Evening star., 1924-04-27

MERE Is something ne% in Paris
hats-fOr men, of course.
| Women's hats are always new
| and novelties And the hats
| Of Paris men are n sign of good times
| coming.
| The war literally knocked mems
| headgear into a cooked hat. 1t is
only little by little that the choice of
1 hats by well dressed Paris men has
! got back into the old careful genteel
ways.
| Paris was never as strict about hats
as London was. In the muggy heat Of
July and August, London clerks had
| to come to business in high hats and
| black long-tailed coats till a very
| few years ago. 1t was the unwritten
| law, sacred and solemn, just like the
hot wig which English Judges had
! to wear when administering justice.
| AT last an Irishman became Lord
| Chief Justice Russell of killowen and
! on an unusually hot day he took off
| the wig in full court, but he kept it
on the bench. In Paris, war knocked
| Off the high hat from all mems heads.
1t was only for a time. Mussolini
wears the tube" as LatinS call the
! "stovepipe," and in Paris as well as In
! Rome it is again the one hat "of
ceremony" In its most curious form,
however, we may never see it again
| for times have changed and We change
with them.
When I began writing these letters
thirty years ago the front rows Of
orchestra chairs at the Paris opera and
! in the chief theaters were reserved
for men-but they had to appear in
full evening dress. Each one ambled
in with his high hat on his head till he
found his seat. Then he shut it to
deliberately-for it was the "claque"
or high hat with springs to fiatten it.
The swells came in one by one, and
this telescoping of their hats made
some noise.
1t was different at the intermission,
when an instantaneous social func-
tion began. The front seats were re-
served for these men with opera
hats" in order that they might salute
while standing in their places their
society lady friendS-and such ladies
sat in the circling sweep of balcony
or dress circle or boxes. Therefore
the moment the curtain went down
bang. went the hats TO their full
height and the men jumped up.
clapping them on their heads. Then
tho men turned TO scrutiniZe every
part of the beauty circle, each lifting
his hat to ladies' eyes that smiled
recognition.
You could never carry off y social
! or even with a soft hat--but somehow
the old hat with springs remains for
gotten. So is the proud recognition
of friends across fashionable as
sembly. Perhaps society in Paris is
now too varied for that sort of thing.
Worse still, the ladies long ago
pushed into the very first row of or
chestra chairs. which suppressed any
hat ceremonies of their male escorts.
The high silk hat by day and by
night has come back at last. 1t has
been slow in coming, and it has tri-
umphed only in the last months. Stiff
Britishers might stick to it, but only
one thing could make ease-loving
Frenchmen undergo it after the free
dom of war. 1t is their art instinct.
For the we'll dressed man. is as much
a work of art as the woman of fash
| ion is
What about the headpieces Of men
| in public authority?
French Presidents as a rule have
! dressed correctly" but they have no
time to set fashions as King Edward
VII did. President Millerand often
| wears a gray top-hat to match his
clothes 1t is characteristic without
| being violently so, and it becomes
master lawyer who has been chosen
chief magistrate of the republic.
Ambassadors have naturally been
most faithful to the high hat, al
| though Lord Derby was noticed to
have appeared in the round hat which
| bears his name in America above a
| cutaway coat. Most Frenchmen would
never think of doing otherwise.
At the peace conference and. in
deed. until quite recently, German en-
voys in Paris conforned painfully to
the high hat of pre-war days. Now
the diplomatic corps is wholly and en-
tirely under the old thralldom-but
J ! doubt if all the French senator's and