WOMAN'S WORLD.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13159, 4 July 1908, Page 7

WOMAN'S WORLD.

THE "MERRY WIDOW" HAT.

I Thus a London paper on the latest I creation in the way of bats:—A "Merry Widow" hat sa-iled into a concert hall yesterday afternoon. There was a pretty "irl beneath its voluminous shade, hut the peopl-o in. tine gal•leries saw nothing but a hnt. and the audience in the stalls caught a fieeting glance of a pair ofpate«nt leather dioee and an elbonv. The ''Merry Widow ,1 design hae -eclipsed every oxhcr creation in tm© milliner's window. Tiio Charlotte Corday hat, which regarded its proportions as above the average, sinks into insignificance.

The cowboy shape fades into the background witii the toques. As to

the tiny floral skull caps which promised to be popular, tiiey may now migrate to the toyshop, and, laoei themselves as tie latest i»veltu» for dolls. There are no restrictions to twe trimmings on the "Merry Widow' hats as lons as prise fruit, fiowore, and vegetables are used which have outgrown tho rest of tJie inmate of the

garden. Cabbage ros« must be as kirge as cabba<re6. Foathers must be measured by yards instead of menes. and rosofetos must measure their proportions by a cau-liflower. eilont admirers gathered round tno ■v\*f«t. End saop windows where '.Merry r-dow" hets wore, displayed yesterday calculating how many hatpins it would take to pin thorn on. , One gigantic grey hat was covered with a waving forest of chestnut leaves and flowers. Bonoath the shelter o* the leaves hung bunches of grapes which would have required a fair-sized groenb&ii&e- to bold them. Above tho chestnut leaves aaid the grapes flourished a garden of iris, and t.?»» finishing touch was a couple ot mnmraoth green and blue wings, wttnch. lookod as if tihey had beon pducked from a pißantic prehistoric parrot. Another creation, which miglht have been mistaken for a floral sunshade. v.-ns fashioned of blue straw. Tho crown, whirh was as larzo round as a siv.all cartwheel, was sturonnded bva of rambling l-oeee. Between tho clusfeja of roses hung restoons ot enormous chcrri<«. an<l a montrtain. ot ribi-on at the left- side was caught by a bnc-Vlo as lnrgo ns a sancor. (j But tho onoon of "Merry Widow hats wns a. black model. It totwwd its niicantie pronortions above- a P ret, tX assistants head, whflo a garland of jet beads as largo as walnuts JJ"^ a merry accomnanimont as she walked t)h-e length of tho showroom. An enormous white aigre+te completed the trimming. It nspired to sn-ch a height and circumference- Jftvak it has been named tho ''whirlpool'" aigrette.