Cloche, salmon raffia, 1920s, right side view

Preview

Creator

Unknown

Date Created

1920s

Subject

Women's costume accessories; Worn costume accessories; Headgear

Description

1920s. Salmon cloche with raffia and rayon over a buckram base and wires.

The brim is wider in front than in back and is reinforced with wire at the edge and the brim/crown seam. The front is turned up slightly. The salmon rayon fabric creates the bottom edge of the hat, enclosing the wire into a complete circle. Above that, a 5.1 cm / 2 in. wide strip of raffia, made of narrow overlapping braids machine-sewn together, is folded in half lengthwise and sewn to the rayon layer, matching the fold to the wire edge and overlapping in back. A bias-cut crescent of the rayon fabric is sewn in at the brim seam and extended onto the brim over the raffia layer, with a wire setting its edge, but its shape reduces at the sides of the cloche and does not reach the back.

A hatband made of the rayon, cut on the bias, is 7.62 cm / 3 in. high and wraps around the crown; it has wire in its bottom hem. Two raffia strips 10.2 cm / 4 in. wide wrap diagonally around the top of the crown, tucking under the top of the headband. Between them, the rayon fabric at the center top of the crown has been given several gathers for visual texture.

The hatband has two self-fabric coral rayon flowers with added stamens. Decorative stitching of natural 2-ply heavy thread in large, 6.4 to 7.6 cm / 2.5 to 3 in. stitches encircle the base of the crown and run across the hatband. Orange flat braid is interspersed on the hatband, but most of this is now missing.

The brim is lined with the coral rayon. The crown is lined with cream cotton, basted to the rayon at the brim seam and reaching an oval of piping at the top of the crown. Within the piping, a label is stamped in gold. Professionally made. Machine-sewn with hand-sewn finish.

Extent

Depth: variable, between 1.9 to 6.4 cm / 0.75 to 2.5 in. (depth of brim)
Height: 16.5 cm / 6.5 in. (height of crown)

Provenance

Label: Ward Quality Hats

Museum Number

550

Publisher

University of New Hampshire Library

Medium

Raffia, rayon, buckram, wire, cotton

Contributor

Astrida Schaeffer, photographer/curator

Date Digitized

2-18-2019

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Comments

The Irma G. Bowen Historic Clothing Collection digital catalog was produced by the UNH Library Digital Collection Initiative, supported in part by a grant from the Mooseplate program and New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Additional funding provided by the E. Ruth Buxton Stephenson Memorial Fund.
Photography copyright, Astrida Schaeffer.