> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The smoking cap in the 19th-century male wardrobe and its purpose
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/takie-barkhatnye-shapochki-s-shitem-i-bogatym-dekorom-byli-chastym-elementom-muzhskogo-garderoba-v-xix-veke/
- Published: 2022-01-12T08:11:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:06:28.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Observations, Mores, Humour

Velvet caps like these, with embroidery and rich decoration, were a common item of the male wardrobe in the nineteenth century. To the modern eye, admittedly, they look somewhat odd. But the headgear served no merely decorative purpose: this is the so-called smoking cap, worn in smoking rooms or at gentlemen's gatherings over a cigar, so that the hair should not smell of tobacco. How much water I might have saved, had I known of this cap some ten years ago!