[Late friday afternoon edit] More on hats:
1814 first record of a white rabbit being pulled out of a top hat, by a French Magician named Louis Comte.
The American financier J P Morgan loved wearing top hats so much he had his cars made with a high roof so he could ride around wearing his beloved hats!
The doyen of etiquette, the American Emily Post said in the 1920s "always wear your top hat level on your head".
Yet if you look at the best example of a wearer Lord Ribblesdale (Queen Victoria's Lord in Waiting) by John Singer Sargent you'll see the jaunty angle employed.
Fred Astaire wore top hats in 12 of his films (notably Top Hat in 1935) and he wore the hat at a jaunty and rakish angle.
Average Head size today 7 1/8, to 7 1/4. 19th and early 20th century 6 5/8 or even smaller; hence larger hats are at a premium
"What a lovely chapeau - but if I may make a teensy suggestion. If it blows off, don't chase it!" Miss Piggy 1981
"My dear, you're the only woman in the world who'd have known the right hat to wear on an occasion like this" Oscar Wilde to Mrs Leverson when she met him from prison in 1897
"Women's Hats should never panic the cat" P J O'Rourke1983
"Fashion is what you wear. What is unfashionable is what other people wear." Oscar Wilde The Ideal Husband 1895
"Style is knowing who you are what you want to say and not giving a damn!" Gore Vidal 1973
[Morning stuff]
While we're on the subject of hats... In chatting with kibagirl and reading her latest journal entry, I realise that the banning of baseball hats in malls really just follows a long tradition of hat banning. I mean can you imagine the young folks of today throwing away their baseball caps and donning instead a top hat? A sombero? A bowler? I think it could be well cool. In fact I would almost not mind being mugged by a 12 yr old wearing a damn fine top hat. As long as the police still blew whistles and I could shout "Stop thief! I say! Stop!" (Not that they'd get v much from me though...)
Have you folks heard (smog)? A cross between Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, and a cowboy. And have you ever watched NIN at double or triple speed on the VCR/DVD? It's hilarious.
Ooops, gotta go! Love ya and will try hard to catch up with my comments and stuff! (Oh, I got the bike last night! Yay!)
1814 first record of a white rabbit being pulled out of a top hat, by a French Magician named Louis Comte.
The American financier J P Morgan loved wearing top hats so much he had his cars made with a high roof so he could ride around wearing his beloved hats!
The doyen of etiquette, the American Emily Post said in the 1920s "always wear your top hat level on your head".
Yet if you look at the best example of a wearer Lord Ribblesdale (Queen Victoria's Lord in Waiting) by John Singer Sargent you'll see the jaunty angle employed.
Fred Astaire wore top hats in 12 of his films (notably Top Hat in 1935) and he wore the hat at a jaunty and rakish angle.
Average Head size today 7 1/8, to 7 1/4. 19th and early 20th century 6 5/8 or even smaller; hence larger hats are at a premium
"What a lovely chapeau - but if I may make a teensy suggestion. If it blows off, don't chase it!" Miss Piggy 1981
"My dear, you're the only woman in the world who'd have known the right hat to wear on an occasion like this" Oscar Wilde to Mrs Leverson when she met him from prison in 1897
"Women's Hats should never panic the cat" P J O'Rourke1983
"Fashion is what you wear. What is unfashionable is what other people wear." Oscar Wilde The Ideal Husband 1895
"Style is knowing who you are what you want to say and not giving a damn!" Gore Vidal 1973
[Morning stuff]
While we're on the subject of hats... In chatting with kibagirl and reading her latest journal entry, I realise that the banning of baseball hats in malls really just follows a long tradition of hat banning. I mean can you imagine the young folks of today throwing away their baseball caps and donning instead a top hat? A sombero? A bowler? I think it could be well cool. In fact I would almost not mind being mugged by a 12 yr old wearing a damn fine top hat. As long as the police still blew whistles and I could shout "Stop thief! I say! Stop!" (Not that they'd get v much from me though...)
Have you folks heard (smog)? A cross between Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, and a cowboy. And have you ever watched NIN at double or triple speed on the VCR/DVD? It's hilarious.
Ooops, gotta go! Love ya and will try hard to catch up with my comments and stuff! (Oh, I got the bike last night! Yay!)
VIEW 23 of 23 COMMENTS
keep it under your hat!
I'm back but very tired, having lived in a state of haze for the last 5 days, now under the tyrrany of jetlag.
sleep sleep sleep.
more later
xx