Hat donation! Beautiful hatboxes...

[labricoleuse]

One of the perks of working for the Costume Production MFA program here is the access to the Costar Archive. Not only do we have access to a wide range of surviving antique garments and accessories in the collection, but we also sometimes luck out and get to see something when it arrives in a donation.

Just yesterday, our head of loans and acquisitions, Sam-Kate Toney, dropped by my office with an armload of hatboxes...

Three lovely boxes for womens hats...

...and these two fantastic-shaped boxes of mens hats!

This tiny but lovely Stetson was inside that octagonal one, and here's a close-up of its hat-securer!
This cord and button remains looped around the crown until a windy day springs up, at which point the wearer unloops the cord and fastens the button through his lapel, securing his hat to his person by the little "leash" in case it's blown off his head!

Tomorrow, we'll take a look into those three lovely ladies...

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I've learned something new today! Never heard of the hat-securer before.

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

It's funny, i'd seen them on hats before, usually old bowlers in storage, but didn't know the name for them. Then i was reading one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and he mentioned one in theorizing about the meticulous character of a suspect based on the hat they'd found, and it was an a-ha moment! A hat-securer!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Oh! Now I feel the need to read some Holmes to see what else I've missed!