FASHION IN HATS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 7

FASHION IN HATS

USE OF RABBIT SKINS BRIGHTER OUTLOOK FOR EXPORT . TRADE. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, January 8. The small tilted bowler or Empress Eugenie hat, which has been so fashionable for women’s wear during the past few months, has bad but a brief triumph iu the United States, and according to Mr K. V. Collier, the representative of an Australian export firm who is returning to Sydney by the Sierra, which arrived from Los Angeles to-day, the hat is no longer fashionable in America. The hat came into fashion last September and hat makers worked day and night putting hundreds of thousands on the market. Yet, by the end of the year the designers had changed right-about-face, and, said Mr Collier, “ the tendency now is to go back to the more conservative models.” A small hat perched on the front of the head was not exactly a popular success, said Mr Collier. It had a swift vogue and then when it was found to be unpopular the designers altered the fashion. The only people, he said, who suffered by the change of front were the purchasers, who found that the smallness of the hat prevented it being converted into something larger. “These facts,” 1 said Mr Collier, “ should be of interest I to New Zealand and Australia, because they mean that with the return to a larger hat there should be a better market for New Zealand and Australian tabbit skins, which are largely used in the manufacture of hats. Also encouraging is the growing unpopularity of the light pastel shades for men’s felt fur hats and the swing over to the darker shades. The fur of the New Zealand and Australian rabbit is infinitely superior to that of the American rabbit for the manufacture of fur hats in dark shades, and I gathered in America that the outlook for our rabbit-skin export trade is more promising than it has heen ' fpr >'long time. Certainly the French white rabbit is not in the same demand with American Manufacturers. ‘ L \

“ The prices for rabbit fur in the United States are still lirisatisfactory” said Mr Collier. “ but there .is no duty on raw skins into America, and the exchange, position should also help.” The uses of rabbit fur were being steadily extended, he added. Particularly interesting was its employment in the manufacture of lapin jackets for women, the fur being dyed in a variety of attractive colours.