HSM #7 – Accessorize: The Cloche of Revelation

What I did for this month’s challenge was my first approach to 1920s hats. Wearing hats in everyday life isn’t always easy, I think. 1930s hats are as impractical as can be – high on the head with a shallow crone, they catch the wind and do nothing to protect curled hair from the rain (of both of which we have ample in Hamburg). Moreover on most occasions I feel more or less overdressed wearing one. My alternative (for winter, too) are berets, which is what I have been wearing with my new 1920s things as well. But now we’ve had some hot days, and I really needed something else. I never was particularly keen on cloche hats, but they aren’t difficult to get, so I decided to buy one and refashion it – and I am converted.

This is what it looked like, when I bought it:

I reshaped it, narrowing the brim at the neck:

And gave it new trimmings. I wanted to use the fabric of the Sunday Best Dress from the Blue Challenge (blue and cream) and imagined something taking up the narrow pleating it has on the skirt and at the neckline. This didn’t work well though. It looked fussy and somehow just not at all 1920s, so I settled on a more sober version, which suits me very well. The buckle is cut out of cardboard and then covered with cloth. Since the creamy colour was too pale to go well with the straw, I took the yellow fabric of last month’s dress for the buckle, which looks better:

I also made the buckle smaller.

And this is the result:

The hat goes with almost everything I wear, especially well, of course, with the blue ensemble (or the skirt alone, which I wear quite often without the blouse) and with the brimstone dress. But what I am absolutely smitten with is the wearing comfort: It doesn’t fly away when it’s windy, or fall down when I have to bind children’s shoelaces. I just put it on and am fully dressed, protected from the sun and don’t have to think about it further. Great! What also took me by surprise was the fact that I don’t feel more, but less weird wearing the hat with my outfit – I guess, it just shouts “Twenties” so unmistakeably, nobody has to wonder at what’s it all about. And I get a nice remark literally every second time I am wearing it.

The Challenge: Accessorize

Fabric: a ready made straw hat, remnants of two dresses

Pattern: none

Year: about 1926

Notions: thread, cardboard

How historically accurate is it? For looks: very. But the hat is, of course, not accurately maufactured, and I used some glue, so I’ll give it 80%.

Hours to complete: about five hours

First worn: several times yet