Comic Con Outfit Special Bonus ~ DIY Silly Hat

Comic Con Outfit Special Bonus ~ DIY Silly Hat

fashion style    12:20 PM   

So when I was in Portland on book tour a little while ago, I had two signings back-to-back in the same location, Fashionable Reader. Don't ask. Some adorable young ladies met me the first night and we got to chatting about knitting and crochet. Well, off they went and the next night returned only to present me with the cutest little crochet petit fours.

Well, I loved them and they made appearances at several tea events as decorative table elements. Then I saw this advertisement:

I was inspired! What else to do with a fiber art petit four but turn it into a hat!

So I took the larger of the two, some button thread, and a hairband I picked up for cheap at Ross and just stitched it on.

I must say that the hat was very much admired at Comic Con and this is my new favorite thing. I have a whole collection of headbands from Ross and my new instinct whenever I see a silly object is . . . can I make a tiny hat out of it? I'm getting very Ivy-ish in my old age in wanting to put everything on my head.

See a silly object? Just ask yourself. What would Ivy do? Forget Tim Gunn's "Make it Work." Make it into a hat!

And then drink tea wearing it, of course!

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

The Skimmer

The Skimmer

fashion style    2:25 PM   

I always called them skimmers, although I understand a more common term is boaters.

 Made popular by the Oxford and Cambridge set these hats had their heyday in menswear in the 1920s.

I own this cute little navy straw one, sadly I don't have much occasion to wear it.

Women have often donned this pretty little straw hat. Here are a few examples.

 1905 summer day dress of pin-striped cotton

1930 Grey Skimmer

 1940 Elsa Schiaparelli The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 1940s Skimmers (via Tuppence Ha'penny by Charlotte) worn two different ways pushed to the back and perched forward.

1945

Audry in a skimmer

1955 dress

How about a few retro takes?

 Charlotte of Tuppence Ha'penny in two pencil skirt looks.

The cool thing about the skimmer? It's back in fashion right now and it can be worn with any look you'd like.

More on the history of skimmers.

Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

New Hats and Follies

New Hats and Follies

fashion style    10:54 AM   

Some new hats have come into my life recently, Fashionable Reader. They are very silly.

No, not quite that silly.

This one is hard to see when it's not on but it's one of those follies (or fancies) that is on a band, has net, a silly bow, and black feathers. I look forward to wearing it soon with one of my black and white outfits. It looks a little bit like this when it is on:

I'm strangely excited about it. It may come to ComicCon with me.

Here's one that started out black and white but I changed the dots to red, I thought it would be more useful that way. It's very spiky and outrageous. Both of these were gifts from my Mum, I believe she found them at Ross.

For this one, the tiny hat portion was a gift and the decorating and feather poof were my own additions. It has an almost Renaissance noblewoman feel to it. I think it's going to become one of my steampunk hats, it will travel better than the tiny top hats and so be more useful for distance conventions.

Speaking of tiny, this one is about two inches wide. It's on a little hair clip and was made for me as a gift from my grade school art teacher. (She is one of the teachers I thank in my forward to the first Finishing School book.) I love it because, apart for the emotional connection, it really will pack well. These days, everything is about packing. Here is one about the same size:

And here are a few other silly hats, just because . . .

 1943

 1949

Happy four day work-week to all the US readers. I hope you had lovely weekends.



Retro Rack is also on facebook where I post additional images and fashion thoughts.

Hats with Netting

Hats with Netting

fashion style    11:28 AM   

I kind of love netting on a hat. I've no logical explanation for this, I just do. It's the veiled mystery, or something. Anyway, they've been showing up on the Fall runways. Jill sander put a netted beenie up on hers. Which, honestly, is a little too peculiar even for me.

But I adore a vintage or retro hat with a bit of netting for style. I get used to the slight obstruction to my vision pretty quickly. But then I spent the 80s with that deep side part hair over one eye look, so . . .

1938 via The Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

I have only two netted hats in my collection, and one can be worn with or without the netting. I do have the netting to add to some of the other hats, but this is strangely difficult to do, much harder than one would think.

In the "Tarantula" hat. It's made of three prongs of brown fur and a velvet bow, and looks a little like part of a fuzzy spider perched on ones head, with netting. I love it, of course. It's a vintage find from Decades of Fashion on Height Street in San Francisco. They aren't cheap. I think I paid about $40 for this tiny thing.

I do sort of love the idea of a tiny follie of a hat with netting coming off of it. Or even, no hat at all.

Of course it is more common to have a larger follie, one that perches forward with the net coming off of it.

Of course, netting shows up on vintage hats of all different shapes and sizes. Here are some 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s examples.

And lastly, one for Prudence to wear . . .

Riding Hat 1905 The Metropolitan Museum of Art