Sunday, September 09, 2012

Recreating the Past...One Felt at a Time!

I have been busy in my millinery studio lately, working to recreate some vintage hats that I have seen in old magazines.  Here are two examples that I finished this weekend:


I had to alter the design a bit on mine (namely, instead of threading the feather through the felt - which put the feather IN the eye on my version - I merely tacked it onto the brim with a few stitches) since I didn't have Madame Dache's original hat block...but here is my version of this 1942 Lilly Dache hat, featured in LIFE magazine. I blocked mine over a soap dish. :)

Dache's reasoning on the one eye-covering tilt hats of this period: "Men in uniform, they like their women helpless. So, we knock out one eye of the lady and catch all the men's eyes."


I recreated this Sally Victor felt tilt hat that I first saw in a 1945 McCall's Magazine. I blocked the felt body over a wooden salad bowl, & the crown over a circular piece of gladware tupperware. The design had to be modified a bit to accommodate the thinner width of the Ringneck pheasant feathers, but overall, I think the effect is just as striking as the original!

No comments: