Posted in Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged antique hats, big hats, Easter bonnets, Easter holiday, Easter style, fashion history, hats, spring hats, vintage fashion, vintage style on March 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A change of season means a change of hats. It’s time to don our pretty bonnets trimmed with flowers and ribbon.
I have enjoyed the cold and wet winter we had in my part of the world, but I’m excited for spring and all that it brings – sunny skies, colorful flowers, and spring fashions.
Happy spring and if you celebrate, Happy Easter.
Posted in Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged fashion book, fashion designers, fashion history, fashion icons, Hat Gal, hats, Lilly Daché, millinery, Talking Through my Hats, vintage hats, vintage style on June 5, 2023| 1 Comment »
Women’s hats, if they are good hats, always must stir controversy, arouse conversation, occupy the spotlight.
Lilly Daché (c 1898-1989), French born American milliner.
My grandmother used to say to me, “Are you a hat gal?” Well, yes I am! I love hats and I have many. In fact I think at this point the hat is my signature accessory. But not all fit Lilly Daché’s criteria. Some I don purely for practical reasons – shade from the sun or warmth in the cold. Still, even with those hats I go for style and coordinate with my outfits.
Daché immigrated from France to New York City in 1924. She had studied millinery, but she started as a salesperson at Macy’s. Eventually she left Macy’s to work in a hat shop. Later she bought the business with another employee and it grew into a nine story building called The House of Hats. By this time it was the 1930s and every well-dressed woman donned a hat. Daché became known for her glamourous creations, counting among her customers Hollywood stars such as Heady Lamar and Gloria Swanson. She is credited for making the turban a popular choice in the 1940s.
By the 1950s Daché was a household name designing accessories, jewelry, and perfume. She was even on the popular TV show What’s My Line in 1955. Click here to see.
She wrote an autobiography called Talking Through My Hats and she retired in 1968.
How about you ODFL readers – are you hat gals? Or hat guys? Please share in the reply box below.
Posted in Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged autumn colors, autumn fashion, British fashion, classic style, Faire Isle sweater, fashion designers, hats, Ralph Lauren, Victoria magazine, vintage style, walking clothes on November 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Autumn is my favorite season – for the colors in nature, the shift in the sun, cool mornings, shorter days, and of course the fashions! I like sweaters, wool skirts, scarves, hats, and boots. I like to layer. I like to wear autumn colors: green, golden yellow, brown, black, burgundy.
Leafing though the September 2019 issue of Victoria magazine (the British issue) I came upon a classic look perfect for autumn in any year.
A suede skirt by Ralph Lauren is paired with a cotton broadcloth blouse and a Faire Isle sweater. I really like the small crossbody bag and the grey hat by Anthropologie adds pizazz.
A lovely ensemble just right for a stroll along a wooded path on an chilly autumn afternoon.
Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged 1960s fashions, Beat poetry, Beat poets, City Lights Bookstore, fashionable poetry, fashionable quotes, hats, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, San Francisco History, San Francisco North Beach on March 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Time wears down the pencil.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), American Beat Poet, publisher, owner of City Lights Bookstore, SF icon.
Mr. Ferlinghetti liked to don a hat. From his Navy cover to a fedora, beret to beanie, bowler to Greek fisherman’s cap, over the years he wore them all with unbeatable flair.
RIP.
Posted in Arts, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged custom made hats, fashionable quotes, Franklin Lau, hats, Jay Cheng, Jaycow, millinery, the importance of hats on December 14, 2020| Leave a Comment »
My hats are not for people who have bad hair days. They are for hat lovers who have wit, humor, and joie de vivre.
Jay Cheng, hat designer based in Canada and founder of Jaycow Millinery.
I love this quote! Baseball caps and beanies are for bad hair days, a beautiful hat shows personality.
With decades of experience in fashion design and a milliner since 2004, Ms. Cheng has created hats for runway shows, film, and television as well as custom hats for brides, celebrities, and hat collectors. She owns over 400 vintage hat blocks and approaches her craft with a sense of the unexpected, creating unique hats for special occasions and everyday wear.
How about stepping it up in 2021 with a new hat? Check out Jaycow Millinery.
Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, tagged All Over Coffee comic strip, Goorin, hats, Paul Madonna, San Francisco artist on March 26, 2018| 1 Comment »
I always need a hat. Whether I’m traveling, drawing, or going out to a show, whether I’m keeping the sun out of my eyes or the rain off my head, I have a hat for each occasion.
Paul Madonna- artist and writer, creator of the comic strip All Over Coffee, which ran in the SF Chronicle for 12 years.
A fella after my own heart. I also always have a hat. In fact I often will pack with me an extra hat or two for a change in weather. Or if I’m going to be out all day and into the evening, I must have a hat suitable for nighttime.
Straw hats, felt hats, wool berets, modern and vintage … I love them all for that added bit of style.
Now that spring is here and Easter is fast approaching, time for a new hat?
How about a Paul Madonna for Goorin? Mr. Madonna has collaborated with the local hatter to make a series of hats with original SF skyline illustrations. What a fabulous idea to have the inside lining illustrated, while the outside of the hat is, “… understated but fashionable,” says Mr. Madonna.
Keep the lining a secret or tip your hat and start a conversation.
Posted in Arts, Events, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged Agnes Farrell, Bullocks Wilshire, Degas, Degas Impressionism & the Paris Millinery Trade, fashionable quotes, hat exhibit, hats, Legion of Honor on September 11, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Your new hat is small … and round … and deep … made of melusine … the silky soft felt that is this year’s fashion sensation … in the subtle shades of a degas painting … flattering and romantic … from a collection … millinery, second floor.
Agnes Farrell, fashion director & advertising director at Bullocks Wilshire, 1930s-1960s.
Speaking of a Degas painting, there’s a little more time left to catch Degas, Impressionism, and the Paris Millinery Trade at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. On now through September 24, 2017.
Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, tagged and the Paris Millinery Trade, Degas, hats, Impressionism, Legion of Honor, selfies in museums, vintage hats on August 8, 2017| 5 Comments »
Degas, The Milliners. 1882.
For those of us who love our hats the current exhibit on at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco is a must see.
Degas, Impressionism, and the Paris Millinery Trade is an exploration of hats in Paris reflected in the works of Impressionists including Degas, who himself came from a fashion oriented family, Renoir, Cassatt, Manet, and Toulouse-Lautrec among others.
Degas, Portrait of Zacharian. 1885.
Each of these artists took an interest in the making of hats and the women who wore them. Among the 40 works of art are images of milliners at work, hat shops, and women in conversation donning spectacular chapeaux often draped in ribbons or topped with colorful plumes. But what about les hommes? They are represented as well looking oh so dashing in top hats, bowlers, and boaters too.
The array of paintings come from Musée d’Orsay, the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the St. Louis Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Hats were an essential accessory at the time for both men and women. Business was booming with 1000 milliners working in the city of Paris during the hat’s peak, 1875-1914. The hats themselves were glamorous as were the ladies who wore them, but for the milliners and shop girls life was hard work and long hours – a part of the story Degas in particular wanted to tell.
I liked seeing the large and beautiful posters of the era by Toulouse-Lautrec, selling products with ladies in hats. In each room there are also display cases of hats. A collection of 40, including boaters and bonnets, bowlers and everyone’s favorite – the Picture Hat, which has a very large brim and is often adorned with lace, silk flowers, feathers, birds, you name it!
The exhibit is a manageable size allowing for a second walk-around, if desired. The day I visited I was a little taken aback by what I fear might be a growing trend in museums – selfies and photos of oneself taken by another.
There was an older woman all dolled up in a hat, who asked other attendees to take a photo of her in front of EVERY SINGLE piece of work in the exhibit. My friend and I were looking at one painting when this woman walked right in front of us and stood by the piece, posing for a photo completely oblivious to our presence. A group of young girls were darting around taking selfies in front various works. It was an interruption to our experience and I have to wonder if these photo-hounds have any real interest in art.
I understand that museums are trying to appeal to everyone and apparently allowing selfies is one way to get people in the door, but at what cost? I think we have a problem when it becomes all about the viewer and the art is simply a background for someone’s photo.
That aside, as an appreciator of art and museums, and one mad woman for hats, I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibit.
Degas, Impressionism, and the Paris Millinery Trade on now through September 24, 2017 at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Click here for more details.
Posted in Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged hats, Marc Jacobs, millinery, Stephen Jones on June 5, 2017| 1 Comment »
There are many hatmakers who just make hats, and who don’t think about the fashion. I love thinking about the fashion, and the crazy thing about fashion is that every six months you have to reinvent yourself. Fashion makes sense when it matches the mood and the moment. It’s about the now.
Stephen Jones, English Milliner
One of my favorite Stephen Jones hats from Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton Autumn/Winter 2012.
A Club Boy back in the 70s, Jones studied at St. Martin’s in London. He began making hats for friends in 1977 and hasn’t looked back since. Today he creates head-turning masterpieces in his studio/shop located in an 18th century Convent Garden building. (What a perfect spot for inspiration.)
Posted in Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged Downton Abbey, Downton Abbey fashions, hats, Lynnie Morgan on March 2, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Downton Abbey fan Lynnie Morgan donning one of her favorite hats. Photo courtesy of Lynnie Morgan.
One day in January I was waiting in line at the post office when a nice looking woman walked in and stood behind me. After just a few seconds I felt a tap on my shoulder,
Oh my goodness, people say the nicest things to me! But they also say, “Oh I can’t wear hats. They don’t look good on me. But you look just darling in yours!!!” I always thank them then tell them that they CAN wear hats, but that they have to figure out which style best suits their face shape and the style they like best!
Thank you, Lynnie. And keep sportin’ those hats!
OverDressed for Life 