"OH,. MY HAT!"

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 235, 3 October 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

"OH,. MY HAT!"

TASTE VERSUS STYLE. THOSE MILLINERY JOKES. (By THIRZA BERTRAM.) In tie art of wearing some of the most ridiculous and amazing liead coverings ■well tie palm must go to the woman. Though, the hats we wear might by many people be considered a splendid joke, so long as we believe them to be exact copies of the latest Parisian models we become oblivious to ridicule, we are never embarrassed, we never lose our sense of dignity. Many » woman has been known to hesitate half a lifetime before putting a new idea into practice; she never wastes a minute putting a new hat on her head. Often when we look back upon some of our hats distance does not always lend enchantment. Should we happen to be photographed wearing one of these creations, we will a few years later laugh outright whenever we look at our own figures of fun, wondering how could we have been so foolish. It is very strange. Most women have a keen sense of humour, but it takes them many a year to see the joke fashion plays upon them. We wear whatever fashion dictates and we call it a hat, though it resembles nothing more than a wisp of straw that a passing wind lias blown there and will just as unexpectedly blow off again. Millinery Memories. The present-day fashions cannot be compared with the memory of what other people remember. In our grandmothers' time taste fared as badly as it does now, for after all style always decides such matters. Good taste naturally selects the beautiful in all things, but we must have style, because it is that subtle something which counts. Our grandmothers trimmed their newest and smartest with mushrooms, thistledown, dandelions and bulrushes. Occasionally they scorned artificial flowers as a decoration and gathered posies dewwet from their gardens. They kept them a shady place to the last minute, when, they clipped the stalk ends and sealed them with wax. Also, into the centre of each flower they put a drop °f strong preservative gum. The mass of flowers the}' liked to wear on the brims of their French bonnets was incredible; so was the manner of tipping them to the back of their heads and frizzing their heavy "bangs" to their e J'ebrows. When their chief interest was a hat and the wearing of it they Would choose one as large as ; a wheel or, going to the other extreme, scarcely more noticeable than a strip of sticking plaster. :

The present generation will have no pleasant memories of dear old ladies whose silver tresses were capped with a charming rosette of lace and a bunch of- violets. Fortunately, they will be spared any unpleasant ones of black jet bonnets with long velvet strings and funereal plumes. Novelties. The centre of millinery value has shifted. We do not show the same amount of solicitude towards a hat as formerly. Where, now, do you see a maiden, young or otherwise, throw her skirt over her head to protect her hat in wet weather? To sit upon a lady's hat (accidentally, of course) would, some years ago, have caused unpardonable and irreparable damage. This flattening process to-day merely adds a fraction more style. The novelties are legion that the daughters of Eve have placed upon their heads. Small, gaily coloured yachts, with white muslin sails, leaning well to starboard, have cruised pleasantly enough, the anchor chain a strip of elastic. We have worn the fur of all the small fry of the animal kingdom, and the feather of every bird. We have been adorned with hats that resembled overturned soup plates and pot lids, saucepans, wire cages, bee hives, teapot cosies, lamp shades and baskets of flowers. We have not hesitated to copy and exaggerate every style of hat to which the sons of Adam may have imagined that they had exclusive right. Yet, from the fireman's helmet to the soldier's busby, from the sailor's to the jockey's cap, who can honestly deny that many a young and pretty woman has not worn one of these with distinctive charm?