Toque, blue velvet with rhinestones and feathers, 1890s, front view

1890s. Blue velvet hat constructed on buckram and a wire frame, with a rhinestone buckle and iridescent feathers.
The brim is wrapped from the inside with voluminous folds and gathers of blue velvet. More velvet is sewn on at the seam of the brim to the crown and brought up over the shallow crown sides in yet more folds from the back to the front, where it is gathered to resemble a bow at center front, captured by a large curved rectangular rhinestone brooch. From there it flows toward the left underside of the brim. The fabric is treated in a very sculptural manner.
From beneath the velvet at the front of the crown, iridescent feathers are arranged to halfway along the sides. At the upper left, blue feathers are wired together to resemble an outstretched wing.
The brim lining is the enveloping blue velvet. The crown is lined with black glazed cotton, gathered tightly on a thread at the crown and obscuring most of the milliner’s label. Professionally made. Hand-sewn.

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.