Wednesday 1 June 2011

Hats, hats, hats


Vintage Vicky asked for more hats. Or hats, really, as I haven’t really talked about them at all yet. When I was a child I always wore something one my head. Always. If no cap/hat/helmet were available other things could do like paper bags or a small buckets or my gruel bowl. Usually before I had eaten all the gruel… The red cap with fake fur I wear on the picture was a favourite.




Nowadays I still love hats, but rarely wear them. When it is cold I wrap a woolen scarf around my head, otherwise I’m bare headed. To wear hats today is a conscious decision and something that is definitely something that people react to. It is strange that in a few years (the sixties, I’m looking at you) a fashion that had been going strong through the ages, suddenly became something unusual and remarkable. In the 1940’s, though hats were very fashionable indeed. For being a decade so full of practical and hard wearing clothes, the hats often are surprisingly frivolous, but when you think about it, then there is a reason for that too. With a war going on and clothes being regulated in some way or the other, a hat is still a small object. You don’t need much to decorate a hat lavishly, so when everything else had to be practical, a frilly hat must have felt like something of a relief. It is also an easy way to dress up. Take a plain suit that you wore in the daytime with a better, change to a spiffy little hat for an outing and you look so much more elegant.



Not all hats were little silly things, of course. Berets and hats that borrowed from male fashions can also be found a lot.







Enlarge this and take a look at Miss Bacall's nails. I think pointy is the only way to describes them!



Hollywood frilly was probably a lot frillier than what was considered frilly for ordinary wear…







Hat? Hair decoration? Being eaten alive by roses?



I love these wide-breamed hats that frames the face.







I don't think she wears a bandana under the hat, but rather that the hat band.



I love the idea of using a two-pronged hair comb as hat ornament!



A hat made of fur?





Or perhaps crochet?



Writing this post made me remember that I have a forties hat safely tucked away in the attic. It's in black velvet and worn on the back of the head. I must dig it up and take some proper photographs! While I'm at it I shall have a look after the bag full of millinery s´tuff that I inherited from my grandmother, I'm sure there are a lot of goodies there that I have forgotten about. I'm also battling one of Vintage Vogue hat patterns- horrid directions, so there will be more hat posts in the future.

8 comments:

Popbabe7 said...

Wow- lots and lots of fantastic pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Vintage Vicky said...

Thanks for the inspiring post Isis! I love hats and am building a collection of vintage ones slowly. I agree with your comment about hat wearing being treated as a novelty these days. Whenever I wear mine out I have to prepared for some serious gawking which is quite funny as in the past it would have been the other way round and if someone wasn't wearing a hat they would have attracted attention. I especially like hats from the 40s as millinery was one of the few areas that did not suffer from the dreaded rationing. Often people did their utmost to dress their hats as elaborately as possible to make up for the somewhat drab options they had for the rest of their outfits.

Katie said...

Thanks for this gorgeous post! I adore hats but as I can't make them and therefore always have to buy them I get a bit put off. And when I'm in the mood for hats I never know what to pair them with because as you say hats are not common nowadays, they're much more part of making a statement. Maybe I should look at the clothes I have and try and decide what hats would go with them and then buy appropriately. I would love a collection to rival Dita Von Teese's!

Isis said...

Popbabe: Welcome! :)

Vintage Vicky: I have but one forties hat. :) But I plan to make a few now for my wardrobe. Hats are much more practcial than people think nowadays. I always wear hats when I dress up in 18th century clothes and especially in summer it's really nice to wear something that shade the face.

Miss Katie: I think it's a good idea to start the other way round, yes. If the hat fits... ;) Oh, who couldn't want a collection like that!

Erin said...

Sigh, I love hats but haven't worn many. I think it's time that I do! Lovely, inspiring post!

Isis said...

Erin: Do, do! We need to start a new trend! ;)

Wendy Bayford said...

Fabulous Post, I love hats and I have a few but seldom wear them:( I must try harder! Oh and Miss Bacall's nails are truly terrifying, you would have to be very carful not to loose an eye with those beauties!!

Isis said...

Wendy: It is the same here. SOmehow it's difficult to find the right moment for them. :)

I would poke out my own eyes if I had nails like that, I'm sure...

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