Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1893 — HANDSOME HEADGEAR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HANDSOME HEADGEAR.

A CHAPTER ON SPRING MILLINERY. • Broad Brims Are tlie Thing—The Shapes, Trimmings and Colors Are So Varied the Shopper Is Convinced that Anything Will Do.

Gothmu Gossip. New York correspondence:

ELLOW straw of W a duil shade and black makes a pretty combination lor millinery, and sH one safe to indulge in while the pressent cyolone of pAy? colors storms. RcMk Little hats come that are merely a piece of finely woven straw. iVjr] These are set on a band of black velvet, and are twisted at the back so as to be becom- ' ing and to make the front take a

pretty droop. Two rosettes are put on each side of the back, and from the center of each rosette rises an aigrette or a crisp end of the ribbon. A long loop lies on the hat from the back along each side. The center of the hat is left quite bare, that the oddity of its flatness may not be lost. A pretty bow is put on the band upon which the hat is set, at just the place where it will rest becomingly on the hair. If the hair is dark, this bow is light to match the straw; otherwise it is black. Odd as is the blending of yellow and black, it is not more startling in its way than is the shape of the toque shown in the-teiUaL Here the material is changeable velveVljhowing gold and pink. The brim is madeiof bias velvet doubled and gathered anogrows-emall-er at the back. The front is trimmed with rich bows of sulphur-yellow ribbon fastened with a buckle, which surround the whole hat, the ends falling lrom the back and tying under the chin. Two birds of paradise arc placed in front. ■ Broad-brimmed hats freauently have the brims turned straight back against the crowns, in something like the old three-cornered effect, except that there are very few corners allowed. Right in front the brim goes straight back from the forehead and the hair, and either a buckle or a rosette is placed there as an ornamental finish. The effect is becoming, if a little too easy of attainment, and therefore likely to hecome promptly common. Very big leghorns are used a great deal, and aro

bent into all sorts of drooping and flaring effects. They are trimmed with great.bows that sprangie flatly all over the hat from (he top away out (o the edge of the brim, very like a devil-fish. But if you don’t happen to think of that, the effect does not strike you badly. A model of the big leghorns is sketched herewith. Its big black brim is turned up on one side, and it is trimmed with large green ribbon bows and white flowers. At the side is placed a large bow of green ribbon.

So varied are the shapes, irimmings and colors, and so lawless seem the combinations, that it is enough to convince the shopper that anything will do. The hat of to-day often does look so simple. Likely as notit Is just a flat piece of straw, with no brim, or rather all brim, and it seems to merely touch a baud that in its turn rests lightly on the head. A spray of floweis seems to lie just where it pleases, and there is a bit of ribbon, perhaps just a half-caught knot—that Is all. Home you go, and in course of a short time you turn out your edition of that kind of hat. You have made up your mind not to keep trying it on while you make it, because, after all, one can’t tell anything about a halfmade hat, and it is so discouraging. To be sure.it looks more discouraging when it is all done, but then you know how hats are this season;' they look like nothing at all in the hand and they are so pretty on the wearer; so you put yours on. It would be all right if the flop only came a little further to the side, and if it would stand a little differently in the front. That, you think, is because the straw is so soft, so you put a little

stitch in to remedy that Then you have to put another stitch in to counteract that one, and make a droop. The re'sult is a dissipated joggle and a wobbly effect that looks dreadfully. Better have t ought the hat to begin witlfi instead of losing time. Now, a word in your ear. It is the simple hat, the hat that is just a knot of ribbon and a spray of flowers, that you cannot reproduce at home. When hats were a mass of feathers and yards of ribbon which went around the brim, then the amateur might do something. Now she had better give up. Give up her money, too, buy the hat that suits her and he content. Another large hat is ihe subject of the third picture. It is a very pretty shade of tan straw. It is turned up at the side and has two dents in front, as shown. For trimming there is a large wreath of pink roses going around the front, and at the back a large bow of tan ribbon is placed. Among the bewilderment of varieties presented in the millinery windows It

is really a comfort to see here and there a hat that is not so startlingly different from last year’s styles, or even the year before that. This gives one courage to believe that last year’s may, after all, be fixed over and to do very well. The fresh styles are so aggressively new that without some such encouragement one would give up, turn old hats into work-baskets, and try to pretend they uever were headwear. The new shape whloh you’ll see in the fourth illustration is one which can be imitated by the home milliner of economi ■«l turn. If the old hat is a round one, with the edge of the brim turned up nil around, you are quite safe to tlx it over. Edge the turned-up brim with a band of lace straw to make It higher. Take all the old trimming off, and remember you have more latitude this year than last for color. If the hat is a pretty brown straw, you may draw loosely about and over the crown a piece of green satin, and in the folds, standing well up in the center, put a loose spray of pink roses, with foliage and stems and a bud or so beside the big full-blown rose. A bit of the spray is run through a slit in the straw in the baok, and comes out against the hair. This is a great trick this season in the trimming of hats. You know how often, when the hat is just right, an end of s

feather, a stem of a rose, or a bit of ribbon won’t go anywhere? Just snip a little slit in the hat and push the offending piece through. Like as not it will come out in quite the right place on the under side, or if not you can tuck it away into harmless obscurity there. The girl who wears such a made-over hat needs only a fresh complexion and eyes that will come out prettily with the green on the hat to be every bit as lovely as the girl with the brand-new hat of the very latest stylo. The crown is pretty much suppressed in many hats. It is represented sometimes by a hole, and again by a beauteous mixture of feathers, lace, and flowers. In the former case the hat is usually the dress or theater hat; in the latter it may be what is termed a simplo hat. There is some effort against the orderly and mathematical arrangement to which we have all been broken in—so much, indeed, that the top of a hat has sometimes the effect of a flat plate, upon which is served up a very pretty array "of dainty things. It is a relief from the style that binds dainty flowers and laces to wire and sets them a shooting upward and forward. Black lace straw is much used for hats like the last model picture. This Is fiat on top, an 1 has a fairly wide brim. Only the outside two or three rows of the straw show, all the rest of the hat being covered with a careless array of black lace and pink roses, with here and there a tutt of wheat grass in black. Such a hat is held on by pink strings that pass either side of the knot of hair in the back, and loosely cross to come around in front under the chin. A pretty notion is to pass the ribbon through a few inches of lace straw at the top. It adds to the daintiness and secures the ribbon against ugly twisting at the top

and the rumpling so caused. Never has it been more necessary that everything should be Iresh and looking as though just made. No rumples, no mussed bows, everything must be crisp and new-looking, no matter how Inexpensive and inelaborate. While all colors seem to be worn together, and while there has been an evident effort to make hats not matching the gown the correct thing, you are safe still to let harmony and matching rule your selection. The simpler your theater hat the prettier and more becoming It is. The prettiest seen lately was nothing in the world but a fillet of cut jet. Itight in front two jetted antenna? stood upright. That was all there was to it, and the girl who wore the pretty thing did not have a Greek profile, either. The little flat pan-cake hats that were worn last year, with a flare-up right in the center of flowers or ribbon, can be worn again this year, only the flare-up is cut down much, or entirely removed. Those made with a tall bow in the back and a short bow in the front have the bows removed, or else the short bow is divided into two, and one put on each side, the tall one being entirely suppressed. Copyright, IS9B.

BRIM BENT PICTURESQUELY.

TURNED UP AND DENTED.

[?]OT UNLIKE A LAST YEAlt’S SHAPE.

ALMOST CROWNLESS.