Great Grandmother’s Hats

“Leave everyone wondering which is the most interesting piece of work . . .

YOU, or your hat?”

-Unknown-

journal entry:

These are my mother’s hats.  They are from the middle 1940s.  I am so glad that she kept them.  They are mine when she is gone.  I borrowed them for a very fun new year photo shoot.  With granddaughters.  My mother’s great-granddaughters.  There are three hats.  Red, White and Black.  The white hat turned out to be the favorite because of the funky feather.  I had to explain veils.  Fishnet veils.  Clara and her little sister Lydia are perfect models. They have the moves.  It certainly helps that they are so photogenic.

I wish that my mother had kept other clothes from the 1940s.  Photographs of her from that time show wonderful tailored suits and shoes with thick high heels and open toes.  She had a teeny tiny waist then and so her suits looked so nice.  They were usually made out of wool with a jacket waist that was fitted with a little ruffle under the waist.  The skirts were mid-calf and straight.  Women wore pearls most of the time.  And, they wore broaches.  If they wore pants, they were tailored at the top and flaired out at the bottom. Pretty silk blouses.  That’s what they wore.  I really love the styles from the 1940s.

Finding old things and talking about them is fun any time but especially at the beginning of a new year.  For that is the time when memories of the past are one year older and have faded just a little further away.

“With the right hat . . . . .  nothing else matters.”

-LaPaloma Hats-