Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
Hats Are Simple but Millinery Art Must Be Employed
BY MARY MARSHALL.

A Scant ounce Of felt, less wool
~ or even less silk, few finger
II lengths of ribbon, perhaps a bit
4 L of wire, yard or so Of thread,
few bright Stones-it matters
not much whether of glass, paste or
diamonds, an artificial flower or a bit
of plumage. Such materials as these
left to the devices OF most women
would produce a head piece which you
could not be induced to call your own,
but in the hands of an expert might be
transformed into something that Wom-
en- would strive to possess, and tnat
importers would send across oceans anu
continents to obtain.
The one product might serve quite as
we'll as the other as mere covering
for the head. but in the difference be-
tween the two lies that subtle some
thing which we call the art OF MILL
nerv
Within recent years the art OF the
r,illiner has been brought into more
than usual prominence because OF the
limited number of things that she mas
had to work with. There have been no
feathers. flowers, spreading BOWS OF RIO
bon or naline under which the daoster
might hide her bungling. Every snip
and slash of the scissors has counted.
the milliner has had to work in felt
or fabric with that sure sense OF form
that the sculptor uses when he WORKS
with CLAW With many of the most
able millinery designers this limitation
Of materials has been to some extent
self-imposed-to a great extent II mas
also been imposed by the women for
whom the hats have been designed.
Disadvantages there have doubtless
been to this frugality Of material and
armament, but the important result mas
been to raise the art Of millinery TO I'M
precedented heights. Whether you have
liked the hats of the present decade or
not I am sure you will have to admit
that the best of them have shown
more subtle sense Of line and form.
surer modelling. than was the case with
the flower and feather laden hats that
went before.
One hears much these days about
The revival of flower and feather trim
mings and there is hardly an i'm
portant French modiste who has not
recently shown hats of this description.
But always the trimming Is suborol-
mated to the line of the hat and never
seems 10 exist apart from the hat as 1t
did under the old regime. There are
little toques entirely covered over with
irregularly shaped hats of straw edged
with forget-me- nots-wider brlmmed
hats with two daisies in contrasting
tones fiattened against the crown at one
side. A fringe of glycerined ostrich
appears at the side of a smart tricorne.
two little quilts are thrust through the
side of a brimmed hat or placed
little to the back on the side of craped
beret.
Milliners have much to say concern
ing the return of the brim and this is,
I think, one of the most significant
millinery facts of the season. The
wrapped turben and the closely fitted
felt skull cap are still seen but will
soon be counted passee. Berets are still
worn, but usually for sports only.
The exposed forehead does not APP
pear in the new hats from Paris, and
though the new brimmed hats are still
usually cut or rolled off the face, with
a patch of the forehead showing above
the center Of the eyebrows, crowns Of
these hats fit well down over the tenn
pies and the tips of the eyebrows are