Miscellaneous Ladies Headdresses
Many of these hair decorations and headdresses were made for Chinese Ladies in the TV series Hell On Wheels which took place in the late 1860's and focused on stories about the building of the American railways. Chinese people played a huge role in the construction of those rails. Both men and women worked to build them and the nation. Some of these are reproductions are based on photographs of the time, some on museum artifacts, and some are just pure fantasy!
Click on any of these photo's for a closer view.
Clip-in hair decoration with tassels, coins and one blue flower.
Clip-in hair decoration with brass, coins, tassel, and ribbon.
Here is a view of the hair decoration in use on set.
Clip-in hair decoration with one gold rose, cord knot, tassel, and brass bells.
Pin-in hair decoration with gold tassels and green and gold cord knot.
The four decorations together.
This sliver filigree hair decoration has a metal fringe. It was built on a barrette clip using silver coloured wire to hold it all together.
This hair comb was covered in velvet ribbon to which beaded blossoms were attached. It was finished wilt some long strands of brass chain.
Brown paisley diadem for Hell On Wheels season 4 (2016).
A buckram and wire frame was covered with paisley brocade. Brown pom-pom stamens were placed along the top edge.
Detail of metal decoration on brown paisley diadem.
Detail of brown velvet flowers and pearl drops.
Back view of brown paisley diadem.
Detail of hair comb used to secure the headdress.
This hair decoration was made on a band of buckram covered with black taffeta and decorated with vintage fuchsias.
This hair decoration was assembled using various pieces of costume jewelry that were attached to a velvet-covered wire hair comb.
Here is a similar one being used on set
This hair decoration was created using parts of earrings and necklaces that were wired together and attached to a hair comb.
This hair decoration was created from a tangled piece of trim found in the costume designer's trimmings box,
Two fast-food chopsticks were painted gold; small holes were drilled to accommodate swinging fuchsias. A small arrangement of flowers and ribbon on a comb was also prepared.
This is the "chopsticks" hair decoration on the actress.