An Early 1920s Hat--Inspiration

A new dress needs a new hat, right? For my early 20s Lanvin dress, I wanted to be sure to have the right style, so for inspiration, I used the absolutely wonderful Illustrated Milliner magazine available on Google Books. It's a trade magazine, and as such, most of the hats in there are very much beyond my ability, but I was able to get a sense of the early 20s look, and figure out what I could do to achieve it.



One style that I was not only drawn to, but seemed possible to copy, was the upturned decorated brim.

I decided that reshaping and covering an existing straw hat would be the easiest thing to do. This is the second hat that I've reshaped, after seeing Jen Thompson reshape her suffragette hat. It's much less involved than actually blocking a hat, and you can make a rather decent hat! The first one I reshaped--for my suffragette dress--is on my journal. And for fun, here's another of Jen's hats, using the same base that I used.



And also, I think I found my dream job--in charge of the Velvet and Ribbon Department? Yes, please!

The next post will show how to go from this:



to this: