One Good Hat

Hanna Hats

2011-01-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

Tirconaill Street, Donegal Town, Co Donegal, Ireland.

'The typical Donegal thatched cottage has a most functional design. It keeps the elements at bay, protects the household against wind and rain, provides shelter and warmth in winter. In summer, it absorbs the sunshine and provides a cooling ambience. This ensures that the cottage tweed weavers who handcraft the Hanna cloth have the perfect conditions year round for their exacting task.

In exactly the same way too, the Hanna Hat provides its owner with that special cared-for appearance that only a Hanna Hat can. After all, what other hat can look so stylish, so distinguished and so much a part of the wearer.'
See also the lovely photos and audio from Nick Hand's Slowcoast series.

The Optimo Hat Company

2010-09-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

OPTIMO HAT COMPANY from samuel j macon on Vimeo.

Hats: new and old

2009-01-28T21:07:00.001-08:00

Hats: new and old,
originally uploaded by I like.

From the wonderful I Like flickr stream.

Victoria & Albert Museum

2008-09-24T18:17:00.001-07:00

Hats: An Anthology (pdf), a collaboration between Stephen Jones and the V&A . The exhibition will display more than 300 hats chosen with the expert eye of a milliner. On display will be hats ranging from an Egyptian Anubis mask dating from 600BC to a 1950s Balenciaga hat and couture creations by Jones and his contemporaries. To show the universal appeal and delight of wearing hats, Jones has included a wide variety of styles including top hats, berets and a child's plastic tiara." Also includes an interesting resources page.

Hats of Jerusalem

2008-08-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

'Perhaps if people wore hats, everything would be better, like it used to be, when everything was simpler, when everyone owned a hat.' Nothing was ever simple about the role of the hat among Jews or anyone else, as this extraordinary series of videos reveals.

Hat-Pins

2008-08-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

An important accessory in the Victorian era, pins were used to secure those large hats in place. The Society of Great Britain has some useful information, as does the American Hatpin Society. Google images and Flickr have some good photos.

The Hat Site

2008-08-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

The Hat Site is another trade site, but with quite a few useful links, including Books on Hats, hat care, sizing, etc.

YAKKAY

2008-08-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

Heidi recommends the YAKKAY helmet cover, a great idea for customizing boring headgear.

Hats in the News

2008-06-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

MSM looks at the renewed interest in hats.

The Haberdasher's Guild

2008-05-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

The wonderful HJ in Brussels captured this image from the Maison du Renard, the house of the haberdasher's guild.

Cap In Hand

2008-05-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

From the custom of uncovering the head (abridged to ‘raising’ or merely ‘touching’ the cap) in sign of reverence, respect, or courtesy, come many expressions, such as to come with cap in hand, also cap-in-hand, attrib. phr., with cap and knee, bareheaded and bowing or kneeling, with cap and courtship, or cap and curtsey; and also the contextual use of cap, for the raising of the cap, respectful salute.

1600 HOLLAND Livy IX. xx. 328 They..importuned them..with cap and cursie.

1889 C. M. YONGE in Monthly Packet Xmas 33, I don't care for those cap-in-hand ways of your people here. OED

International Hats

2008-04-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

Professional travel photographer David Sanger has a nice portfolio of hats from around the world.

Hatless Jack

2008-04-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Neil Steinberg's Hatless Jack is a quick read full of interesting anecdotes that exhaustively covers the rise and fall of hat fashion in America. What's really useful is its excellent bibliography.

Hats in Art History

2008-03-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Village Hat Shop has a nice selection of images of hats in Western art.

Google Hats

2008-03-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

There are a remarkable number of works on hats available through Google Books, some with just the bibliographic information but many full text, out of print works too.

To Hat

2008-03-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

The indispensable Oxford English Dictionary reveals the history of Hat as a verb:

a. trans. To cover with a hat; to furnish or provide with a hat. Also, to bestow the cardinal's hat upon.
c1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode II. cxxii. (1869) 121 Al be it I be mantelled and wel hatted. 1598 FLORIO, Incapellare..to hat one. 1852 W. JERDAN Autobiog. II. xiii. 164 We had..hatted and cloaked ourselves. 1885 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 31 July 1/6 The Pope..held a public consistory..at which the newly appointed Cardinals were hatted. 1891 A. THOMAS That Affair I. x. 171 Miss Polthuan hats and veils herself.

b. To place one's hat on (a seat) so as to claim it.
1886 Philad. Times 10 Apr. (Cent.), Twenty seats had..been hatted before noon to secure them for the debate.

c. intr. To work alone. (Cf. HATTER n. 2.) Austral.
1891 Age 25 Nov. 6/7 (Morris), Two old miners have been..hatting for gold amongst the old alluvial gullies. 1900 H. LAWSON On Track 88 And he ‘hatted’ and brooded over it till he went ratty. ref

Les Catherinettes

2008-02-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

Saint Catherine is popularly, but not officially, the patron saint of: 'philosophers, students and people of learning; wheelwrights, potters, millers, engineers; women without power (maids, servants, virgins, prostitutes, spinsters), nurses, doctors and the dying.' The monastary on Mount Sinai is named for her, as is a chapel in Abbotsbury which inspired PJ Harvey. She earlier inspired the medieval French tradition of Les Catherinettes. Women who had reached the age of twenty-five unmarried would place a cap on a statue of St. Catherine to invoke her blessing. This evolved into the wearing of elaborate hats on her feast day, November 25, and parading through Paris. An extraordinary video shows be-hatted women, carrying hat boxes(?), racing to meet the regal Josephine Baker (who definitely knew how to wear a hat herself) at the finish line.

Books About Hats

2008-02-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

The Village Hat Shop has a good list of book resources. They might be available through a library near you.

The Balloonhat Experience

2007-12-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

The Balloonhat Experience records the inspired work of Addi Somekh and Charlie Eckert, who have traveled the world celebrating their belief that 'all human beings are born with the ability to experience joy.' Their extensive site includes video, interviews, documentary, photographs and stories.
'I have great faith that hats will come back, because they have been important to humans for millennia. And the balloon hats give people, at least momentarily, a return of that experience of dressing the head. I think that's why it evokes that bubbly, giggly, happy response. People feel that at last they have the recognition they deserve.' Mary Holmes.

The Bowler

2007-12-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

The bowler resonates with such historical and social significance that it's impossible to capture its importance in a short post. Indeed, F.M. Robinson has written an entire book on the subject:
The Man in the Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography, cataloguing its adoption by: "Gamekeepers, squires, street vendors, omnibus drivers, counterjumpers, bankers, union men, women on horseback and in cabaret acts, detectives and hanging judges, dictators and bums." Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardey, Rene Magritte, Samuel Beckett, Herge, Anthony Burgess, and Milan Kundera used the bowler as a symbol both instantly recognizable and endlessly mutable.
The Bowler (or Coke or Derby) was created in 1850 by Mr. Lock of St. James Street. The "iron hat" was coated with shellac and was, I imagine, more social signifier than comfortable headdress. Remarkably, it came to be associated with both everyman and the ruling classes, with both men and women, and hence its long lasting appeal. (see magritte, smith)

Hat Works

2007-12-16T19:53:00.000-08:00

'Hat Works is the UK’s only museum dedicated solely to the hatting industry, hats and headwear. Hat Works focuses on the development of the hatting industry from its humble beginnings in the cottage industry to the mass production of the early 19th century.' tour

Hollywood's Hat Maker

2007-12-14T17:49:00.000-08:00

Where do Hollywood costume designers get hats for the movies? Baron Hats in Burbank California. Fred Astaire and Zorro were customers. Clint Eastwood. Bob Dylan. You can learn about Celebrity Hat Sizes (Bing Crosby: 7 3/8), if you are so inclined. They also have good information on sizing and Care and Feeding. It's a surprisingly informative and fun resource.

New York City

2007-12-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

New York City's oldest hat store, the J.J. Hat Center, 310 Fifth Avenue, opened in 1911. The Hat Shop, 120 Thompson Street, caters to women. Hatters make hats and milliners make hats for women, though the terms seem to be kind of interchangeable.

The Beaver

2007-12-11T18:10:00.002-08:00

Innumerable forces were at work in the colonization of the New World. Then as now, the vanity of men drove exploration and conquest (along with, one hopes, a sense of wonder and discovery). One element within that matrix was fashion, particularly the desire for beaver fur for headwear in Europe. Hunted to extinction there, Canada (and the HBC), provided a seemingly inexhaustible source of furs and other natural resources. The smallest things shape our world.

Berets

2007-12-10T07:45:00.001-08:00

'French béret, from French dialectal berret and from Old Provençal berret, cap, both from Late Latin birrus, hooded cloak; see biretta.' Probably starting out in medieval Basque and France, and turning up in Italy as berretti. (There's tons to learn about the social importance of headdress for, as Witold Rybczynski points out, people were very much concerned with status rather than comfort.) Later, perhaps because of their simplicity and adaptability, berets became popular in the military, including the Canadian Armed Forces. Its cache today comes also from its association with artists and of course Che Guevara.

Felt

2007-12-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

Felt is the oldest form of cloth. Fabulous Hats, which is turning out to be a great reference tool for this sort of thing, describes felt as "the undisputed protagonist on the stage of men’s head dress." The artist Josef Beuys used felt extensively in his work. And he was rarely seen without his felt hat.

PorkPie

2007-12-04T07:37:00.000-08:00

The porkpie is usually of felt, with a short crown. But there are tons of different styles . One sharp hat.

Village Hat Shop

2007-12-03T20:32:00.000-08:00

The Village Hat Shop is, typically, a commercial site. But it does have lots of useful information and images. Under Information & Resources, you can find history, care tips, hats in art, videos, etc.

When Philip Met Isabella

2007-12-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

H recommends Philip Treacy, a designer of art to wear on your head. An exhibition at the Cranbrook Art Museum showcases his creations for Isabella Blow.

Otzi's Hat

2007-12-03T08:49:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, a body was discovered in a melting glacier near the border between Austria and Italy. 'It turned out to be 5,300 years old, the oldest frozen mummy ever found. Named Ötzi the Iceman after the Ötztal area where he was found, he became a worldwide sensation.' It's a fantastic trove for archaeologists, anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, and historians. Otzi's hat was of brown bear fur. It's extraordinary and humbling to imagine the skill, creativity (would they have recognized that term as useful or understood it differently, maybe as inventiveness or inspiration?), and strength of a people who lived and prospered in such an environment so long ago. ref

A History of Hats

2007-12-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

Fabulous Hats is 'a free version of various chapters drawn from the book “Fabulous Hats” written by Giuliana Berengan.'

Hat Life

2007-12-02T19:06:00.001-08:00

Hat Life publishes the Hat Life Directory, which is apparently known as the Encyclopedia of the Headwear Industry: 'For 135 years it has been the must-have resource offering complete industry information on manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, supplying, emerging trends, upcoming events and new product releases.'

The Hat Magazine

2007-12-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

Turns out there is an enormous hat culture out there. Contemporary and historical research is going to be a fun and rewarding exercise. The Hat Magazine also runs HatsUK which is full of interesting stuff.

Henry the Hatter

2007-12-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

Besides having the perfect name for a hat shop, Henry the Hatter in Detroit is an amazing place. When recently there with the wonderful H&D we discovered a bustling hub of hatdom. Interestingly, the majority of the browsers were dapper African American gentlemen who really knew how to wear snappy chapeaux. I could never live up to a Giorgio Cellini Capone Eggshell number for example, but they could pull it off with style. Definitely a place to get back to.

Cuffley Style Cap

2007-12-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

A simple brown wool 'driving cap' from Henry the Hatter. Nothing fancy but a classic.