Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-01-07
The Hats Of Celebrities.


Alfred Count D'Orsay had true feeling for
| art; for, as Mr.. Henry Melton tells us in his
Hints on Hats, the Count had, on the oeca-
sion of his first interview with him, fourteen
hats lying all ready for wear in his dressing
room" The reason for this number of hats was
that DOrsay's hats varied in dimensions to suit
his coats. For his lighter cutoff rding-coat, he
wore his hat smaller in all dimensions than for
the thicker overcoats, especially that magnif-
cent sealskin coat first introduced by him.
Although wearing hat for every coat D'Orsay
had one distinctive character in all of them In
his equestrian portrait, by Grant, he appears in
| an elegantly proportional hat, with a flowing
| rather than curly brim. His hats were also
made somewhat remarkable by thick broad
ribbed silk binding and band tied i'm bow
instead of being fastened by the ordinary
buckle. But despite the influence of D'OrsaV.
| the Anglesea bell-top has held its ground with
some notifications, even unto this day.
1t yet adOrns the handsome head Of ''Sir
Peel" who puts it on at five-to-two
angle, in consequence of having been struck on
the forehead by floating spar while swimming
about the wreck Of the ErcoIano Lord Aber-
gaVenny also wears a remarkable hat put on
with apecularly knowing don't try-t -On-witll-
me" kind of air. The hat worn by the Great
Duke of Wellington had the popularity OF being
very straight, and appearing larger at the
crown than at the line of the head and was
very smartly turned up at the brm. The late
Lord Harrington. who married beautiful &C
trcss, Miss F00tc. also gave Ills name to hat
as well as to a rough cloth, still called Peter
sham. lie was an odd character-an amateur
tailor, WHO used to cut out his own servant $
OvercOats and who might be seen on q whit err
day among the old furniture shops I'm Wardour
street. dressed in striped duck trousers. a pea-
jacket of the cloth which has immortaiiZel him.
and the hat which he also inyented-Very broad
OF crown, and with square cut brim turned IN
sharply at the sides. There is decidedly raffish
cut about the Harrington hat 1t is fit for Sir
Mulberry Hawk and the like.
In our own time Lord WestmOreand has fir
ured as great hat-reformer Being of majestic
height he became aware of the nuisance of a
tall stoge-ppe in any close carriage. and set the
fashion of wearing the low-croWned hat which
lasted all through that period in which the
greenland white braid often came to the rescue
of pungers 1t will be recOllected that matters
suddenly lowered. not their prices. but their
crowns and that this operation led to the detec-
| ton of the murderer Muller. Perhaps the Null
Ter trial had a baneful influence on the West
mOriand hat, as the execution of Mrs Manning
ruined the black satin trade; for hats have grown
taller again. The Prince of Wales has given
vogue to an improved form of wideawake; but
still the stove-ppe holds it's own and the hats
OF many eminent BritOns are wonderful to'be-
hold. Batting the extraordinary white, or rather
tricolor, hat worn by the eccentric Joey Jones at
Paris one year. there is nothing in the world of
hats like that worn by Professor Owen. which
for tiatness of brim and rigidity Of crown is I'M
riyaled. 1t looks as if, like the hats of
| the Lord Harrington just spoken OF, it was
made thick and strong enough to bear
the test of being stood upon. Mr.. Gladstone
wears hat which always appears old and shape
less, like the gloves which he never succeeds in
putting on properly; and Mr.. Chamberlain puts
on the extreme top of his Uranium straight
brimned object which looks as if the slightest
breath Of air would blow it Off. Mr. George
Lane Foxs inseparable stove-ppe is as ample
and as characteristic as the swaOw-tailed coat
and everything else about that famous NJ F. H.:
and the Duke of Beaufort is remarkable for the
elegance of his gray black-banded ret Lord
Harrington is another imam with the white
hat, and wears it at peculiar down-oyer-fhe-
eyes, keep-your-distance angle.
The late Lord Beaconsield expressed nothing
In the shape of his hat, but very much in the
way he put it on at the end Of discourse AS
he sat down the hat appeared almost to leap
upon his head by some kind of invisible agency.
Around lesser theaters than that of ST. Stephens
oddly shaped and worn hats may be found Mr.,
Irving has achieved the feat of getting his hat
further down the back OF his neck than would
be deemed possible, just as Lord Hardwick at
tanned an almost uncomfortable pitch of glossi-
ness.