Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1918 — Meeting Spring Halfway [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Meeting Spring Halfway

It has come to be the fashion to begin wearing in January millinery that takes note of the coming of spring and ignores the bitter fact that the thermometer sticks around the zero mark with a cruel persistence. Some women even wear a straw hat in defiance of weather that compels them to fortify themselves against it with heavy fur coats. Others choose cheerful, demi-season hats that seem to be designed for any climate, they do not belong definitely to any season. In this new spring song of millinery that makes Itself heard everywhere in January, they are the Important and sustaining theme. A group of three of these first hats of spring Is pictured above. Women who are going south may choose any one of the three with the assurance It'will bear comparison with any of the hats it will meet. Women who are not going, or whose'stay will be brief, may select two out of the three, and wear them anywhere. The hat at the top Is made of dark purple violets, over a frame that Is Covered with purple satin. It is just a mass of flowers crowded together, with a sash afad bow of purple velvet Mned with cerise satin tied about IL It looks no more out of place In the midst of Northern snows than the violets in the florist’s window, and is just as refreshing to look aL The hat at the right Is of varnished black milan braid, faced with black taffeta silk. It has a crushed sash and a generous bow of many loops made of

taffeta ribbon. For style and a. round usefulness the Southern tourist will find this little black hat equal to almost any demand. At the left is one of those weatherproof novelties which may be worn anywhere. It is made- of strips of patent leather—that is, millinery patent leather —which is light and pliable, braided in narrow strands. The shape is covered with these strands and the hat Is faced with black taffeta. An ornament which looks like a pair of narrow wings is made of rain-proof melines braid with the patent leather. There are other lovely hats of this fabric put on plain over the frame and faced with colored silk: They are usually trimmed with flat embroidered motifs tacked to the crown. Rainproof hats and garments these days have to be more than rainproof—they must also be beauty-loving world demands this.