Old Hat Makeover

In addition to making new hats, I collect vintage hats, but until recently I've always been more of a wearer of them than a museum-style collector- In the last year, I've bought a few things (mostly older pieces) because I wanted to study them, or just to own them, but with no intention of wearing them, which is new. I'll more post about those treasures another time.

Every once in a while I come across a hat that is damaged or has missing parts that just screams to me for a makeover. (Those of you with museum sensibilities, never fear- no museum-quality pieces were harmed in the making of this post- anything attached is not sewn directly to the hat and can be removed anytime without damage). Here are a couple of my favorites.

This sweet little Edwardian straw boater was in terrible shape when I found it. It was really dirty and had a real bird body tacked to it that was disintegrating into disgusting dusty pieces. A big patch of the straw around the crown was missing entirely, exposing the interior buckram frame. It had remnants of a tattered silk band, but not enough was left to repair into a full band again. Did I mention it was filthy? I wished I had a hazmat suit every time I opened its box. It had a nice shape and size, though, and I liked that the crown and brim are made of a different weave, which seemed unusual. I cleaned it up to reveal a beautiful shiny black straw with cherry red undertones, and added a ribbon band and cockade to cover the hole. Now I'm not even afraid to touch it anymore.




The next hat is a 1920s style cloche, but based on the tags and the fit through the crown, I think it's actually from the 1960s. When I bought it, it still had the curled feathers (which I love), and a band, but also had a large patch of loose threads to show where some decoration had been removed. I made a big cockade to cover that spot in ribbon matching the band, and voila. It's become one of my favorite hats, I wear it a lot.




The last hat is also an Edwardian boater. It has maker's stamps from Italy inside. It was actually in pretty good shape when I purchased it, but it was dusty and lacked a hat band. The proportions are a little strange- the crown is taller than boaters usually are, and it's too small to fit down onto a head (even a kid's), so it wants to perch at a jaunty angle, and the brim is bigger than your usual boater. It's a bit saucy, and needed something dramatic by way of decoration, so I made a big black and white striped cockade, and wore it with my matching striped Dark Garden corset to the Edwardian Ball in January 2009. I felt like a million bucks.