Jeanette Friedman

Unedited: The Jewish Standard Celebrations: Of Mad Hats and Magic

May 27

Jeanette Friedmanlife cycle events and celebrations No Comments

By Jeanette Friedman

Once upon a time, in a land not far away, there lived a little girl who loved dressing up for shul. Her favorite dress was a Swiss-dotted, baby blue chiffon with tiny royal blue flowers. It had puffy little sleeves, a flared skirt with a wide-ribbon at the waist and matching lace trim. Her bright white anklets and shining Mary Janes worked perfectly with her classic bright red, double-breasted spring coat. It had gold buttons, a black velvet collar and cuffs, was nipped at the waist and looked fabulous with her white cotton gloves. But the piece de resistance, was the lovely, flower-and ribbon-trimmed straw boater that perched on her brown hair topping off her outfit and making a specific fashion statement. She was transformed from her boring self into a creature as bold and adventurous as Eloise at The Plaza Hotel. That little hat also made her feel as grown-up as the married ladies who wore interesting hats to morning services, especially on Shabbat in the spring and during the High Holy Days.

Those hats, worn half a century ago, were very similar to those worn by the women who filed into Westminster Cathedral for the Royal Wedding last April. Like the hats at the wedding, they were individual works of art created by local milliners. One of them was Selma, who owned a ladies’ hat store on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights and also sold the finest gloves and bags for day or evening. The ladies came to her in droves, sitting in a shop that was filled with hat racks and heads wearing every sort of hat imaginable, to wait for their turn with Selma, who sat them in front of a triple-mirrored dressing table and “consulted.” “Fedora or cloche? Something smaller? Larger? Feathers and flowers? A little less netting perhaps? oShall we try a wider brim in a more festive color?” Hats would appear from the back room, taken from a rack and place on the clients head. Selma would hold up a mirror behind them so they could see the full 360 degrees and the “profile.”

Each hat had to be different. God forbid two ladies should show up in shul with the same hat! And for a family simcha, like sheva brachot, a bris or a bar mitzvah (in those days, there were no baby-namings, no simchat bat, no bat mitzvahs to speak of), you would need at LEAST three hats, one for each outfit! Selma would send her clients home with at least one custom confection coddled in a hat box. It makes one wonder how big their closets were. Storing beautiful, enormous hats takes up lots of space!

Of course, all hats have histories based on religion, ethnic groups, social mores, and so forth. They were part of a uniform, a clothing language that telegraphed who you were to the people who looked at you. They were, and sometimes still are, symbols of authority and status. One woman who understood that was Congresswoman Bella Abzug, fierce feminist and civil rights leader. Today she is remembered more for her the wide-brimmed hats than her significant accomplishments, but she knew very well that, “if you want to get ahead and get noticed, get a hat.”

Back then and even today, finding the right hat for the right occasion was a highly personal process. What do you want your hat to say about you? Do you want to be low-key, wear a modest military cap, baseball cap, beret or snood? Did you want to make a fashion forward statement with something wild and contemporary like a fascinator attached to your sheitel (wig)? The hat parade at the wedding in Westminster may have caught the eye of mainstream media, but stylish hats aren’t news. There are women who, to this day, sit in synagogues and temples everywhere (in churches, too) whose hats command respect. In the 50s and 60s, married women in Jewish neighborhoods had their own version of the Easter parade along 13th Avenue in Borough Park, Ocean Parkway in Flatbush, and Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. Women who went to church in those days had to cover their hair, too and wore outlandish hats. The neighborhoods overlapped, and so did millinery design. In the African American community, then and today, women love hats as much as Selma’s ladies did, and like them, try to outdo each other in style, class, color, complexity and creativity.

In hat world, Victorian ladies changed their hats at least twice a day—there were hats for every occasion—low tea, high tea, afternoon tea, going to the races, going to the opera, going shopping, you get the picture [hat]. Even during World War II, women wore wonderful hats. You can see them in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. Since millinery supplies weren’t rationed, there were plenty of materials to use for fashioning feathered, floral and brightly colored bonnets to chase the wartime blues away, at least for a few moments. In France, according to Wikipedia, these creations were called pieces de resistance as symbols of resisting Nazi attempts to demoralize the French. The 40s also put Victorian ‘Doll’ hats back in style—they are tiny hats perched at a precarious angle over the wearer’s face. Does that look sound familiar to you? Fascinators are Not New.

After the Second World War many women chose not to wear hats, but the millinery industry reinvented itself by marketing their creations as the accessory that completes an ensemble. They had lots of help from women who never gave up the hat habit.

Though many credit First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy for boosting the hat business in mainstream America, Hollywood movies in which the women who wore hats and the people who designed them had a huge impact on fashion (an impact visible in the TV series, Mad Men). There are others who believe that no one did more for the millinery industry than Audrey Hepburn, the mega-elegant pop icon who, among many films, starred in the box office hits My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Charade. In the 1950s and 60s, she wore demure toques, fascinators, picture hats and cloches that were bold, flattering and fabulous. In the 50s, Bazaar did a fashion spread on Hepburn in hats that are as contemporary, classic and edgy as any hat worn at the Royal Wedding. (You can see the photos on the web at (http://english.cri.cn/6666/2009/02/19/1321s455776.htm) or Google “Audrey Hepburn hats” on Google images and go mad with delight for her hat repertoire.)

The hats Hepburn wore in My Fair Lady, particularly the black-and-white beribboned bonnet she wore to the Ascot Races, are timeless masterpieces that have continued a tradition that hat ladies love, no matter how liberated they are. ‘Tis true indeed, that fewer women indulge in hat habits today, even when required to cover their hair. They’ve switched to lightweight wigs, baseball caps, golf caps, snoods, pot hats and soft cloches, berets and kerchiefs. They are easy to care for. They don’t crush. They don’t take up space. But they also do not have the magic and madness of the true ladies’ hats and the obsessions of hat lovers everywhere, the ladies and their admirers, those who appreciate the power of a good hat. These ladies would love a chance to escape the mundane for a few short hours, to pull out their pearls, parasols and reticules, and transport themselves to less hectic times, to dress up for horse races, tea parties, garden parties, and social events.

But you don’t have to hunt for resale shops and vintage stores to find the hat for you. Now, you too, can transport yourself to such places by checking out the hats at My Fair Lady on Teaneck’s Cedar Lane, treating yourself to the hat the speaks to your heart, and then hostessing an afternoon tea or other hat-appropriate event to raise funds for your favorite charity.

When you surf the net, you’ll discover ladies’ hat societies that ladies form so that give ladies the chance to wear pretty picture hats, enjoy time with their friends and maybe put a little good into the world. They give a hat lover a place to be comfortable, and not be the only woman in a tea room, café, restaurant or at a social event wearing a beautiful hat. At the same time, these societies encourage their ladies to do mitzvoth, to do good, while looking good and feeling good. As one group in the Deep South wrote on their wesite, the idea is to develop a positive “hattitude.” “Be part of stylish brigade of ladies who are making a difference…discover how hats open doors, network, get complimented, experience a rise in self-esteem…”

It’s mad, it’s magic, and it works.

MY FAIR LADY
453 Cedar Lane
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Grace
201-836-8381
www.hatagories.com

You don’t have to go far afield to find the hat that fits you best. At My Fair Lady on Cedar Lane you’ll get the kind of old-fashioned, caring service Selma used to dish out in Crown Heights.

Grace says that usually shul hats are styles with small brims or are crocheted cloches in black or neutral colors and reports that since the royal wedding, sales of “Derby Hats,” (picture hats like those in My Fair Lady and the wide-brimmed hats worn at the royal wedding) have gone up, even among women who wear small hats to services. Fascinators have taken off like a shot, and lots of birthday girls, sweet sixteeners, prom queens, and princess wannabes are snapping them up.

As for the picture hats, “We have sold scores of hats from our website for the Kentucky Derby, hats that are straight out of the Ascot scene in My Fair Lady—and they are selling in all colors, not just black, white and gray, which are still favorites. People like them for weddings, too.”

When you visit the website, there are hundreds of hats and styles to choose from, from the most casual to the incredibly outrageous and creative, available in every price range suitable for any kind of a celebration. Grace will help you choose the right one for you.