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This page may be printed and used for education purposes without the permission of the editor.
High resolution images available on request.
A PASSION FOR HATS
compiled by Kathleen Notman
The social progress of women is chronicled through the headwear and fashion hats worn by women from the year 1815. So where does this history of women's fashion hats begin? Painters Gainsborough (1714-1782) and Reynolds (1723-1792) influenced fashion of the day with portraits showing women wearing large brimmed hats of velvet lavishly decorated with plumage. These fashions were for the rich. In the 19th century, until the mid-1800s, most upper class women wore bonnets. The poor generally wore shawls that covered their heads and shoulders. Then one man revolutionized the world of fashion!
Charles Frederick Worth, founder of Haute Couture in Paris, was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1825. His father, a solicitor, was made bankrupt and the young Charles was apprenticed to a printer. He hated the craft. He went to London and became an apprentice at Swan & Edgar the large department store.
He moved to France, married and opened a shop to sell fabrics. Worth designed some dresses for his pretty wife. They were sewn by a dressmaker. There had long been mannequins (shop dummies) but Worth's wife became a live mannequin so that customers could see how some fabrics looked when made into dresses. This proved so popular that Worth began designing dresses for sale. In Paris in the 1860s, he gained a reputation for designing women's clothes of "elegant simplicity".
He was an innovator and introduced hats for women. Through the penniless Princess Metternich he gained entry into the French Court. He designed clothes for the beautiful Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. She frequently wore variations of a hat that was to become known as the Eugenie Hat. Turned up at one or both sides, it was trimmed with beautiful feathers and other decorations.
Lucy Kennedy's career began as a dressmaker in 1890.
Sewing was the only means she had for making money to support her family. She gained a reputation for her lovely, romantic, feminine clothes. Her business progressed, she formed a company and one of the directors was Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon. It was her marriage to him – and the title that went with it - that enabled her to enter the world of high society.
As Lucile, Lady Duff Gordon, her career blossomed. In 1907, she was invited to design a wardrobe for Lily Elsie in the London production of "The Merry Widow". Large hats were already in fashion but Lucile desined an enormous hat for Lily Elsie. Hundreds of versions of "The Merry Widow Hat" were sold in Europe and in America. Lucile became internationally famous. The Gaiety Theatre in London was famous for its chorus line of beautiful girls who could sing and dance. One of these was Ruby Miller who in her autobiography, "Champagne in my slipper" wrote of the lavish attention the girls received from the public. On Ascot Sunday, at Boulter's Lock, crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the girls being poled down the river wearing their "precious" hats.
A favourite party game about this time was dressing up - copying headwear from ancient drawings.
The Russian Royal family is known to have enjoyed this. One of their number, Princess Sonia, might well have worn something like the creation in the next illustration.
By the 1910s huge hats were becoming tiresome.
Theatre managers asked women to remove their hats during a performance - huge hats were impractical. The result was that smaller, more practical hats appeared.
Another fashion revolutionary was Paul Poiret.
He dominated Paris couture from 1909 to 1914 (the year World War I began). He introduced the hobble skirt. His gowns were simple. Turbans and turban hats decorated with a single feather or jewel complimented them.
He was inspired by drawings from the ancient world - images of women in headdresses.
His influence on fashion was enormous yet his career was brief. After the war ended, women no longer wanted his designs. Because of being called to do many occupations during the war, hitherto thought fit for men only, women were becoming more liberated, more independent. They prefered business-like, well-tailored suits to impractical dresses with hobble skirts. Hats complimented the new, more sophisticated trend.
For the first time, many professions opened their doors to women.
Coco Chanel opened her first millinery shop in 1912 selling simple hats that were in sharp contrast to the flamboyant creations of the previous years. Her hats complemented the latest fashion for short hair. She went on to design chic suits, dresses and trousers and rose to be the most famous designer in Paris. Her elegant clothes were in huge demans by the newly independent woman.
Her designs were to influence fashion for decades. The 1910s saw hats that had become far less flamboyant than those of the previous decade. Yet the picture hat gained popularity. It complemented the simple, elegant lines of the dresses.
The 1920s heralded the introduction of the cloche hat. Pulled down over the head, covering the short hair, only a kiss curl of hair could be seen. In winter, cloche hats were generally made from velour and in summer straw cloche hats were decorated, sometimes with a flowing scarf, sometimes with ribbon.
The cloche hat remained in fashion for many years because it was so comfortable to wear. However, it remained on the fashion scene too long and overstayed its welcome.
* * *
In the 1930s, designers rebelled. They created some outrageous designs. Stuffed birds could be seen on tiny hats that perched on the front of the head. The Pillbox Hat (named after a round box that held pills!) was popular and particularly chic when worn with the "page boy bob" - the hairstyle adopted by many women in the 1930s.
Yet the picture hat that was popular in the 1910s re-appeared spasmodically throughout the following decades. In the 1930s, Marks & Spencer, the department store with branches throughout England and elsewhere, sold picture hats for 2/6. Other designs were equally inexpensive. In the 1890s, because hats were so incredibly expensive, a commentator said that some women wore fortunes on their heads! In the 1930s, most women could afford to wear lovely inexpensive hats. The beginning of Ward War II ended an era of lovely clothes and flippant hats. Many women served in the armed forces. In the United Kingdom, a scarf covered the heads of most young civilian women. Generally, older women wore sensible, no nonsense velour hats. In 1945 the war ended. It took a while for the world of fashion to get to its feet again. However, when it did in 1947, there was an enormous explosion. It was: THE NEW LOOK! Skirts that had been knee length throughout the war became long and flowing. Jackets, nipped in at the waist complimented the radical change. Large hats with wide brims heralded a romantic era of fashion. The world was sick of war. THE NEW LOOK was a reaction. Yet as with all radical changes in fashion, there was a modification. By the 1950s, women had once again taken to the tailored suit. Hats, however, were beginning to take a back seat. Even to Church it was no longer obligatory for a woman to wear a hat. The 1960s saw the introduction of the crazy fashion - the bouffant hair style. It was almost impossible to place a hat over a mound of hair. Except for older women and Royalty, hats went out of fashion. As with all extreme fashion trends, these hair styles became modified but except on special occasions, hats were never to make the impact they had before the second world war. It seemed as though some women yearned to wear hats. Glamorous sun hats could be seen on the beach and at home in the garden. For many women it was a legitimate excuse to wear beautiful hats - hats decorated with ribbons or scarves. 
Sun Hat 1970s
THE REVIVAL OF HATS
In the 1980s, two women who had vast media exposure were largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in hats.
The late Princess of Wales and actress Joan Collins, the darlings of fashion, presented themselves to the public wearing glamorous hats. Yet each hat they wore was based on a style from a past era.
The image above shows a creation by Kathleen Notman.
It was in the 1980s that the cult for rummaging around second-hand shops looking for old clothes from past eras was something many women of all ages loved. It was an "anything goes" decade of fashion. If one could find a 1930s hat, it could be worn with a dress from the 1950s and shoes from the 1960s. In the 1980s the cult for rummaging around second-hand shops looking for old clothesand hats was a pastime many women loved. It was an “anything goes” decade. If one could find a 1930s hat it could be worn with a dress from the 1940s and shoes from the 1950s! Suddenly many had a passion for collecting antique fashion hats. There was a strict criterion. Who designed the hat? Who sold the hat? Was the hat in good condition? And so on.Kathleen Notman found a perfect example of a collectible fashion hat in a second-hand shop in Pictured: 1956 Dandy Hat modelled in 1986. 
"Dandy Hat" designed by Sally Victor
