116 High Street
Isabella (‘Bella’) Pringle (1876-1924), a women’s and children’s clothier, started offering millinery services in 1915 (women’s and children’s hatmaking).
Nearly all women and most children wore hats outdoors. The main trend in the mid-1910s was that women’s hats were becoming much less elaborate, partly in response to the war.
Some examples of earlier styles are below, typically wide-brimmed and often including many feathers and other decorations.
Boater styles started becoming popular a few years ago; some can be seen in the crowd photograph above.
Boaters are also worn by girls, as well as bonnets and berets. Boys tend to wear peaked cloth caps, or sometimes sailor hats to accompany sailor suits for younger boys from middle or upper class families.
Bella specialised in corsets and had summer and winter sales.
Corsets became much less restrictive after the end of the Victorian era (1837-1901) which popularised the hourglass shape. Although still worn by many, they were in decline due to the need for more practical clothing in workplaces, and metal became harder to obtain for the ribs (‘stays’).
Another of Bella’s specialties was blouses (known as ‘waists’ in the USA). The high necklines of 1912 below were being replaced by V-shapes and plainer designs (top right in the picture below).
Bella started as a millworker, became a draper’s shop assistant and then started her own business at 91 High Street, later moving to 116 High Street.
She lived above her shop, next to her mother’s residence in 2 Gas Entry. Her father John was a labourer from Canonbie who died in Langholm at age 22. Her two half-sisters Nellie Davidson and Joan Pringle were local woollen mill workers.
Bella’s cousin James Davidson (1897-1918) was killed on 27 May 1918 in France at age 21 while with the Northumberland Fusiliers.
Bella died in 1924 at age 48. She may have been ill for some time beforehand as she did not advertise from the end of 1915.