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Showing posts with label hat of the week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hat of the week. Show all posts
Monday, May 17, 2010
Vintage Hat of the Week: 1940s Checkerboard Boater
For this week's vintage hat, I've chosen a fantastic 1940s 'doll' hat in black and white plastic straw.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Bonus Hat of the Week: The Straw Saucer
I woke up this morning dreaming of hats like this and had to share. Thinking about making one based on this shape for bridal.
'The White Hat' by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1780
And, an unmarked straw saucer from the 1940s.
Everything old is new again. The shape of the head doesn't change, so I don't see why can't we have do-overs on a great idea.
'The White Hat' by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1780
And, an unmarked straw saucer from the 1940s.
Everything old is new again. The shape of the head doesn't change, so I don't see why can't we have do-overs on a great idea.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Hat of the Week: Aunt Bee Straw Boater
I have boaters on the brain. All shapes & sizes. Love this tiny black straw boater, with veiling and little white flowers. Mid 20th century.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Hat of the Week: My Lilly Dache Straw
Check out this Lilly Dache straw hat that I just bought from ebay. Made in the 1960s, you can see the mod influence but it's still got the soft shaping typical of her straw hats.
It looks like the crown is lined with cape net.
These are some of the auction photos, I don't have the hat in hand yet. I can't wait to get a closer look at it.
It looks like the crown is lined with cape net.
These are some of the auction photos, I don't have the hat in hand yet. I can't wait to get a closer look at it.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Hat of the Week: A Lilly Dache
I've just finished reading Lilly Dache's autobiography "Talking Through my Hats"- spectacular!
It was written just after World War II, around the same time this photo was taken.
Lilly Dache apprenticed with a milliner in France as a teenager, at 18 years old moved alone to New York City with $13 in her pocket, and within a year was running her own millinery shop, with minions. She quickly built up an empire and went on to become one of (if not *the*) best known milliners in the US. She and ran it from her custom-built 7-story building in Manhattan, filled with workshops, leopard print upholstery, fitting rooms decorated differently to flatter ladies with different coloring, and a penthouse on top to live in with her hunky husband. Although she did sell hats through department stores all over the country, she ran her own shop in New York as a model millinery- customers would choose from a number of styles aka floor models, and a fresh one would be made for them in their size. Or, the customer could order something custom for a unique style. People couldn't just walk in off the street- you had to apply to be a customer, and come with a recommendation from a current customer.
Dache was famous for making flattering, romantic styles with masses of flowers and trim.
She made lots of hats for celebrities (on and off stage/screen), including Carmen Miranda's famous fruit headdresses.
She helped popularize turbans in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
She also made the tailored, sporty styles from around that time that are my favorite hats.
She made a zillion dollars and was really nice and really happy. *sigh* The whole thing has left me feeling envious and starry eyed and makes me want to get down to business.
But before I do that, let me introduce you to a Lilly Dache hat. This hunter green straw is probably from the 1940s. It's cocked up in front and has a beautifully draped crown. It's trimmed with light green ribbon, white flowers, and blue and brown feathers.
On that note, I'm going to go make a hat.
It was written just after World War II, around the same time this photo was taken.
Lilly Dache apprenticed with a milliner in France as a teenager, at 18 years old moved alone to New York City with $13 in her pocket, and within a year was running her own millinery shop, with minions. She quickly built up an empire and went on to become one of (if not *the*) best known milliners in the US. She and ran it from her custom-built 7-story building in Manhattan, filled with workshops, leopard print upholstery, fitting rooms decorated differently to flatter ladies with different coloring, and a penthouse on top to live in with her hunky husband. Although she did sell hats through department stores all over the country, she ran her own shop in New York as a model millinery- customers would choose from a number of styles aka floor models, and a fresh one would be made for them in their size. Or, the customer could order something custom for a unique style. People couldn't just walk in off the street- you had to apply to be a customer, and come with a recommendation from a current customer.
Dache was famous for making flattering, romantic styles with masses of flowers and trim.
She made lots of hats for celebrities (on and off stage/screen), including Carmen Miranda's famous fruit headdresses.
She helped popularize turbans in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
She also made the tailored, sporty styles from around that time that are my favorite hats.
She made a zillion dollars and was really nice and really happy. *sigh* The whole thing has left me feeling envious and starry eyed and makes me want to get down to business.
But before I do that, let me introduce you to a Lilly Dache hat. This hunter green straw is probably from the 1940s. It's cocked up in front and has a beautifully draped crown. It's trimmed with light green ribbon, white flowers, and blue and brown feathers.
On that note, I'm going to go make a hat.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Hat of the Week: Jesse James
Keeping up with my Drag King theme of late, here's a photo of Old West outlaw Jesse James taken in 1864, aged 17. He radiates teenage swagger, and looks like such a girl.
I saw this photo in a documentary and was so taken with it that I had to track it down. He's wearing a weird leather pull-over hunting jacket, with ammo pouches for breast pockets, over a clean white shirt and Colonel Sanders tie, and accessorized with a huge 6-gun. Behind his head on the left, it might be long hair or possibly a fox tail or raccoon tail hanging jauntily off the back of the hat. His hat looks so manhandled, I love it. The shape has been totally battered and distorted, the brim flips way up on either side, I imagine from frequent and none-too-gentle pinching of the sides of the hat as he has taken it on and off. And the point of the brim sits asymmetrically on the head in front. Kind of piratical, no?
I saw this photo in a documentary and was so taken with it that I had to track it down. He's wearing a weird leather pull-over hunting jacket, with ammo pouches for breast pockets, over a clean white shirt and Colonel Sanders tie, and accessorized with a huge 6-gun. Behind his head on the left, it might be long hair or possibly a fox tail or raccoon tail hanging jauntily off the back of the hat. His hat looks so manhandled, I love it. The shape has been totally battered and distorted, the brim flips way up on either side, I imagine from frequent and none-too-gentle pinching of the sides of the hat as he has taken it on and off. And the point of the brim sits asymmetrically on the head in front. Kind of piratical, no?
Monday, April 5, 2010
Hat of the Week- Ugly and Great Straw Porkpie
There's something great and also hideous about this straw 1970s porkpie. The top of the crown and the brim are made of spiral-sewn Milan straw braid, but the vertical sides of the crown are made of that horrible lattice wicker stuff from 1970s dining table chairs. The hat looks frankensteined together. Notice how the wicker is kind of crooked.
I like the idea of inserting a totally different material into a section of the hat. Truthfully, though, the execution on this one is a bit sketchy. It's kind of a surprise to me to see that it was 'professionally' made (the sweatband is stamped 'Imported from Italy'). It's got a ribbon sweatband inside instead of the more usual leather, probably for cheapness as much as to make it cooler to wear in hot weather.
Check out the heavy, lumpy upholstery trim used as a hat band. How weird. My parents had a couch that looked like that. You just know it's 100% synthetic and kind of wooly and scratchy at the same time. Makes my skin crawl just looking at it.
I'm going to make a guess and say that this was a super cheaply made hat, and maybe sold cheap in some touristy place somewhere. I hated it at first, but I can't stop looking at it, and that says something.
I like the idea of inserting a totally different material into a section of the hat. Truthfully, though, the execution on this one is a bit sketchy. It's kind of a surprise to me to see that it was 'professionally' made (the sweatband is stamped 'Imported from Italy'). It's got a ribbon sweatband inside instead of the more usual leather, probably for cheapness as much as to make it cooler to wear in hot weather.
Check out the heavy, lumpy upholstery trim used as a hat band. How weird. My parents had a couch that looked like that. You just know it's 100% synthetic and kind of wooly and scratchy at the same time. Makes my skin crawl just looking at it.
I'm going to make a guess and say that this was a super cheaply made hat, and maybe sold cheap in some touristy place somewhere. I hated it at first, but I can't stop looking at it, and that says something.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Hat of the Week: Striped Straw Boater
One from my own collection, a striped straw boater, probably from the early or mid 1960s. Alternating black and ivory straw braids are joined with spiral sewn construction.
As you can see in the second photo, the underside of the brim is lined in green silk fabric.
The crown is slightly offset, so the brim is narrower at the back than at the front.
The wide ribbon band is half black, half green.
As you can see in the second photo, the underside of the brim is lined in green silk fabric.
The crown is slightly offset, so the brim is narrower at the back than at the front.
The wide ribbon band is half black, half green.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Bonus Hat of the Week: Edwardian Straw
Seeing as how the straw hat season is nearly upon us, I've been thinking a lot about straw as a material. How to use and showcase its natural qualities, and how to choose trims to compliment it. Here are photos of a beautiful straw hat from around 1905. I love how the brim outlines a graceful curve. And the frothiness of the ostrich trim is nicely offset by the plainness of a natural straw hat body, so the total effect is not as heavy and wedding-cake looking as hats from the period usually are.
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