A nice vintage find

I love rambling around antique markets even when I don’t have any money to buy things as I like discovering unusual things. In markets around Italy I have often found old fashion magazines from the early 1900s and interesting rare books about a variety of topics. I sometimes found vintage clothes and accessories but their prices often discouraged me from buying them. Yet a while back, while walking around an antique market in my hometown of Pescara, my attention was caught by a stall that had some vintage clothes, assorted jewellery pieces and just a few hats and wired headbands.

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In this very small millinery section there was one hat that caught my attention, a black velvety number with a (slightly damaged) criss-cross ribbon motif. I stretched my arm towards it just as my mum was suggesting me to pick it up (great minds think alike…) and discovered it was actually a Christian Dior hat. I was sure that, though a bit damaged, the price would have been beyond my "buying power", but I asked how much it was all the same and, realising it was just 30 Euros, I decided to buy myself a little present.

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The hat reminded me of a few models of hats (even though some of them were veiled) I saw on an old Italian magazine from 1953 paired with some suits by Antonelli, but, not being too sure about when to date it, I asked Harold Koda, curator in charge at the Costume Institute Metropolitan Museum. I have a reverential respect towards Mr Koda and in the past I contacted him about a Poiret picture we wanted to reprint in Zoot Magazine but weren’t sure about copyrights. Christiandior_book
Mr Koda is the co-author together with Richard Martin of an amazing volume on Christian Dior and confirmed me via email that the hat definitely belonged to the ‘50s. Design consultant, lecturer and curator Stéphane Houy-Towner, Research Associate at the Costume Institute, kindly double checked the date of my hat and found a few references that might date it to the early to mid-1950s. This specific look/size was still popular in the late 1950s, so an early to mid-1950s date is a safe bet.

The hat has a neat and structured shape and two gentle curves decorate the front and back. The criss-cross ribbon motif is simple but stylish. Since I do not own a Dior "Bar suit", but I love anachronisms, I will be wearing my vintage find with my usual black trouser suit. Anna_cdiorhat
I often think I should have lived in another era, maybe a time when hats added a final touch of glamour to an outfit. I think I would have carried off the look rather well. I love the drama and theatricality hats can give you, and I like hats also because a well-made hat can update an old outfit. I hate instead the fact that too many people nowadays think a woman has to have an extraordinary confidence to wear a hat because often she will be the only person in a room wearing one.

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But things might be changing soon: during the recent Spring/Summer fashion shows, hats have reappeared on many catwalks, and it looks like in a few months’ time we will all be wearing a hat (if the financial crisis allows us to buy one…) for fashion rather than function purposes. I have always worn hats in my life, but I will definitely be wearing my vintage find thinking about Christian Dior stating in the ‘50s that without hats “we would have no civilization”.