SUICIDE HATS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 257, 26 July 1930, Page 31

SUICIDE HATS

New Paris Fashion Imperils Lives

.The suicide hat—a wide-brimmed monstrosity which screens the eyes and imperils the life of its wearer in traffic —is the latest insane fashion, which Paris designers are attempting to foist on the women. It is impossible for the wearer of such a hat to see either to right or left without effort. She can see nothing ''' that is not directly in front of her. Another form of the suicide hat Is made with blinkers like a spaniel's cars, and this type is all the more dangerous because motorists do not realise that the wearer cannot see. A “Sunday Express” representative spent an hour watching women crossing the road to Hyde Park Corner, one I ■£ the most dangerous spots in LonoiMi. ■.Women in skull caps crossed safely

and without incident, and then there stood on the edge of the pavement a woman in a wide black felt-and-straw hat of the new type. The hat looked charming, and its wearer had looked happy. At the kerb her expression changed to one of anxiety. She hovered for a moment and dashed across to an island. A taxi-cab on her right that she had not seen pulled up with a scream of brakes, and its driver had “a few words” to say. The woman in the hat was far too agitated to hear them. She had to reach another island before making a final plunge for the opposite pavement. During the last lap a boxtricycle missed her by an inch. She arrived, safe but thoroughly unnerved, with the hat on one side.