Ode To Hats! An Easter Thread

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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Anyone else remember Easter service so topped by hats a veritable sea of tulle, feathers, artificial cherries, bows, ribbons, net and the occasional stuffed and nesting bird created a wave, rising and falling as the service progressed through hymn, lessons, Gospel and sermon? Ours were straw, either white or natural, prim once around, neat bow in back, 12 inch ends fluttering behind. A lethally thin elastic band fastened this to your head, ear to ear. White felt gloves, shell button at wrist.
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Still in the future, gargantuan confections from late Victorian times. Between 1861 and 1864 ladies still did beautifully. An astonishing array left no one dissatisfied. If some still clung to rose-lined bonnets, fashionable a decade earlier, Godey's, Mme Demorest, Le Mode and other woman's ' books ' enabled women to stay current on trends.

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There is a long article on what is suitable for which lady- as ever in posting long articles, will only include a few

The ' Easter Bonnet ' must have been later? No mention in era publications but celebrating our bonnets through this era regardless. Hats! Hats! Hats!

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Here's one of my all-time favorite photos- LoC, a lovely bonnet on a cot, inside a camp during the war.

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Godey's shared an endless stream of hats, bonnets, scarves and other fabrications you just cannot describe as any of these. This is very tame. I think I saw an entire, pheasant's wing on one, stuffed.

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Cont'd- and how could it not?
 
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Anyone else remember Easter service so topped by hats a veritable sea of tulle, feathers, artificial cherries, bows, ribbons, net and the occasional stuffed and nesting bird created a wave, rising and falling as the service progressed through hymn, lessons, Gospel and sermon? Ours were straw, either white or natural, prim once around, neat bow in back, 12 inch ends fluttering behind. A lethally thin elastic band fastened this to your head, ear to ear. White felt gloves, shell button at wrist.

Yes, I do remember! Every year, Mom took my sister and me to a local women's clothing shop, probably dating to the 1930s, that had, way in the back, a counter filled with little girls' hats just like the ones you describe. It was an ordeal we dreaded, but seems kind of sweet, now, in retrospect. One year, I had a straw hat with a fake bumblebee among the fake flowers. (Cute for a 6-year-old, but not for an older pre-teen.) Another year, when I had a new spring coat made from an an orange-and-white houndstooth check fabric, Mom found a white jockey-style hat with an orange ribbon to match my coat. Did Civil War-era mothers outfit their little girls this way too? I've seen 1860s portraits of little girls in elaborate dresses, but I can't recall many who wore hats. Or were stylish hats reserved for older girls, a sort of millinery right-of-passage?
 
I remember my Easter hats too. My Mom took me and we would get Easter hats and new outfits. Always had gloves to go with the outfit.

My aunt always wore the most beautiful hats. She was tall and could wear the big hats.

Thanks for posting these. It brings back so many wonderful memories for me of shopping with my Mom and then being all dressed up for Easter Sunday.
 
I remember my Easter hats too. My Mom took me and we would get Easter hats and new outfits. Always had gloves to go with the outfit.

My aunt always wore the most beautiful hats. She was tall and could wear the big hats.

Thanks for posting these. It brings back so many wonderful memories for me of shopping with my Mom and then being all dressed up for Easter Sunday.
Mom dressed my brother and I in white suits with short pants for a few Easters when real little. I have the pictures to prove it! :smile:
 
I gave up wearing hats or jewelry to church once each of my children attained the reach-grab-yank stage of babyhood! I never started up after that. I did buy a broad-brimmed hat for my daughter's wedding, which was held outside in bright California summer sunshine. However, I haven't worn it since. It's still sitting in a box in my closet.

For reenactments I've worn either a sunbonnet or a black net trimmed with ribbon and lined with black cotton batiste to hide my short hair. I recently bought a straw bonnet which I'm in the process of trimming.
 
I still wear hats. For the United Daughters of the Confederacy we wear hats to all our events. Also for our convention.

My Dad always wore hats. He had so many. He always wore a suit too for all occasions. I guess he was from the old school. As my Mom's New York relatives said, he was "a Kentucky gentleman".

Bee that is a wonderful hat and you look so nice.
 
Mom dressed my brother and I in white suits with short pants for a few Easters when real little. I have the pictures to prove it! :smile:


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Dad, a Lutheran minister ( and yes, that is his watch fob ) and my son, seersucker short suit, bucks and bow tie, Easter morning. Son now 35. Dad isn't here any more; but yes, we dressed for church. To this day, if I went in blue jeans there would be a pillar of salt somewhere up here in Yankeedom, with only my purse by way of identification.
 
I gave up wearing hats or jewelry to church once each of my children attained the reach-grab-yank stage of babyhood! I never started up after that. I did buy a broad-brimmed hat for my daughter's wedding, which was held outside in bright California summer sunshine. However, I haven't worn it since. It's still sitting in a box in my closet.

For reenactments I've worn either a sunbonnet or a black net trimmed with ribbon and lined with black cotton batiste to hide my short hair. I recently bought a straw bonnet which I'm in the process of trimming.


Oh goodness, I'd forgotten that stage! Dangly earrings went back in the jewelry box too. Boy do you have a wonderful memory!

So you reenactors trim your own hats? That's so delightful I don't know how to address it. Smitten!! We tend to get women renactors here and I never have the right information to give them- this proves it even more! One lovely woman who had dreadful experiences elsewhere was attracted by how friendly we are on CWT. It would be amazing to have threads on this kind of uber delightful aspect of reenacting to offer them- and get discussions active.
 
Wow, great pictures....love to wear one of those for Easter. I live on top of a hill facing a 1861 old brick church, and on Easter Sunday all the elderly ladies are dressed to the nine's with their lovely Easter Bonnets. :smile: And me, my good old jeans and no hat...I need to buy one :smile:


Oh goodness. it's just generational, that's all. If I had not been born a PK I'd be wearing jeans, too. My generation and a deceased, Lutheran minister father we're convinced is looking over our shoulder? No one wants that kind of trouble. :giggle: I'm sure you look just terrific exactly the way you are.

When I was a little girl it was considered normal for ladies to wear hats most Sundays. You still see a few. The Easter hat must be so very traditional, it's continued.
 
For Easter, dug around for hats from the family. Quite wonderful and not era- the little girl is my grandmother. Most frequently seen in amazing hats, Scots grgrandmother, Nana. Tintype, had an inkling was grgrgrandmother but do not think she can be, dates are all wrong but her hat? Alllll right.

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Grandmother Peg. I never knew her. She died of TB when my mother was 3. JPK was her gruncle. Wasn't she just wonderful?

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Other side, taste in hats extraordinary!

The rest are Nana, never without a hat for occasions- or no occasion at all. Died in 1972, lucky to have known her so well.

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The obligatory wedding photographs

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Colorado, training camp between tours in Europe that war. I don't think Nana wore the same hat twice.

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Gr. Grandfather was embarking again, it shows. Even her hat drooped.
 
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