Posts
Saturday, April 24, 2010
ADS has lots of summer hats NOW
ADS Hats on Valencia in San Francisco just got in a huge shipment of summer hats, especially mens! Go check it out.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Fez Friday: Blue Felt Fez
Love this vintage blue felt fez with hanging discs. Label is marked "New York Creation".
Monday, April 19, 2010
Dandies in the Congo
Ok, so apparently there are dandies who dress to impress in the slums of the Congo. I want to see people dress this way on the streets of the US, daily. So, everybody out there wearing jeans and a t-shirt: it's time to shape up.
For more info, see this article.
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.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
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?
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