Slouch hat

“ To me, meeting her dark eyes for an instant, and then seeing the fair, full face turn to a fair profile as she looks away in some confusion, she seems beyond doubt very beautiful. A simple straw hat covers her dark coil of hair and slopes arrogantly forward over a luminous and brilliant eye; her nose is straight, her mouth small, suggesting decision and a little petulance, her chin deep and finely moulded, her complexion delicate as a rare piece of alabaster, while her figure matches these distracting charms. ”

“ Purchased of the general outfitter of Slocum Magna for the sum of one and elevenpence halfpenny in the spring of 1900, I am not concerned to deny that it was as rudimentary a form of headgear as was ever devised by the very remote district to which it owed its being. It had absolutely no business at all in that chaste thoroughfare which for many years past has been dedicated to the usage of fashion.
I am taking up a lot of time over the hat, although I am aware that my readers are saying, “Bother the hat! Tell us what is underneath it.” Precisely. [42] All in good time. ”

“ In fact I may say that but for a most unpleasant circumstance I might never have thought of gyro-hats at all, although I had for many years been considering the possibility of utilizing the waste space in the top of silk hats in some way or other. As a practical hat dealer and lover of my kind, it had always seemed to me a great economical waste to have a large vacant space inside the upper portion of top hats, or high hats, or "stovepipe" hats, as they are variously called. When a shoe is on, it is full of foot, and when a glove is on, it is full of hand ”

“ It has one advantage, it can be done by less skilled or [87] careful operatives than the “sponging,” which needs careful attention.
The straw boater for men during its stiffening is often soaked in the “stiffening” bath for an appreciable time in order that the gelatine may thoroughly soak into all the fibres of the plait; but that also, when it emerges, is sponged over to remove excess.
The general plan of stiffening a single piece hat (ladies’ hat) with gelatine is for the operator to place the crown of the hat correctly on the wooden block. ”

“ I am an honest man who need fear no one, sir. I do not believe you dropped your hat. It is perfectly uninjured.”
“It may be news to you, sir,” replied Mr Bunker, “that by gently yet firmly passing the sleeve of your coat round your hat in the direction of the nap, it is possible [pg 119] to restore the gloss. Thus,” and suiting the action to the word he took off his hat, drew his coat-sleeve across it, and with a genial smile at the old gentleman, replaced it on his head.
But his neighbour was evidently of that truculent disposition which merely growls at blandishments. ”

“ The face beneath the hat was round and plump, very dirty, quite keen, frescoed with tobacco-juice and embossed with a short, stumpy beard. As the figure drew nigh the group on the lawn, boot, shoe, pants, coat and face seemed to blend into an animated object, while the bran new hat kept calling out, like a side-show man on a fair ground, "Here we are! Now you have us! An epitome of Hard Times! A parody on financial acumen! A caricature on the fat of the land! What aint rags is dirt, and what aint dirt is bugs! We're the remnant of other days! We're the breaking-up-of-a-hard-winter! ”

“ His face is as black and his hair as woolly as ever; but a cocked hat, a pair of red trousers and top boots, and an enormous sword, brings it home even to the dullest understanding, that this is a very dangerous person! ”

“ A black water-proof cloak and hood is all the costume you can see. Often it is a pretty, bright face that the hood encases. Now and then some woman, a trifle more vain or reckless than her sisters, wears a hat and feathers with her water-proof cloak. This incongruous arrangement, however, helps to give color to the crowd,—a desirable point on so dull, grey, and cloudy a day as this. The men who move about here are mostly smoking. They do not appear to have any hand in the shopping. ”

“ Generally speaking, trimming a lady’s hat is the special province of the milliner, and in this case, of course, hats are not confined to those made of straw or plait, and, in fact, this is an industry of its own, and is, therefore outside the scope of the making of a straw hat. ”

“ In almost any hat for ladies, the crown is stiffened with a weaker solution than the brim, and therefore two strengths are generally provided for this purpose. Two methods are adopted by the workers for stiffening straw hats, “sponging” and “rolling.” The former consists, when the hat is on the wooden block, of sponging the hot gelatine on to the straw with a “dabbing” motion, and when the plait is thoroughly saturated, using a warm, nearly dry sponge to clear all surplus from the surface. ”

“ The splints, when being split are made to curl slightly at the edges, causing the fibre to assume a roundness. The subsequent drying causes this roundness to become permanent. They are then made into suitable bundles, and wrapped in clean damp cloths to protect them from the dry atmosphere as well as from the light. The hood weavers commence at the apex of crown and continue the weaving in a circular and transverse manner, until the edge of the brim is reached, when a double “return” is made to give strength and form to the hat. ”

“ It is, therefore, not unfair to assume that the manipulation of vegetable fibres, such as leaves, rushes, straws and other similar products, was really the earliest textile operation. That once conceded, it is no long step to the use of the “plaitted” article as a head covering.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, in its articles on “Costume” and “Hats” states that the “modern hat can be traced back to the Petasus worn by the ancient Romans when on a journey”; and similar hats, known as Kausia, were also used by the ancient Greeks on like occasions. ”

“ However, they do have a very useful scout staff—good, stout long sticks that come in handy for a lot of things and that are especially good on long hikes. There’s a fine uniform, too, that every boy loves. First there’s the Baden-Powell hat.”
Mr. Trevor reached behind him and picked up a sample hat that he had brought from England. It resembled a western cowboy’s headgear except that the brim was straight and stiff. Above the brim was a smart leather band and a buckle. ”

“ The straw of oats or wheat and corn husks were braided and made into hats. Hats which were almost everlasting, we used to think, were made of pine straw. Hats were made of cloth also. I remember one in particular of gray jeans, stitched in small diamonds with black silk thread. It was as perfect a hat as was ever moulded by the [59] hatter, but the oddness of that hat consisted in its being stitched on the sewing-machine with silk thread. ”

“ This is a most slovenly practice, as well as a dangerous one, inasmuch as it tends to keep the head in a continual and forced state of perspiration, rendering a liability to "take cold," every time the hat is removed. Yet even this habit is not so bad as sticking the hat on the back of the head, which, of all others, is the most general, and carries with it the greatest impropriety, because such a position not only destroys the shape, but by lodging on the coat collar, the hind part, from friction, becomes greasy, and the binding is always in a state of raggedness ”

“ Some plaits with prominent heads or fancy embellishments require two or more “strainers” or even a thickness of flannel [98] between the iron and the hat to prevent bruising, but plaits such as these are generally “blocked” by being “steamed” (trade term) , that is the shaping on the block is entirely done by the hand of the operator after the material has been softened in the “steampot.” When hats are, as they always were till about 1885, of “one piece” make, the crown having been finished, is taken off the wooden block and placed head downward in the “curler” or “brimmer” of wood. ”

“ Then, uninteresting accidents happen during squally weather: hats are blown off; coat-tails, and eke the flowing garments of the gentler sex, flap, as if waging war with their distressed wearers; grave dignified persons are compelled to scud along before the gale, shorn of all the impressiveness of their wonted solemn gait, holding, perchance, their shovel-hat firmly on with both hands ”

“ These two examples show how even a hat with drooping brim, if not too wide, can be worn by the stout person if trimming is adeptly used to direct the vision upward and lend an illusion of height.
A short, stout woman should avoid a squatty mushroom hat, because it exaggerates her lack of height, and adds years in appearance. ”

“ Typical of the headgear affected by the lower classes in warm weather was a huge straw hat in the form of a dish-cover. Another characteristic example, likewise of straw, resembled a round, deep-edged tray, the brim turned downwards, and the whole was held in place by means of a chin-strap.
Women, as a rule, left the head uncovered, preferring to rely for protection upon flat umbrellas made of paper, cotton, or silk. ”

“ The making of these hats for men has nearly always been accompanied by the trimming; and when, about 1880, women commenced to wear “sailors,” many of them were dispatched from the St. Albans factories with some trimming. About 1890 the makers of ladies’ shaped hats of simple form began to add some little adornment to them, and these were designated as “semi-trimmed.” It is, therefore, quite inside the history of the straw hat to include some account of men’s boaters, ladies’ sailors, and “semi-trimmed” or ready-to-wear hats. ”

“ He emerged into civilisation again just in time for lunch, leaving Uncle Gregory a prey to conflicting emotions. Though vice-president of the Hampstead Heath Habitation of the Primrose League, he has maintained ever since an enigmatic silence on the subject of the House of Lords. His charming niece always makes a point of wearing a heliotrope hat in Bond Street, declaring that she thinks it once helped her to earn six pairs of lace-fronted accessories. ”

“ But any description of the straw hat trade would be incomplete without a proper account of the woven hat or “hood,” as it is termed in the trade, the word “hat” implying the finished article. In the first place the fibres that can be made into plait can also be made into hoods, for any fibre capable of being manipulated in plaitting can be woven. (The term “woven” is used in want of a better, because the action needed is really more what is generally known as “weaving” than “plaitting,” although both processes are done by hand, with one or two minor exceptions.) ”

“ Withdrawing the crown block, the hat is next put on the brim block, and the sponging and arranging operations are repeated, but in the case of a wide brim the “stiffening” used is from a stronger solution bath. Before the sewer hands over the hat to the “stiffener,” the hat has to be “strung,” i.e. a fine thread is so attached to it as to afford a convenient means of hanging the hat up to dry, and when the stiffener has finished his operation he suspends the hat on a wooden rod, which is placed near him in a convenient position. ”

“ Among a dozen pairs of masculine eyes that followed the gallant womanly figure, crowned by the plumed hat of silver spangles and displayed in the frank unreticence of fashion by the semi-transparent sheath of glistening white, a pair very blue, very shiningly alert and interested, drew nearer until the elongated shadow of a small boy in Scout's uniform mingled upon the sunlit turf with the longer shadow of Patrine. ”

“ It may be asked, why not, to prevent accidents, render the Hat water-proof? that is, impervious to the action of either atmosphere or rain. The thing is easy enough, I admit; but where there is a choice of only two evils, it is always best to select the least. We all know (or should know) that if a man were to enclose himself, arms, legs, and body, in what is called an oil-skin dress, and that drawn close round the neck, the whole tightly fitted to every part of his person as a Hat is to the head, the most unpleasant consequences would ensue ”

“ Another great objection against water-proof Hats is, that the ingredients made use of for such purposes, when exposed to the sun's heat, are so acted upon as to cause a decomposition of the colour, and nine times in ten, the Hat, before it is half worn out, becomes any thing but what it was meant to be. ”

“ The contour of the foot is destroyed by a shoe, especially one without a heel, and the outlines of the ankle and limb are lost on any other color than white. The hat comes next, not set on the head like a liberty cap on a pole, but one whether large or small, as much belonging to the figure as the lily to its stem. ”

“ That I took with me, and at Soest I exchanged it with a clothier for common green woollen cloth fit for a coat and trappings, with the condition he should make such a coat and provide me also with a new hat: and inasmuch as I grievously needed also a new pair of shoes and a shirt, I gave the huckster the silver buttons and the lace that belonged to the cloak, for which he procured for me all that I wanted, and turned me out brand-new. ”

“ A coat of any sort, however light, becomes a burden upon a walking expedition; about the arms it always uncomfortably obstructs the perspiration. A strong felt hat with a broad brim is the best protection for the head; it is preferable to the Turkish cap, but on account of the intense power of the rays of the sun it cannot be worn [Pg 426] immediately next the head. It cannot have anything below it better than the red fez, which never requires to be taken off; when rest is taken under the shade of some spreading tree, it is quite sufficient to remove merely the felt hat. ”

“ Nothing else will stand so much sun and rain and dust and mud and still look decent. With this, downward, gaiters of the same and heavy-soled hob-nailed boots. Upward, a dark linen shirt waist and a feather-weight Swiss straw hat, with a brim broad enough to protect from the sun. One should have the trimmings of one’s hat of a warranted-fast color. ”