A MAN'S PLEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 37, 14 February 1938, Page 14

A MAN'S PLEA

"BANISH CRAZY HATS"

PARISIAN INSPIRATIONS

The masculine attitude to the new season's crop of hats seems aptly summed up in the following letter which appeared in a London Sunday newspaper recently:—"Sir,—Can nothing be done.about women's hats? For the last few months they have been growing steadily more and more crazy, until it has now become quite embarrassingto be seen with a v girl who follows current fashions.

"Milliners seem to get their inspiration.from jelly moulds, church steeples, flower-pots—l have even seen a hat shaped like a shoe. But they forget that the primary function of a hat is to form a becoming frame for the face. ' . ■

"Let us take a firm stand and refuse to tolerate these- ridiculous creations which make women a laughing-stock. If women can be made to realise how ugly and unattractive they are making themselves, surely *they will have the

sense to return to the simple, flattering styles of a few years ago, when a hat was a hat and was not asked to look like one." : : ; ■ FEZ WITH VEIL. His criticisms would seem to be justified, judging from some of the hats I have seen or heard of lately (writes the London representative of the "Sydney Morning Herald"). One I saw, worn by a brave young ; woman seeing off a friend, at Waterloo Station, was a little fez ornamented with a veil of tulle which hung down behind almost to the bottom of her skirt. ...

A famous Paris hat designer j'has created a'series of 26 hats, each different and each representing a letter of the alphabet. ... '■ .'

They are of felt and gros-grain fabric, mostly in two colours; and Marlene Dietrich' selected the "M" model'to take with her to Hollywood. It has a double pointed crown cut and worked to represent the letter.

There are three different ways in which the different letters are introduced. In the first, the letter forms the whole crown and is responsible for the shape of the hat, as,in the "M" model. In the second the letter is, cut out of thin felt and used as trimming, accentuated by light gros-grain or white bead embroidery. This method 'in used in the "P" model. In the third, the letter is encrusted on the -, crown, either at the front, as in the "I," "J." and "L" models. The "V" is made by using a double crown, of which the top one is split down the centre front and lined with light gros-grain. It all sounds very curious.