La Bricoleuse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
labricoleuse) wrote2007-08-03 10:21 am
labricoleuse) wrote2007-08-03 10:21 am
History: A survey of the millinery business in 1916
Sometimes i like to go to the university library and just peruse the shelves, looking for some serendipitous treasure of information. I'll look up a book on a given topic in the catalogue to give myself a starting point, then just wander around browsing the shelves in its aisle.
Wandering in the vicinity of an old millinery book turned up an unusual treasure of period information: an extensive survey of the dressmaking and millinery trades conducted by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland [Ohio] Foundation in 1916, written by a woman named Edna Bryner.
Sounds dry and full of statistics, doesn't it? Well, it's got its share of tables of facts-n-figures, but Ms. Bryner is a surprisingly engaging writer for a surveyor of trade and industry, clearly taking pleasure in sharing little elements that humanize her subjects, quotes and quirks and quibbles, even the odd literary reference! She expresses a care and concern for worker safety and child labor that seems unusual for the period, identifies a trend toward what might now be considered industrial espionage, and in skimming through the book i grew to wonder about its author--how old was she, had she a husband and children, was she paid well for her survey work, and had it any positive effect in the industries it addressed?
The book is actually full of fascinating information on the millinery trade of the time--hats were quite literally huge in the teens, and the way the industry is adapting to mechanization and big business is both fascinating and sad (since we know that the days of millinery as a common trade are numbered). Ms. Bryner's survey affords a comprehensive look at what a wide range of employment and specialization options were available for milliners of the era, as well as the challenges faced by various ares of the industry.
The entire publication is nearly 135 pages long, and much of the dressmaking information is irrelevant to the focus of La Bricoleuse. However, i thought my readership might enjoy the portions devoted to millinery, so i have decided to transcribe them here.
Because this publication dates from 1916, it is considered part of the public domain, so reproducing portions of it here infringes on no copyright. Credit for its contents belongs to Edna Bryner and the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation. (I'm sure everyone involved is now quite dead, but regardless it's best to place credit where credit is due.)
I hope that you find it as interesting as i do! Due to the length and breadth of information, i'll be posting it in two parts--part one is a general overview of the millinery business at the time of the survey, and part two addresses working conditions for milliners.
The Millinery Business in Cleveland
The mention of millinery immediately brings certain ideas to mind: Easter, spring hats and fall hats, small shops, flowers and feathers, and ingenious hand work. Each of these suggests an important aspect of the millinery business. For the small milliner, Easter is the most important day in the year. The mention of spring hats and fall hats makes the self-supporting worker remember the rush work of busy seasons and the unemployment of slack seasons. Flowers and feathers are typical of the immense amount of small "fixings" that go to make the hats for the feminine world. The peculiar kinds of artistic and skilled hand work demanded constitute for many ambitious workers the lure of millinery. Because of the difficulties of the work, advancement to positions offering steady employment and good wages is slow, and yet to many these same difficulties constitute a strong attraction despite the many unsatisfactory conditions that must be faced in entering millinery as a wage-earning occupation.
If you ask in the small shop what millinery means, many milliners will tell you in the familiar phrase that "It is making something out of nothing." You realize that this is not far from being true when you are shown in the wholesale house a great shelf of artistic hats made out of the "scrap bag" pieces left from the regular hats. In a sense millinery is a picayunish trade, requiring the handling of small pieces of the most varied sorts of material, most of it perishable: straw, velvet, chiffon, leather, lace, cretonne, beads, and silk. These materials must be measured, cut, turned, and twisted, and draped into a thousand designs and color combinations without soiling or creasing. They must be sewed with various kinds of stitching, ranging in difficulty from the running of short straight seams on the machine to the deftest kind of hand tacking, strong and invisible, with fancy stitching for ornamentation. The organization of the immense amount of detail involved in the trade so as to produce successful millinery requires what Stevenson calls the secret of good writing, "a constantly varying slight ingenuity of style."
MILLINERY PROCESSES
Millinery is both a trade and a craft. Making is a trade; and trimming, which shades imperceptibly into designing, is a craft. These two constitute the main millinery processes. Makers fashion wire or buckram into the desired shape and cover it with
some sort of material, straw, velvet, chiffon, or lace, as may be specified. Making is complicated by the endless variety displayed in the shape of hats and by the fashion in which the covering is put on. In some seasons the material is put on plain and great care must be taken to place it smoothly with the grain running in the right direction and the seams in the right place. In other seasons it may be shirred. Since shirring is in the nature of trimming, this means that considerable skill is required. In a season when hats are draped, graceful folds must be arranged which requires careful planning of materials and skill in line arrangement. The making and sewing of bandeaux into hats to make them fit the head properly (or, according to recent tendencies, the manipulation of the lining for this purpose) and the making and sewing in of linings are also parts of the making process.
[Editor's note: The above paragraph, with its mention of creatively-structured linings and interior bandeax, gives some clues as to how the wide-brimmed enormous-crowned hats particular to the Aughts and Teens were kept on the heads and coiffures of their wearers.]
Trimming consists in placing and sewing on all sorts of decorative materials, ribbon, flowers, feathers, and other ornaments. A combination of the two processes, making and trimming, is known as copying. The copyist fashions from the beginning a certain number of hats exactly like one given to her to be copied. Designing is the creation of original models from suggestions received from special style exhibits, style books, and models seen in the hotels, in amusement places, and on the street.
THE FACTORY HAT IN MILLINERY
In the past few years the factory-made hat has become an important factor in millinery. The influence of these hats has been powerful not only in changing at times the bulk of the hat-making process from handwork to machine work, thus affecting number of workers and length of seasons, but also in changing the style of hat produced. The gradual evolution of a different sort of millinery taste among women has been a secondary factor in changing millinery conditions.
In the factory, straw of all descriptions is made into hats of the greatest variety of shapes on the speedy power machines and blocked and pressed into perfectly shaped and finished products. Wire and buckram frames are also made by factory machine methods and velvet covers pressed on with perfect smoothness. Milliners used to do all this work by hand. In the highest grade shops, hats are still almost entirely hand-made; but in by far the greater number of shops some use is made of the factory hat, the extent varying according to the class of patrons and according to whether or not the season's styles call for hand-made goods.
[Ed.: I--and i'm sure anyone whose ever made a similar hat will agree--would love to see the factory machines that could manufacture a buckram frame in a 1915 style and shape, and put a velvet cover fabric on it.]
By the mass of indiscriminate buyers the hat made in the factory and trimmed or semi-trimmed by hand is desired because its low cost enables them to have several hats a year for what they formerly paid for two. Working women of all classes are more frequently calling for the plain hat which can withstand each day's weather and still retain its good lines for a considerable period. The tendency of many women to wear the mannish hat for sports or ordinary street wear has also increased the use of the high grade factory hat. The prevalence of the use of the automobile has had its effect in reducing the demand for "fluffy" theater and party hats and increasing the demand for durable hats for daily wear. Altogether there is a decided trend toward a steady demand for the factory-made hat, while the trimmed hat made to order in the custom shop is becoming a luxury.
The sale of factory-made frames and millinery materials has also had its effect on the millinery business. Many of those who formerly had their season's hats made by a medium grade custom milliner now buy either a frame which they cover with silk or velvet or they purchase an untrimmed ready-made hat, some ribbon, and flowers or other ornaments, and trim the hat themselves or get some friend who has millinery ability to do it for them.
[Ed.: The juxtaposition of these two paragraphs is striking. In the former, i find myself saddened at what we now know was the beginning of the end for common consumption of fashion millinery. It illustrates all too well the confluence of factors that led to its demise. However, the latter paragraph is exciting within a historical context, with respect to the era's mechanization having temporarily led to the empowerment of the average woman to embrace some "DIY millinery" for a change.]
All these changes are having an effect in shifting much of the volume of business from the small custom shops into millinery departments in the large stores. In all parts of the city the owners of retail shops say that the inroad of factory-made hats has so decreased the amount of work in medium grade frame making and covering that the number of workers has been cut down considerably in the custom workrooms.
The small milliner says she cannot afford to handle factory-made hats as cheaply as the department stores. Moreover it is impossible for her to offer the variety shown in the department stores. As a result, numbers of women who formerly went to the small retail shop in their own locality now find it convenient to patronize the millinery department in the large store. Here they have a wide field of selection and often save time and avoid trouble by finding a becoming hat all ready trimmed. The small shops are fighting hard to hold ground against these changing conditions and they still employ in the aggregate the bulk of millinery workers.
SCOPE OF THE BUSINESS
It is apparent from figures in Chapter II showing the comparative size of the sewing trades in Cleveland that millinery is relatively not a big business in this city. [Ed.: I have not reproduced Chapter II here, as it is largely off-topical. You can glean what's contained there by context in this paragraph.] In 1910 there were 1,432 milliners and millinery dealers. According to a close estimate, there were not more than 2,000 actually engaged in this work during the busiest part of 1915. The number of millinery workers fluctuates constantly, not only from season to season but from year to year. In a season when factory-made hats predominate, there are milliners out of work; and in a season when hand-made hats have the ascendancy, the number of workers is not equal to the demands of the work.
Millinery workers are found in three general types of shops: retail millinery shops, millinery departments in stores, and wholesale millinery houses. The largest number are in small retail shops scattered over the city in localities easily accessible to their patrons. In the latest city directory, 221 of these small shops were listed. Forty-five of them were visited by the Survey. The number of regular workers in the 45 shops in 1914 totaled 198. If this proportion holds true for all the shops in the city, there must be upward of 1,200 milliners and millinery dealers in retail shops.
The number of millinery departments in the stores of the city amounts to about a dozen with not more than 300 regular workers. According to the Industrial Commission of Ohio, the four wholesale houses having workrooms had a total of slightly over 300 workers in the busiest month of 1914. Data were secured from seven millinery departments in stores and from three of the four wholesale houses visited by the Survey. The fourth wholesale house refused to give any information, but it seems evident from statements of former workers and from milliners who know this place that it does not differ much from the other wholesale houses.
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL SHOPS
The wholesale house is the powerful originating center of the millinery business from which new ideas are sent out to the retail milliners. Through the retail shops the reactions of the public toward the new ideas are registered and passed back. The most effective way to get the new ideas into circulation seems to be by having workers sent in from the various retail milliners to work in the wholesale house long enough each season to grasp what the future tendencies are to be in materials, designs, and color combinations. At the same time these workers have the opportunity to get in touch with a high grade of workmanship which is considered by their regular employers to have a stimulating effect on their work. Moreover, they often have a chance to secure positions by getting in touch with millinery dealers who apply to the wholesale houses for workers, and may even be offered a permanent place in the wholesale house itself.
The wholesale houses may be said to control the millinery situation by keeping in circulation the new ideas among retail milliners. They set the standard for millinery models and for high grade workmanship. In a sense they are clearing-houses in that they secure new positions for ambitious workers; tide some workers from retail shops over a part of the dull period; and offer increasingly steadier employment to high grade workers who manage to get places in their establishments.
RETAIL SHOPS
From the figures given in the first part of the chapter, it is evident that the retail shops are the leading millinery labor employers in Cleveland. Moreover, they are extremely important in that they constitute practically the entire field of training for this trade.
The 45 shops visited were in all parts of the city, on Euclid, Superior, St. Clair, Cedar, Detroit, Wade Park, and Ontario Avenues, West 25th Street, and East 105th Street. Placed about the city in the localities from which they draw their trade, these retail shops vary in character with the class of customers who purchase from them. Each has its particular "following," whether it be "Presbyterians," "school teachers," or "women whose husbands always want to come with them to choose their hats." A somewhat homogeneous following is really necessary for the small milliner. With the erratic changes in millinery, it is incumbent on her to buy carefully and she can the more readily do this if she can select more or less along one line. Her hours of work and of keeping open her shop are more comfortably arranged if customers have similar leisure hours.
The shops range in quality of product from the exclusive custom shop to the retail millinery store which deals largely in ready-made hats. The few workers in the latter shop make trifling alterations and put on a little extra trimming. Between these two lie all the rest of the shops with varying proportions of made-to-order and factory products. In some small neighborhood shops more than half the work consists of making over old hats.
Among the 51 proprietors in these 45 shops, six were men, one of these being in business with his wife, and 21 were married women. The men were found in the type of shop which deals largely in a factory-made product. One woman was proprietor of two shops in different parts of the city.
[Ed.: How fascinating to consider that, given these figures, that means that 24 of the proprietors were single or widowed women. I wonder, too, what of the five male proprietors not in business with their wives--were they married to homemakers or women in other trades? Might this be a coded reference to the existence of professionally-successful gay men in the Cleveland of 1916? How did these five men enter the trade? In light of the industry standard of proprietors often serving as principal designers, did these men follow that trend and design and build hats as well as run the shops? I always wonder about the people behind the statistics.]
The shops varied in number of workers from one to 30. The typical shop had a woman proprietor who did the designing and some trimming; and a working force consisting of one trimmer and one, two, or three makers, with one apprentice to "help out" while learning her trade. Among the smallest shops was one with two apprentices only for its working force besides the proprietor; another with one trimmer; a third with one maker. On the other hand, shops of considerable size were found: one with five trimmers, 25 makers, two apprentices, and five saleswomen; another with three trimmers, 16 makers, three apprentices, and one saleswoman; a third with three trimmers, 12 makers, one apprentice, and two saleswomen. Clerical and delivery help were also a part of the working force of these larger shops. Only eight of the 45 shops had regular saleswomen. In addition five had combination saleswomen and makers or trimmers. In the rest, regular workers makers, or trimmers, or apprentices were called from the workroom to wait on customers.
[Ed.: Note the disparity in the number of makers vs. the number of trimmers; modern milliners will recognize this as a staffing manifestation of the difference in the amount of time it takes to make a hat well, and the time it takes to trim a hat well.]
Just as in garment making, a "section" or a "team" of workers is the unit which marks organization of work, so in millinery, the "table" is the unit of organization. Having a "place at the table" signifies that one is a regular worker. In the small shop there is but one table; but in the large shops each trimmer has her own table and her own makers.
The trimmer (or designer) sits at the head of the table and acts as forewoman in giving directions under the supervision of the proprietor. About her on each side of the table sit the makers who pass on to her to be trimmed the hats they have made. The apprentice usually occupies a place at the foot of the table, when she is not jumping up to wait upon the regular workers, bringing to them from the stock shelves the materials which they ask for. Occasionally she sits by the trimmer to be instructed in various tricks of the trade.
When there are a few girls working together in such close team work, it can readily be seen that it is necessary for the greatest harmony to exist among them. This is not always easy to accomplish, and there are girls who, although they are good workers, are not kept on in a small shop because they do not fit into the organization. In the successful shops turning out a high-grade product, the proprietors invariably spoke of this fitting girls into an organization capable of effective team work.
More of the girls employed in these small shops live at home and many of them do not actually have to earn their own living. On the other hand a considerable proportion have to be at least partly self-supporting. It is probably true, however, that in no other trade is there such a large proportion of girls who are not entirely dependent on their own resources.
Most of the girls employed have been to high school at least a year or two, and many have finished the course. High school girls are preferred by most proprietors of small shops because they have a greater facility in handling customers and in keeping track of the details necessary in this work.
The workrooms present the usual disparity of conditions in a small shop business. A considerable number answer all the demands of the state law. Many of them are crowded with boxes and scrap bags, and are so insufficiently lighted that one wonders how the close and delicate stitching demanded in this work can be done without injury to the strongest of eyes. In one shop work was carried on all day long by electric light.
Factory inspection of these small shops is utterly inadequate. Such violations of the law as the preparation of food in the workrooms are not uncommon. A proprietor utterly ignorant of the law showed the visitor a bed in an alcove screened from the workroom by curtains where, she said, she dropped down nights during busy season instead of going home. Evidence that the age and schooling law is being violated by these small employers is not lacking. There is need for systematic and thorough factory inspection of all these small shops.
MILLINERY DEPARTMENTS IN STORES
Millinery departments in stores range from the exclusive department doing mostly order work to that dealing almost entirely in ready trimmed factory-made hats. Millinery is carried on in a store department on a much larger scale than in a retail shop and has a marked division of workers.
The head of the millinery workroom in the store, who corresponds to the proprietor of the retail shop, is a woman who acts as assistant to a man buyer for the department. She is the designer for the department and does some of the trimming. Under her are the trimmers, each of whom acts as forewoman at the head of a table.
The most common divisions of work are stock, order, practical, children's, and popularly priced millinery. Workers at the stock table make up hats to be put on display for customers to buy outright, to have altered, or copied. They must be able to copy pattern hats which they see in the wholesale houses and to make up hats according to directions given them by the head of the department. They are the highest grade of workers. Order workers make up hats according to the orders of customers. Many of these workers are selected by reason of their speed so that rush orders can be got out on time. Practical millinery for middle-aged women who have their hats fashioned on the same lines from year to year requires very painstaking work. Usually younger workers are engaged on children's hats. Younger and less experienced girls usually add the small bits of trimming to factory-made hats to complete the popularly priced millinery.
WHOLESALE HOUSES
The influence of Paris styles is of tremendous importance to the wholesale houses and they try to get into direct touch with Parisian models. The designer is thus an important worker in the wholesale house. She adapts the Parisian models to American taste and originates as many individual styles as possible. She has a special maker make each hat according to her design. If it is approved as to style and cost of making, it is given to a certain worker to be copied in exact detail as many times as may be desired. There is one designer to about 15 workers.
Three-quarters of the workers are makers and copyists. Other workers are cutters, who cut materials as specified for hats; machine operators, who do pleating, hemstitching, etc.; liners, who do nothing but line hats; shoppers; and stock or order girls who see that each table gets the proper amounts of materials.
Wholesale houses are much more like factories in their organization than are the store millinery departments or the retail shops, for a large part of their work consists in making hats in lots exactly alike. Their workmanship is, however, of high grade, since they send out many hats to be copied. Workers are classified according to the nature of the product they turn out. In general there are two kinds of product: pattern hats put on display for retail milliners to copy and other hats sold by the dozen of a kind to retail milliners to be resold. More specifically there are tailored, semi-dress, dress, and children's hats. A house may specialize on any one of these or it may produce two or three, or all four. There are also hats graded by prices into as many as five grades, according to cost of materials and labor.
SUMMARY
Millinery requires the handling of small pieces of the most varied sorts of material, most of it perishable. The materials must be measured, cut, turned, twisted, and draped into innumerable designs and color combinations, and sewed with various kinds of stitching. The main processes are making, trimming, and designing. Making consists in fashioning from wire or buckram a specified shape and covering it with some sort of material, such as straw or velvet. The covering may be put on plain, or may be shirred or draped. Trimming consists in placing and sewing on all sorts of decorative materials. A combination of the two processes of making and trimming, known as copying, consists in making a hat from the beginning exactly like a specified model. Designing is the creation of original models from suggestions received from style exhibits, and from models seen in hotels, amusement places, and on the street.
The increase in the use of the factory-made hat has decreased the number of workers in custom millinery; and has also had an effect in diverting business from small retail shops to millinery departments in stores where a greater variety of pleasing hats may be found. The number of millinery workers constantly fluctuates not only from season to season but from year to year. According to a close estimate not more than 2,000 workers were actually engaged in millinery during the busiest part of 1915. Between 1,200 and 1,400 were in retail shops; about 300 were in millinery departments in stores; and about 300 more were in wholesale houses.
The wholesale house acts as a sort of clearing-house for the city by keeping in circulation new ideas among retail milliners; by setting the standards for millinery models and good workmanship; by giving a few weeks' employment to workers who come to them during the dull season in custom trade; and by securing new and better positions for some of these workers.
According to the latest city directory, there are 221 retail shops in Cleveland. Forty-five of these in widely different parts of the city were visited by the writer of the report. These shops varied in grade of product from the exclusive custom shop, making expensive hats to order, to the retail millinery store dealing almost entirely in ready-trimmed factory-made hats. The shops varied in number of workers from one to 30. The typical shop has a woman proprietor who does the designing and some trimming; and a working force consisting of one trimmer and one, two, or three makers, with one apprentice to help out while learning her trade. These small shops need more adequate factory inspection inasmuch as it is evident that there are many violations of the legal requirements, such as sanitary conditions and the age and schooling certificates of workers.
Millinery departments in stores are very like retail shops except that there is a greater subdivision of work. There are stock workers who make up hats to be put on display; order workers, who make up hats to order; and various others who work especially on children's hats, hats for middle-aged women, or on popular priced hats which require little trimming.
In wholesale houses three-quarters of the workers are makers and copyists. Designers are found in a proportion of one to every 15 workers. Other workers are cutters, machine operators, liners, and stock or order girls. Wholesale houses are more like factories in their organization than retail shops, for a large part of their work consists in making hats in lots exactly alike. In general there are two kinds of product pattern hats made for display purposes, and other hats made to be sold by the dozen. Workers are classified according to these two divisions of product and also according to the grade and kind of hats they work on.
* * * * *
That's it for part one! I wonder what Ms. Bryner thought when she was engaged to compile this survey and went around visiting the 45 millinery shops. Had she previously known what millinery involved "behind the scenes"? Was she excited by the process? Did she know anyone in any of the shops already? And what sort of hats did she choose to wear while surveying? I like to picture her as someone with a smiley-friendly demeanor, but shrewd and observant, taking notes in a small notebook, wearing a fairly sensible ladies boater but secretly coveting some of the undoubtedly fanciful and fabulous "'fluffy' theatre and party hats" that she saw.
What a fun combination of historical research and frivolous speculation a browse in the library has led to. Hope you enjoyed perusing it as much as i did, and if so, keep an eye out for part two, "The Conditions of Work in Millinery," which will be posted in the near future.
Wandering in the vicinity of an old millinery book turned up an unusual treasure of period information: an extensive survey of the dressmaking and millinery trades conducted by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland [Ohio] Foundation in 1916, written by a woman named Edna Bryner.
Sounds dry and full of statistics, doesn't it? Well, it's got its share of tables of facts-n-figures, but Ms. Bryner is a surprisingly engaging writer for a surveyor of trade and industry, clearly taking pleasure in sharing little elements that humanize her subjects, quotes and quirks and quibbles, even the odd literary reference! She expresses a care and concern for worker safety and child labor that seems unusual for the period, identifies a trend toward what might now be considered industrial espionage, and in skimming through the book i grew to wonder about its author--how old was she, had she a husband and children, was she paid well for her survey work, and had it any positive effect in the industries it addressed?
The book is actually full of fascinating information on the millinery trade of the time--hats were quite literally huge in the teens, and the way the industry is adapting to mechanization and big business is both fascinating and sad (since we know that the days of millinery as a common trade are numbered). Ms. Bryner's survey affords a comprehensive look at what a wide range of employment and specialization options were available for milliners of the era, as well as the challenges faced by various ares of the industry.
The entire publication is nearly 135 pages long, and much of the dressmaking information is irrelevant to the focus of La Bricoleuse. However, i thought my readership might enjoy the portions devoted to millinery, so i have decided to transcribe them here.
Because this publication dates from 1916, it is considered part of the public domain, so reproducing portions of it here infringes on no copyright. Credit for its contents belongs to Edna Bryner and the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation. (I'm sure everyone involved is now quite dead, but regardless it's best to place credit where credit is due.)
I hope that you find it as interesting as i do! Due to the length and breadth of information, i'll be posting it in two parts--part one is a general overview of the millinery business at the time of the survey, and part two addresses working conditions for milliners.
The Millinery Business in Cleveland
The mention of millinery immediately brings certain ideas to mind: Easter, spring hats and fall hats, small shops, flowers and feathers, and ingenious hand work. Each of these suggests an important aspect of the millinery business. For the small milliner, Easter is the most important day in the year. The mention of spring hats and fall hats makes the self-supporting worker remember the rush work of busy seasons and the unemployment of slack seasons. Flowers and feathers are typical of the immense amount of small "fixings" that go to make the hats for the feminine world. The peculiar kinds of artistic and skilled hand work demanded constitute for many ambitious workers the lure of millinery. Because of the difficulties of the work, advancement to positions offering steady employment and good wages is slow, and yet to many these same difficulties constitute a strong attraction despite the many unsatisfactory conditions that must be faced in entering millinery as a wage-earning occupation.
If you ask in the small shop what millinery means, many milliners will tell you in the familiar phrase that "It is making something out of nothing." You realize that this is not far from being true when you are shown in the wholesale house a great shelf of artistic hats made out of the "scrap bag" pieces left from the regular hats. In a sense millinery is a picayunish trade, requiring the handling of small pieces of the most varied sorts of material, most of it perishable: straw, velvet, chiffon, leather, lace, cretonne, beads, and silk. These materials must be measured, cut, turned, and twisted, and draped into a thousand designs and color combinations without soiling or creasing. They must be sewed with various kinds of stitching, ranging in difficulty from the running of short straight seams on the machine to the deftest kind of hand tacking, strong and invisible, with fancy stitching for ornamentation. The organization of the immense amount of detail involved in the trade so as to produce successful millinery requires what Stevenson calls the secret of good writing, "a constantly varying slight ingenuity of style."
MILLINERY PROCESSES
Millinery is both a trade and a craft. Making is a trade; and trimming, which shades imperceptibly into designing, is a craft. These two constitute the main millinery processes. Makers fashion wire or buckram into the desired shape and cover it with
some sort of material, straw, velvet, chiffon, or lace, as may be specified. Making is complicated by the endless variety displayed in the shape of hats and by the fashion in which the covering is put on. In some seasons the material is put on plain and great care must be taken to place it smoothly with the grain running in the right direction and the seams in the right place. In other seasons it may be shirred. Since shirring is in the nature of trimming, this means that considerable skill is required. In a season when hats are draped, graceful folds must be arranged which requires careful planning of materials and skill in line arrangement. The making and sewing of bandeaux into hats to make them fit the head properly (or, according to recent tendencies, the manipulation of the lining for this purpose) and the making and sewing in of linings are also parts of the making process.
[Editor's note: The above paragraph, with its mention of creatively-structured linings and interior bandeax, gives some clues as to how the wide-brimmed enormous-crowned hats particular to the Aughts and Teens were kept on the heads and coiffures of their wearers.]
Trimming consists in placing and sewing on all sorts of decorative materials, ribbon, flowers, feathers, and other ornaments. A combination of the two processes, making and trimming, is known as copying. The copyist fashions from the beginning a certain number of hats exactly like one given to her to be copied. Designing is the creation of original models from suggestions received from special style exhibits, style books, and models seen in the hotels, in amusement places, and on the street.
THE FACTORY HAT IN MILLINERY
In the past few years the factory-made hat has become an important factor in millinery. The influence of these hats has been powerful not only in changing at times the bulk of the hat-making process from handwork to machine work, thus affecting number of workers and length of seasons, but also in changing the style of hat produced. The gradual evolution of a different sort of millinery taste among women has been a secondary factor in changing millinery conditions.
In the factory, straw of all descriptions is made into hats of the greatest variety of shapes on the speedy power machines and blocked and pressed into perfectly shaped and finished products. Wire and buckram frames are also made by factory machine methods and velvet covers pressed on with perfect smoothness. Milliners used to do all this work by hand. In the highest grade shops, hats are still almost entirely hand-made; but in by far the greater number of shops some use is made of the factory hat, the extent varying according to the class of patrons and according to whether or not the season's styles call for hand-made goods.
[Ed.: I--and i'm sure anyone whose ever made a similar hat will agree--would love to see the factory machines that could manufacture a buckram frame in a 1915 style and shape, and put a velvet cover fabric on it.]
By the mass of indiscriminate buyers the hat made in the factory and trimmed or semi-trimmed by hand is desired because its low cost enables them to have several hats a year for what they formerly paid for two. Working women of all classes are more frequently calling for the plain hat which can withstand each day's weather and still retain its good lines for a considerable period. The tendency of many women to wear the mannish hat for sports or ordinary street wear has also increased the use of the high grade factory hat. The prevalence of the use of the automobile has had its effect in reducing the demand for "fluffy" theater and party hats and increasing the demand for durable hats for daily wear. Altogether there is a decided trend toward a steady demand for the factory-made hat, while the trimmed hat made to order in the custom shop is becoming a luxury.
The sale of factory-made frames and millinery materials has also had its effect on the millinery business. Many of those who formerly had their season's hats made by a medium grade custom milliner now buy either a frame which they cover with silk or velvet or they purchase an untrimmed ready-made hat, some ribbon, and flowers or other ornaments, and trim the hat themselves or get some friend who has millinery ability to do it for them.
[Ed.: The juxtaposition of these two paragraphs is striking. In the former, i find myself saddened at what we now know was the beginning of the end for common consumption of fashion millinery. It illustrates all too well the confluence of factors that led to its demise. However, the latter paragraph is exciting within a historical context, with respect to the era's mechanization having temporarily led to the empowerment of the average woman to embrace some "DIY millinery" for a change.]
All these changes are having an effect in shifting much of the volume of business from the small custom shops into millinery departments in the large stores. In all parts of the city the owners of retail shops say that the inroad of factory-made hats has so decreased the amount of work in medium grade frame making and covering that the number of workers has been cut down considerably in the custom workrooms.
The small milliner says she cannot afford to handle factory-made hats as cheaply as the department stores. Moreover it is impossible for her to offer the variety shown in the department stores. As a result, numbers of women who formerly went to the small retail shop in their own locality now find it convenient to patronize the millinery department in the large store. Here they have a wide field of selection and often save time and avoid trouble by finding a becoming hat all ready trimmed. The small shops are fighting hard to hold ground against these changing conditions and they still employ in the aggregate the bulk of millinery workers.
SCOPE OF THE BUSINESS
It is apparent from figures in Chapter II showing the comparative size of the sewing trades in Cleveland that millinery is relatively not a big business in this city. [Ed.: I have not reproduced Chapter II here, as it is largely off-topical. You can glean what's contained there by context in this paragraph.] In 1910 there were 1,432 milliners and millinery dealers. According to a close estimate, there were not more than 2,000 actually engaged in this work during the busiest part of 1915. The number of millinery workers fluctuates constantly, not only from season to season but from year to year. In a season when factory-made hats predominate, there are milliners out of work; and in a season when hand-made hats have the ascendancy, the number of workers is not equal to the demands of the work.
Millinery workers are found in three general types of shops: retail millinery shops, millinery departments in stores, and wholesale millinery houses. The largest number are in small retail shops scattered over the city in localities easily accessible to their patrons. In the latest city directory, 221 of these small shops were listed. Forty-five of them were visited by the Survey. The number of regular workers in the 45 shops in 1914 totaled 198. If this proportion holds true for all the shops in the city, there must be upward of 1,200 milliners and millinery dealers in retail shops.
The number of millinery departments in the stores of the city amounts to about a dozen with not more than 300 regular workers. According to the Industrial Commission of Ohio, the four wholesale houses having workrooms had a total of slightly over 300 workers in the busiest month of 1914. Data were secured from seven millinery departments in stores and from three of the four wholesale houses visited by the Survey. The fourth wholesale house refused to give any information, but it seems evident from statements of former workers and from milliners who know this place that it does not differ much from the other wholesale houses.
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL SHOPS
The wholesale house is the powerful originating center of the millinery business from which new ideas are sent out to the retail milliners. Through the retail shops the reactions of the public toward the new ideas are registered and passed back. The most effective way to get the new ideas into circulation seems to be by having workers sent in from the various retail milliners to work in the wholesale house long enough each season to grasp what the future tendencies are to be in materials, designs, and color combinations. At the same time these workers have the opportunity to get in touch with a high grade of workmanship which is considered by their regular employers to have a stimulating effect on their work. Moreover, they often have a chance to secure positions by getting in touch with millinery dealers who apply to the wholesale houses for workers, and may even be offered a permanent place in the wholesale house itself.
The wholesale houses may be said to control the millinery situation by keeping in circulation the new ideas among retail milliners. They set the standard for millinery models and for high grade workmanship. In a sense they are clearing-houses in that they secure new positions for ambitious workers; tide some workers from retail shops over a part of the dull period; and offer increasingly steadier employment to high grade workers who manage to get places in their establishments.
RETAIL SHOPS
From the figures given in the first part of the chapter, it is evident that the retail shops are the leading millinery labor employers in Cleveland. Moreover, they are extremely important in that they constitute practically the entire field of training for this trade.
The 45 shops visited were in all parts of the city, on Euclid, Superior, St. Clair, Cedar, Detroit, Wade Park, and Ontario Avenues, West 25th Street, and East 105th Street. Placed about the city in the localities from which they draw their trade, these retail shops vary in character with the class of customers who purchase from them. Each has its particular "following," whether it be "Presbyterians," "school teachers," or "women whose husbands always want to come with them to choose their hats." A somewhat homogeneous following is really necessary for the small milliner. With the erratic changes in millinery, it is incumbent on her to buy carefully and she can the more readily do this if she can select more or less along one line. Her hours of work and of keeping open her shop are more comfortably arranged if customers have similar leisure hours.
The shops range in quality of product from the exclusive custom shop to the retail millinery store which deals largely in ready-made hats. The few workers in the latter shop make trifling alterations and put on a little extra trimming. Between these two lie all the rest of the shops with varying proportions of made-to-order and factory products. In some small neighborhood shops more than half the work consists of making over old hats.
Among the 51 proprietors in these 45 shops, six were men, one of these being in business with his wife, and 21 were married women. The men were found in the type of shop which deals largely in a factory-made product. One woman was proprietor of two shops in different parts of the city.
[Ed.: How fascinating to consider that, given these figures, that means that 24 of the proprietors were single or widowed women. I wonder, too, what of the five male proprietors not in business with their wives--were they married to homemakers or women in other trades? Might this be a coded reference to the existence of professionally-successful gay men in the Cleveland of 1916? How did these five men enter the trade? In light of the industry standard of proprietors often serving as principal designers, did these men follow that trend and design and build hats as well as run the shops? I always wonder about the people behind the statistics.]
The shops varied in number of workers from one to 30. The typical shop had a woman proprietor who did the designing and some trimming; and a working force consisting of one trimmer and one, two, or three makers, with one apprentice to "help out" while learning her trade. Among the smallest shops was one with two apprentices only for its working force besides the proprietor; another with one trimmer; a third with one maker. On the other hand, shops of considerable size were found: one with five trimmers, 25 makers, two apprentices, and five saleswomen; another with three trimmers, 16 makers, three apprentices, and one saleswoman; a third with three trimmers, 12 makers, one apprentice, and two saleswomen. Clerical and delivery help were also a part of the working force of these larger shops. Only eight of the 45 shops had regular saleswomen. In addition five had combination saleswomen and makers or trimmers. In the rest, regular workers makers, or trimmers, or apprentices were called from the workroom to wait on customers.
[Ed.: Note the disparity in the number of makers vs. the number of trimmers; modern milliners will recognize this as a staffing manifestation of the difference in the amount of time it takes to make a hat well, and the time it takes to trim a hat well.]
Just as in garment making, a "section" or a "team" of workers is the unit which marks organization of work, so in millinery, the "table" is the unit of organization. Having a "place at the table" signifies that one is a regular worker. In the small shop there is but one table; but in the large shops each trimmer has her own table and her own makers.
The trimmer (or designer) sits at the head of the table and acts as forewoman in giving directions under the supervision of the proprietor. About her on each side of the table sit the makers who pass on to her to be trimmed the hats they have made. The apprentice usually occupies a place at the foot of the table, when she is not jumping up to wait upon the regular workers, bringing to them from the stock shelves the materials which they ask for. Occasionally she sits by the trimmer to be instructed in various tricks of the trade.
When there are a few girls working together in such close team work, it can readily be seen that it is necessary for the greatest harmony to exist among them. This is not always easy to accomplish, and there are girls who, although they are good workers, are not kept on in a small shop because they do not fit into the organization. In the successful shops turning out a high-grade product, the proprietors invariably spoke of this fitting girls into an organization capable of effective team work.
More of the girls employed in these small shops live at home and many of them do not actually have to earn their own living. On the other hand a considerable proportion have to be at least partly self-supporting. It is probably true, however, that in no other trade is there such a large proportion of girls who are not entirely dependent on their own resources.
Most of the girls employed have been to high school at least a year or two, and many have finished the course. High school girls are preferred by most proprietors of small shops because they have a greater facility in handling customers and in keeping track of the details necessary in this work.
The workrooms present the usual disparity of conditions in a small shop business. A considerable number answer all the demands of the state law. Many of them are crowded with boxes and scrap bags, and are so insufficiently lighted that one wonders how the close and delicate stitching demanded in this work can be done without injury to the strongest of eyes. In one shop work was carried on all day long by electric light.
Factory inspection of these small shops is utterly inadequate. Such violations of the law as the preparation of food in the workrooms are not uncommon. A proprietor utterly ignorant of the law showed the visitor a bed in an alcove screened from the workroom by curtains where, she said, she dropped down nights during busy season instead of going home. Evidence that the age and schooling law is being violated by these small employers is not lacking. There is need for systematic and thorough factory inspection of all these small shops.
MILLINERY DEPARTMENTS IN STORES
Millinery departments in stores range from the exclusive department doing mostly order work to that dealing almost entirely in ready trimmed factory-made hats. Millinery is carried on in a store department on a much larger scale than in a retail shop and has a marked division of workers.
The head of the millinery workroom in the store, who corresponds to the proprietor of the retail shop, is a woman who acts as assistant to a man buyer for the department. She is the designer for the department and does some of the trimming. Under her are the trimmers, each of whom acts as forewoman at the head of a table.
The most common divisions of work are stock, order, practical, children's, and popularly priced millinery. Workers at the stock table make up hats to be put on display for customers to buy outright, to have altered, or copied. They must be able to copy pattern hats which they see in the wholesale houses and to make up hats according to directions given them by the head of the department. They are the highest grade of workers. Order workers make up hats according to the orders of customers. Many of these workers are selected by reason of their speed so that rush orders can be got out on time. Practical millinery for middle-aged women who have their hats fashioned on the same lines from year to year requires very painstaking work. Usually younger workers are engaged on children's hats. Younger and less experienced girls usually add the small bits of trimming to factory-made hats to complete the popularly priced millinery.
WHOLESALE HOUSES
The influence of Paris styles is of tremendous importance to the wholesale houses and they try to get into direct touch with Parisian models. The designer is thus an important worker in the wholesale house. She adapts the Parisian models to American taste and originates as many individual styles as possible. She has a special maker make each hat according to her design. If it is approved as to style and cost of making, it is given to a certain worker to be copied in exact detail as many times as may be desired. There is one designer to about 15 workers.
Three-quarters of the workers are makers and copyists. Other workers are cutters, who cut materials as specified for hats; machine operators, who do pleating, hemstitching, etc.; liners, who do nothing but line hats; shoppers; and stock or order girls who see that each table gets the proper amounts of materials.
Wholesale houses are much more like factories in their organization than are the store millinery departments or the retail shops, for a large part of their work consists in making hats in lots exactly alike. Their workmanship is, however, of high grade, since they send out many hats to be copied. Workers are classified according to the nature of the product they turn out. In general there are two kinds of product: pattern hats put on display for retail milliners to copy and other hats sold by the dozen of a kind to retail milliners to be resold. More specifically there are tailored, semi-dress, dress, and children's hats. A house may specialize on any one of these or it may produce two or three, or all four. There are also hats graded by prices into as many as five grades, according to cost of materials and labor.
SUMMARY
Millinery requires the handling of small pieces of the most varied sorts of material, most of it perishable. The materials must be measured, cut, turned, twisted, and draped into innumerable designs and color combinations, and sewed with various kinds of stitching. The main processes are making, trimming, and designing. Making consists in fashioning from wire or buckram a specified shape and covering it with some sort of material, such as straw or velvet. The covering may be put on plain, or may be shirred or draped. Trimming consists in placing and sewing on all sorts of decorative materials. A combination of the two processes of making and trimming, known as copying, consists in making a hat from the beginning exactly like a specified model. Designing is the creation of original models from suggestions received from style exhibits, and from models seen in hotels, amusement places, and on the street.
The increase in the use of the factory-made hat has decreased the number of workers in custom millinery; and has also had an effect in diverting business from small retail shops to millinery departments in stores where a greater variety of pleasing hats may be found. The number of millinery workers constantly fluctuates not only from season to season but from year to year. According to a close estimate not more than 2,000 workers were actually engaged in millinery during the busiest part of 1915. Between 1,200 and 1,400 were in retail shops; about 300 were in millinery departments in stores; and about 300 more were in wholesale houses.
The wholesale house acts as a sort of clearing-house for the city by keeping in circulation new ideas among retail milliners; by setting the standards for millinery models and good workmanship; by giving a few weeks' employment to workers who come to them during the dull season in custom trade; and by securing new and better positions for some of these workers.
According to the latest city directory, there are 221 retail shops in Cleveland. Forty-five of these in widely different parts of the city were visited by the writer of the report. These shops varied in grade of product from the exclusive custom shop, making expensive hats to order, to the retail millinery store dealing almost entirely in ready-trimmed factory-made hats. The shops varied in number of workers from one to 30. The typical shop has a woman proprietor who does the designing and some trimming; and a working force consisting of one trimmer and one, two, or three makers, with one apprentice to help out while learning her trade. These small shops need more adequate factory inspection inasmuch as it is evident that there are many violations of the legal requirements, such as sanitary conditions and the age and schooling certificates of workers.
Millinery departments in stores are very like retail shops except that there is a greater subdivision of work. There are stock workers who make up hats to be put on display; order workers, who make up hats to order; and various others who work especially on children's hats, hats for middle-aged women, or on popular priced hats which require little trimming.
In wholesale houses three-quarters of the workers are makers and copyists. Designers are found in a proportion of one to every 15 workers. Other workers are cutters, machine operators, liners, and stock or order girls. Wholesale houses are more like factories in their organization than retail shops, for a large part of their work consists in making hats in lots exactly alike. In general there are two kinds of product pattern hats made for display purposes, and other hats made to be sold by the dozen. Workers are classified according to these two divisions of product and also according to the grade and kind of hats they work on.
That's it for part one! I wonder what Ms. Bryner thought when she was engaged to compile this survey and went around visiting the 45 millinery shops. Had she previously known what millinery involved "behind the scenes"? Was she excited by the process? Did she know anyone in any of the shops already? And what sort of hats did she choose to wear while surveying? I like to picture her as someone with a smiley-friendly demeanor, but shrewd and observant, taking notes in a small notebook, wearing a fairly sensible ladies boater but secretly coveting some of the undoubtedly fanciful and fabulous "'fluffy' theatre and party hats" that she saw.
What a fun combination of historical research and frivolous speculation a browse in the library has led to. Hope you enjoyed perusing it as much as i did, and if so, keep an eye out for part two, "The Conditions of Work in Millinery," which will be posted in the near future.
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Ah, for days gone by.
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Wonderful, thank you!
(Anonymous) 2007-08-04 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)...
While writing the comment I have googled her... isn't this her?
http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/findingaids/bryner_edna.html
I think it is!!!! Graduated from Vassar 1907, they have papers belonging to her in the Vassar College Library. She has the most AMAZING biography! She wrote short stories and novels and became an expert on Tibetan Buddhist literature... wow...
Cristina (Madhatter wannabe)
http://kuki.deprada.net
Librarian and milliner me thanks you!
(Anonymous) 2007-08-08 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)Jill's World of Research,reaction and millinery
http://jillthinksdifferent.blogspot.com