Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-02-11
LADIES' HATS.
Fashionable Shapes Controlled - a
American-French Combination.


Fashionable Shapes Controlled - =.
American-French Combination.
..The fashions for ladies' hats, like
those of almost anything else worn BY
them, all come from Paris, said gen
tleman who is interested in the manu-.
facture of head-gear for the fair sex to
Nesos reporter.
!There is q combination in New
York of all manufacturers of any i'm
portance, without an order from whom
no hat dealer can purchase block in
Paris for any of the new styles. Each
wear, as the styles come out in the
fashion metropolis, few of each are
sent to the association in New York.
These are as jealousy guarded as the
revised edition of the Bible was, and
are not allowed to be seen by any one
but members of the association.
ION their arrival meeting is called
and attended by representatives of each
of the interested firms, who spread out
the samples and select number of the
best styles. Some of the shapes need q
uttiC IA oANCA " sun tIiC ldSlSS
of the American ladies-tiiat is, some
crowns may be made little lower or
higher or wider or more peaked, and
some brims curled little more OF a
little less, or, maybe, one crown would
look better with another rim. After
these little matters are all settled upon
by the importers the styles selected are
picked out and the others stored away
under lock and key.
"From each of these patterns block
is made for each firm. Then begins
the serious part of the business. Sup
pose they are the spring styles; these
arrive from Paris about December OF
the previous year. and the manufact-
urers go right to work, and for month
keep their factories running night and
day making up their stocks. The goods
are watched like bank-notes in the
Treasury, for a single hat in new
style would bring an employee two
hundred dollars or three hundred dol
lars from some firm not in the combi-
nation. At certain time early in
January the members of the associa-
ton are notified to send out their sales
men and in few days thousands OF
hats in the spring styles are thrown on
the market. That is the way the styles
are controlled by monopoly.
1.-The blocks referred to are made of
plaster of paris, which is nodded in the
exact shape and size of the hat. This
block is then covered with shellac var
nish and then creased. More plaster
is then mixed and heaped up all over
the first block and is allowed to harden.
1t is then lifted off and forms mold in
which the original hat just fits. About
three sixteenths of an inch is then
scraped off the first block and the hat
mold is ready for use.
"A flat piece of telt of the required
size is Thoroughly steamed and laid over
the block, the mold is then pressed
down over it (the plaster scraped off
leaving room for the felt between the
two), the whole thing is put into a
drying oven, and in few minutes is
taken out dry and perfect hat shape.
Each workman has about a dozen
mOlds of the same shape, so that by the
time they are all filled the first one is
dry.
1.-The manufacture of these plaster
molds requires an experienced eye. The
workman is called whittier and COM
mands a high salary. There are few
expert 'whittlers' in the country, and
Chicago claims two of them as citizens"
Mems.