La Bricoleuse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
labricoleuse) wrote2007-08-23 09:56 am
labricoleuse) wrote2007-08-23 09:56 am
History: Hundred-year-old hat!
From time to time, i post about donations we receive to our vintage clothing and costume archive, CoStar. We are in the process of digitally documenting the collection, but our grant money only goes so far, and as such, we are perhaps 10-15% of the way through. The things i post about will eventually be more formally documented and become part of the online archive, but i am often so excited about particularly well-preserved donations that i "preview" them here. (For example, this post on a complete 1877 ensemble with underpinnings.)
The piece i want to share today is, as best i can determine from research, a straw hat dating from around 1907, donated to the archive by Anna Marchland.
front view
What a pinhead my little styrofoam model appears to be, without a corresponding Gibson-girl coiffure to fill up the interior of that crown! And what a fun spray of hand-made ombre-dyed fabric flowers. There are tiny dried wheat-like sprays of grains in there as well, dyed purple, which are so small i couldn't get a decent photo of them with the shop camera.
oblique view
This view illustrates the structure of the straw cartwheel from which the hat is made--it was originally a flat round disc, like a placemat or doily, instead of a shape with a crown dome woven already into it. The milliner steamed it into a bit of a large dome (see the smooth curve at the top right), but also pulled it in with regular indentations around the circumference, visible here. This also shows the intricacy of the straw lace used as a "band" around the hat's bottom edge.
close-up of crown
This illustrates the mild crushing at the top of the crown (easily restored with some steam, i believe), and the one noticeable tear in the straw weave. Also, look at the trim a bit closer, particularly on the tip there: there are tiny straw "berries" dangling from it! So cute.
interior view
Here's what is most fascinating, to me at least: what's going on architecturally inside this hat. I made a schematic to help you sort out what you're seeing here.
The hat's built on a wire frame base structure, which was dyed to match the straw before it was constructed. You can see there in the center the wire frame peeking through the silk lining (which has shattered, and which clearly was originally structured with a gathered center opening, perhaps with a drawstring).
There's thin crinoline--like a starched cheesecloth in texture--covering the wire frame, to which the straw and trimmings have been tacked.
There's also that black velvet "doughnut", to protect the wearer's coiffure from being pulled out of place by the hat's interior! The hole in the middle allows the bun or chignon or pile of curls to extend up into the crown of the hat. We might surmise that the woman for whom this hat was made had black hair--i know that were i making it, i'd choose to cover the hair doughnut with a fabric whose color would blend with the hair of the wearer. I can think of no other explanation for choosing such a dark color on such an otherwise light-colored hat.
This hat could be easily restored--it just needs some steaming, resecuring of one section of the wire frame, and a replacement lining.
The piece i want to share today is, as best i can determine from research, a straw hat dating from around 1907, donated to the archive by Anna Marchland.
front view
What a pinhead my little styrofoam model appears to be, without a corresponding Gibson-girl coiffure to fill up the interior of that crown! And what a fun spray of hand-made ombre-dyed fabric flowers. There are tiny dried wheat-like sprays of grains in there as well, dyed purple, which are so small i couldn't get a decent photo of them with the shop camera.
oblique view
This view illustrates the structure of the straw cartwheel from which the hat is made--it was originally a flat round disc, like a placemat or doily, instead of a shape with a crown dome woven already into it. The milliner steamed it into a bit of a large dome (see the smooth curve at the top right), but also pulled it in with regular indentations around the circumference, visible here. This also shows the intricacy of the straw lace used as a "band" around the hat's bottom edge.
close-up of crown
This illustrates the mild crushing at the top of the crown (easily restored with some steam, i believe), and the one noticeable tear in the straw weave. Also, look at the trim a bit closer, particularly on the tip there: there are tiny straw "berries" dangling from it! So cute.
interior view
Here's what is most fascinating, to me at least: what's going on architecturally inside this hat. I made a schematic to help you sort out what you're seeing here.
The hat's built on a wire frame base structure, which was dyed to match the straw before it was constructed. You can see there in the center the wire frame peeking through the silk lining (which has shattered, and which clearly was originally structured with a gathered center opening, perhaps with a drawstring).
There's thin crinoline--like a starched cheesecloth in texture--covering the wire frame, to which the straw and trimmings have been tacked.
There's also that black velvet "doughnut", to protect the wearer's coiffure from being pulled out of place by the hat's interior! The hole in the middle allows the bun or chignon or pile of curls to extend up into the crown of the hat. We might surmise that the woman for whom this hat was made had black hair--i know that were i making it, i'd choose to cover the hair doughnut with a fabric whose color would blend with the hair of the wearer. I can think of no other explanation for choosing such a dark color on such an otherwise light-colored hat.
This hat could be easily restored--it just needs some steaming, resecuring of one section of the wire frame, and a replacement lining.