Ye
summer maide on dress parade
Along ye sandy beach
Is
up to date, and fortunate,
With joy within her reach.
Ye
bathing lass can now surpass
All seasons heretofore;
Can
jest like fun at ye hotte sun
Who beats upon the shore.
She
needs no tree for company,
No shelter on ye sand;
No
cloudy pall, no parasol
Within her pretty hand.
She
hath no fear of rain, ye dear,
Nor bigge sun, shining red;
Ye
summer maide hath ample shade
Upon her pretty head.
Take a large brimmed black straw
confection, embellish it with huge white and black ostrich plumes, and mix
with amazingly beautiful music in a widely popular operetta and what do you
get? The most popular hat of the Edwardian era – the Merry Widow.
While Franz Lehar’s 1905 premier of The Merry Widow did give this beautiful and
often outrageous hat its most well known name,* the hat in general had already
begun to grow larger and larger since the end of the 19th century. It now took
on gargantuan proportions compared to its predecessors. As is often the case,
fashion had its own logic; As the new century moved forward, a larger millinery
style was required to accommodate the larger and very popular pompadour
hairstyles. By the middle of the new decade waistlines were radically raised
and skirts became much slimmer, without frills and decorations. A large-crowned
and wide-brimmed hat created the needed sense of balance for the silhouette.
Although one might wonder at the precise meaning of balance when the depth of
the brim could be up to one foot!
The preferred decorations for these hats were fancy and expensive. Feathers,
especially ostrich plumes, used in concert with wired ribbons, formed the basis
of the embellishments. However, every imaginable sort of flower, fruit, or
ribbon would be utilized, as well as lizards, insects, arachnids, rat, snakes,
complete birds and their nests, and all types of skins and furs. Merry Widows
were often worn with one side tipped up, elegantly exposing the underside of
the brim. This, of course, allowed more room for decorations to be placed on
the underside of the hat.
Obviously, a hat so gloriously embellished makes quite a dramatic statement and
thus lends itself to comment and satire. Cartoons and caricatures poking fun at
the Merry Widow abounded in editorials, fashion exposes, and paper ephemera of
the era.
The preferred decorations for these hats were fancy and expensive. Feathers,
especially ostrich plumes, used in concert with wired ribbons, formed the basis
of the embellishments. However, every imaginable sort of flower, fruit, or
ribbon would be utilized, as well as lizards, insects, arachnids, rat, snakes,
complete birds and their nests, and all types of skins and furs. Merry Widows
were often worn with one side tipped up, elegantly exposing the underside of
the brim. This, of course, allowed more room for decorations to be placed on
the underside of the hat.
Obviously, a hat so gloriously embellished makes quite a dramatic statement and
thus lends itself to comment and satire. Cartoons and caricatures poking fun at
the Merry Widow abounded in editorials, fashion exposes, and paper ephemera of
the era.
* The
Merry Widow was a recreation of the 18th century Gainsborough, a hat style made
popular by portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough. His painting of the Duchess of
Devonshire wearing a high crowned plumed and beribboned hat with the large brim
turned up on one side became the rage in the 1780's. The larger hats of the
late 19th and early 20th century were called Gainsboroughs or cartwheels until
Lehar's opera.
Postcard image courtesy of Ms. CM Brady
of Vintage Pix.
(Note – The above
clip and pictures were obtained in April, 2011 and I cannot find the source for
attribution purposes. If anyone provide that information, please do so.)
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