Cloche, yellow silk with raffia accents, 1920s, interior view

c. 1920s. Yellow silk cloche constructed over a buckram base, reinforced with wire and decorated with raffia.
The brim is asymmetrical, wider at the right side and front than the left side and back. Its edge is supported with wire and turned up at the back and the left side. The crown is deeply domed and supported only with light buckram.
The hat is made with a long strip of yellow silk, 2.54 cm / 1 in. wide, that has been cut on the bias then folded in half. Starting at center back, this strip is machine-sewn to the buckram at 0.9 cm / 0.375 in. up from the fold, spiraling up the hat and overlapping to hide the line of stitching on the level beneath. At the center top of the cloche, the end of the fabric strip is forced through to the interior of the hat to finish.
Thirty five, woven raffia ovals from 7.6 to 5.1 cm / 3 to 2 in. long have the yellow silk strips wrapped over their cut edges to make finished petal shapes. These are sewn in a radiating pattern from center front of the crown around to the sides of the cloche. In the center of the petals is a flower made by wrapping the same yellow silk strips in expanding layers to form a rose. This fabric flower is surrounded by a circle of stamens made of thread and a gold-dipped round flat unknown material.
The brim is lined with a band of woven raffia. The crown is unlined. Machine-sewn and hand-sewn to finish.

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.