Madame de Pompomadore

The True History of the Origin of le Pompon

We’ve all heard of Madame de Pompomadore. She was the Royal Ladylove of that decadent French king whose name I forget, and she adored her pompoms. She loved them so much she adorned her person with them – she wore pompoms in her hair, all her buttons were little mink pompoms and her boudoir was stuffed to overflowing with enormous vases of white chrysanthemums, plucked of their foliage.

… finally she relented and cried, “Très bien! Let them all wear le pompon!”

Pompoms were so much in favour with her that there was a court edict that only she was allowed to wear them – and so all the envious ladies of the court nicknamed her Madame de Pompomadore. In the street, the people took to strewing her path with flowers that resembled pompoms – dahlias, asters, chrysanthemums and purple hydrangeas. Overcome by this compliment, finally she relented and cried, “Très bien! Let them all wear le pompon!”

And that is the true story of how the pompom came into fashion.
Sort of.

According to the OED however, the origin of the pompom is in the mid eighteenth century, and originally denoted a bunch of ribbons, feathers, etc, worn by women in the hair or on a dress. It comes from the French pompon, of unknown etymology. Unknown until now, that is.

Fashion Notes

Vintage 1940s, the pompom headband is made from lamb’s fur. I watched one just liked it on eBay for months, stalling purchasing it as it was quite expensive. Then one day, I saw another exactly like it on Etsy for one quarter of the price. The rest is history. The pompom earrings I made myself from green jade and hot pink Indian beaded beads, and the striped jumper adorned with a black pompom tie is by Sonia Rykiel. 

There can never be too many pompoms.