La Bricoleuse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
labricoleuse) wrote2009-04-21 09:10 am
labricoleuse) wrote2009-04-21 09:10 am
More adventures in millinery history, and a couple of links.
I've just found a wealth of other great blogs lately, the most recent being Theatre North Carolina, written by my coworker, Shane Hudson, PlayMakers' Associate Director of Development. Shane covers all kinds of topics pertinent to theatre in North Carolina (which i guess is implicit in the blog title). How exciting to find another blogger in the building even, just up the hall! :)
Her blog's not new, but I have to mention yet again the excellent![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
kuki_milliner, who's got some great images up from the recent Passejada amb Berret (Parade of Hats) in Barcelona, Spain, as well as an excellent couple of posts on the mechanics and products of her vintage spiral braid-stitching machine.
I was inspired by her recent miniature spiral-braid creations, and spent the weekend working on one of my own...
First some background.
I've been working on this series of millinery-inspired artworks for a forthcoming exhibition (which, i'll post more on that in a couple weeks, once i have them finished and finalized), and as part of that project, i've been doing a lot of research on Appalachian milliners of the 1930s.
I turned up some fascinating information about an essentially lost millinery art: spiral construction hats of hand-braided corn husk. According to the Louisiana State Museum's Creole Craft Exhibit, "Only a handful of people still weave cornshucks in Louisiana, all of whom are African American." I've dug around the various mountain craft centers, and i can't find evidence of anybody still making these types of hats outside of those few Louisianans. (Until now...)
Broad-brimmed utilitarian hats of this sort have been around for ages and ages in the South among farmers, slaves, migrants, pretty much anyone who had to do a lot of work outdoors in the sun. Corn husk hats also play a prominent role in the headwear history of many native tribes. Here's an image of a Cayute woman in a cornhusk hat, from around 1900. The cornhusk material is lightweight, sturdy, and free (for anyone who farms/eats corn).
In the 1920s and 1930s, husk hats began to cross over into fashion--
Several images of this sort exist, showing a range of different hat forms constructed of plaited and spiraled husk braid.
I also turned up some information about a very successful milliner in the Tennessee Cumberland area, known only to history as "Mrs. Ridenour" (though census records from 1930 suggest her first name may have been Goldia, Essie, or Myrtle). Mrs. Ridenour's spiral construction corn husk hats were popular enough that she was able to make enough money to purchase luxuries like a pressure cooker for canning with the proceeds. Here's an image of her weaving shucks with the pressure cooker nearby in 1939, from the Tennessee Virtual Archive. The TeVA has a lot of great images of historical shuck hats and hatmakers, in fact. Here are a couple more:
All this great history really got me inspired. I wanted to give it a shot, this millinery technique of "shuckery"! I had a pile of husks that were donated to the department by a former student (the kind that come in the huge bag at bodegas for making tamales), who had used them in a mask project. I was determined to work out how to do these kinds of hats, not only for the historical interest, but because i love the look of the husk spiral plait.
I found this pamphlet from 1920, Clever Corn Shuck Tricks, which had a small diagram of the braid construction, and a series of images of other objects in the Hunter Library's "Craft Revival" Digital Archive at Western Carolina University (such as this hat from the 1940s) which allowed me to get closeup-zooms on the weave.
Several days of fiddling ensued, and i finally worked out the method. Here's my first shot at a "shuckery chapeau," inspired by the recent spiral hats of Cristina de Prada, and also some images i found of little 1930s tower-crown cocktail hats worn canted forward over one eye:
This was very literally my first length of braid, and my first try assembling it into a hat. I have such a pile of ideas for how i can run with this hatmaking method, and i'm so excited to put them into practice! I wanted to share my research and this first little hat, because i'm outright shocked at how cute it turned out. I just LOVE it!
I think i might have to do a whole series of these, they're such fun to make. I just can't get over how great the texture is of the shuckery plait in spiraled forms. The only trouble is, "shuckery plait" sounds...less than great. I guess since millinery tradition is to convert everything to French to make it sound schmancier, these hats are galons du mais!
Her blog's not new, but I have to mention yet again the excellent
kuki_milliner, who's got some great images up from the recent Passejada amb Berret (Parade of Hats) in Barcelona, Spain, as well as an excellent couple of posts on the mechanics and products of her vintage spiral braid-stitching machine.I was inspired by her recent miniature spiral-braid creations, and spent the weekend working on one of my own...
First some background.
I've been working on this series of millinery-inspired artworks for a forthcoming exhibition (which, i'll post more on that in a couple weeks, once i have them finished and finalized), and as part of that project, i've been doing a lot of research on Appalachian milliners of the 1930s.
I turned up some fascinating information about an essentially lost millinery art: spiral construction hats of hand-braided corn husk. According to the Louisiana State Museum's Creole Craft Exhibit, "Only a handful of people still weave cornshucks in Louisiana, all of whom are African American." I've dug around the various mountain craft centers, and i can't find evidence of anybody still making these types of hats outside of those few Louisianans. (Until now...)
Broad-brimmed utilitarian hats of this sort have been around for ages and ages in the South among farmers, slaves, migrants, pretty much anyone who had to do a lot of work outdoors in the sun. Corn husk hats also play a prominent role in the headwear history of many native tribes. Here's an image of a Cayute woman in a cornhusk hat, from around 1900. The cornhusk material is lightweight, sturdy, and free (for anyone who farms/eats corn).
In the 1920s and 1930s, husk hats began to cross over into fashion--
- "College Girls in Cornshuck Hats, Belts, and Bags", an archive image from 1941.
- Unknown woman wearing a husk hat with a great shaped crown. (Date unknown, probably 1940-41)
Several images of this sort exist, showing a range of different hat forms constructed of plaited and spiraled husk braid.
I also turned up some information about a very successful milliner in the Tennessee Cumberland area, known only to history as "Mrs. Ridenour" (though census records from 1930 suggest her first name may have been Goldia, Essie, or Myrtle). Mrs. Ridenour's spiral construction corn husk hats were popular enough that she was able to make enough money to purchase luxuries like a pressure cooker for canning with the proceeds. Here's an image of her weaving shucks with the pressure cooker nearby in 1939, from the Tennessee Virtual Archive. The TeVA has a lot of great images of historical shuck hats and hatmakers, in fact. Here are a couple more:
- Mrs. Homer Roy of Crossville, TN, with a husk hat and husk sunshade. (1940)
- Edwina Randolph in a sweet shaped brimless hat. (1940)
All this great history really got me inspired. I wanted to give it a shot, this millinery technique of "shuckery"! I had a pile of husks that were donated to the department by a former student (the kind that come in the huge bag at bodegas for making tamales), who had used them in a mask project. I was determined to work out how to do these kinds of hats, not only for the historical interest, but because i love the look of the husk spiral plait.
I found this pamphlet from 1920, Clever Corn Shuck Tricks, which had a small diagram of the braid construction, and a series of images of other objects in the Hunter Library's "Craft Revival" Digital Archive at Western Carolina University (such as this hat from the 1940s) which allowed me to get closeup-zooms on the weave.
Several days of fiddling ensued, and i finally worked out the method. Here's my first shot at a "shuckery chapeau," inspired by the recent spiral hats of Cristina de Prada, and also some images i found of little 1930s tower-crown cocktail hats worn canted forward over one eye:
This was very literally my first length of braid, and my first try assembling it into a hat. I have such a pile of ideas for how i can run with this hatmaking method, and i'm so excited to put them into practice! I wanted to share my research and this first little hat, because i'm outright shocked at how cute it turned out. I just LOVE it!
I think i might have to do a whole series of these, they're such fun to make. I just can't get over how great the texture is of the shuckery plait in spiraled forms. The only trouble is, "shuckery plait" sounds...less than great. I guess since millinery tradition is to convert everything to French to make it sound schmancier, these hats are galons du mais!
no subject
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also, i might need one o' those heads.
no subject
Did you machine sew it?
Let us know if you make more (same here).
Cristina
no subject