted on a handle in the Far East, and sector-shaped, device for moving the air to cool one's face. Fans were invented in China and Japan where both folding and rigid forms were at different times popular. In Europe, folding fans were introduced around the 16th century, becoming almost unused in Britain by 1900.

Fans were an essential fashion accessory for women during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries in Britain and Europe and had their own strict etiquette and language, although the English language of fans was much reduced compared to the Spanish. In England, a woman holding her closed fan could touch the tip to her right cheek to convey 'yes' and to her left cheek to convey 'no'. Similarly, if the fan was held open to cover the eyes, it conveyed the message 'I love you', while lowered until pointing at the ground, it conveyed the opposite message of 'I despise you'.
Research Fan

 
 
Home  Publishers  Quiz  Products  FAQ  Privacy Policy  Add URL Contact  Site Map