Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-06
GIRLS
BUY MILLINERY
MADE At HOME
Half the Hats Seen on PeaChtree
Street Are Made Here, but
the Fact Is UnheraIded,
JOBBERS USE OWN LABELS
Factories Lose Identity When the
Product Is Shipped-MateriaIs
Come From Many Lands.

Half the womeu's hats seen on
Peachtree Street are made right In
Atlanta.
The fnlr Peachtreo promenaders
don't know it: the miIlineTs they pat
ronize don't know II; in many cases
the 5obberz themselves don't know It.
There are three factories in Atlanta
making women's hats, Of straw. felt
plush. hemp and the myriad other
materials which go TO bedeck milady's
couture and frame her pretty face,
But as soon as the hat leaves these
factories the manufacturers lose their
identity. The hat is marked with the
iobber's label It may be marked
New York. Philadelphia. New Orleans
or even London. The fact that it is
made in Atlanta Is nowhere to be dis
covered
One manufacturer tells, with a
grin of Atlanta milliners who
stocked up" in New York-with At
lanta- made hats.
Altogether. it is an interesting bust
ness.
Materials From Afar.
The American Hat Manufacturing
Company. one OF the largest OF the
three Atlanta factories. imports
straws direct from China, Japan,
Italy and Germany. These straws
are plated abroad. and either are
dyed there or bleached and dyed IN
Camden, n J.
Japan sends hemp braid. Italy fur
nishes the milans. leghOrns and tus-
cans. Germany furnishes a peculiar
material known as Neapolitan braid,
which, though few know It, is made
from American cotton. China fur
nishes coarse straws.
SO much for the strawS The felt
bodies come from abroad, in the
rough-queer. looking toadstoois of
various shades. Silks. ribbons, vel
vets, pushes and ornaments are car
ried in quantity enough TO stock a dry
goods store Of large proportions
Just now the factories are busy
with the hats to be worn this fall and
winter, and with misses and chill
dren's hats for spring, 1914.
Sample rooms already are filed
with fall and spring lines. dazzling
arrays Of colors, and seemingly in al
most every shape, but with smaller
hats predominating,
Plaster Hats the Start.
The making of a hat may be said 10
begin in the room where a skilled
workman makes plaster molds accu-
rately defining the shapes From
these plaster affairs, metal dies are
made. These dies are put in the
presses and heated by gas flames
The rough shapes. either felt velvet
straw or hemp. are stamped with
these hot dies and held in them unit
dry. When removed the heat ha.
baked the sticky sizing" until the
shapes are firm.
From the presses the velvet anC
plush hats go to a workman whC
steams them and brushes up the maj
TO, its original beauty.
The straw shapes are made in tn
factory. Ingeniously designed sewing
machines, manipulated by skillfu
girls sew the braid round and round
unti1,a tiny knot grows into gigantic
hat In the straw sea son $50 girl
are busy at these machines
Other ingenious machines sew II
Innings, attach cloth crowns 10 brims
bind brfms. and do other complicated
stitching which would seem to nee,
the skill of the human hand.
Girl Designs Trimmings.
The elaborate bows and trimming
are designed by the young forewom
an, who then teaches the girls unde
how to make them. This. in itself. il
work requiring art
Ready for shipment. the hats ar,
put IN the familiar round boxes
these, too. made in the factory, anC
then in big corrugated paper cases.
on they go, bringing Atlanta n,
glory-but considerable money!