Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 150, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1918 — NEW SPRING HATS TO OFFSET GOWNS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW SPRING HATS TO OFFSET GOWNS

New York.—The reformers who argue against the buying of hats as well as gowns are arguing against human nature. A woman may economize on any other part of her apparel, but the change of season sets her whole nature throbbing to get new head coverings, declares a prominent fashion authority. - -— ——- —- When the black of winter may be exchanged for the flowers of summer the tide of purchase sets in, and the current runs strong. Hats we must have. They may be part of new costumes, or they may be accessories to redeem and enliven old costumes, but we must have them. A good deal is said by the reformers these days which we wish could, be left unsaid. It is difficult to approach this matter without suggesting that many of us are not sincere and that our patriotism, fine and strong, as it may be, runs away with our tongues. One feels that it is well that there is no earthly war-time judge before whom we must all come, who puts our talk in one scale and actions in the other. Hat With Brim Replaces Turban. France and America have each seen the fitness of the brim that shades the eyes at a time when the sun pours straight down, instead of obliquely. The turban is, after all, the betweenseason hat. It is not entirely eliminated from the scheme of things, but it has yielded first place to the larger hat. The high crown, however, has not given way to the low crown. There are the new sailors which, with their high crowns and three-inch brims, threaten to overrun the continent like a swarm of locusts. These are both cheap and expensive, well draped and badly draped; they are in midnight blue, black, beige and red; they are made of rough straw, and although they are excessively smart, they have a hard, unyielding line. On the hard face they are ugly; in juxtaposition to a small, coquettish, frail face they are alluring. Mind you, the hard, stiff brim is not the only one. If it were, thousands of women would give up the struggle to be good looking, for the woman who realizes that a hat makes or mars her face is the one who knows how to dress. All the good-looking gowns in the world cannot affect the eyes, the nose and the skin. It is the hat and the neckwear which lift you to the pedestal of prettiness or throw you down into the ditch of ugliness. There are immense, sweeping brims in fashion which you may choose if your face needs softening and irregular lines. There is an ultra-smart hat which leads the way. It is made of pleated strawberry georgette crepe faced with black straw, with a wide band of straw encircling the crown. Wherever it

goes this hat is copied in various colors and worn in the afternoon. Those who feel that the brim must hide the forehead and nearly eclipse the eyes may still ding to the mushroom shape, which is permitted in the best sodety; and those who fed a thrill of happiness at the mere mention of English garden hats may go In for this particular type of picturesqueness with the realization that they are striking the absolutdy new note tn this summer’s fashion. It was Jeanne Lanvin who brought out the huge organdie hat with Its rose

on the brim, and since then the Ame* lean designers have tumbled over themselves in their effort to introduce chiffon and organdie hats made in pastel colors, combining old blue and deep pink. The rose and the long streamers which trim this type of hat suggest the garden party, sc let us hope that the average woman will realize that the hat cannot be worn on the street. The lace ruffle at the brim of the large hat is another fashion which has

been revived from an older and more demure epoch. There was once a time when we wore black straw hats covered with lace, made of black tulle embroidered with peacock eyes, with a ruffle of the lace at the edge of the brim. Why doesn’t some milliner revive that especial fashion? Is the colored peacock lace impossible to get. Milliners Try to Outdo Dressmakers. Not being quite certain of the purchasing power of the public In regard to gowns and suits, the milliners saw their opportunity to throw a tidal wave of new and varied hats into the current of clothes. When one goes out to look for new spring hats one Is caught In this current and rushed along m a bewildering fashion. A day’s shopping does not always permit one to get an entirely good view of the various fashions, and It rarely allows one to choose with discretion and judgment However, here are some of the hats as they rush by, They are suited to each face, each purse and each social environment be It said to their credit There are linen hats In vivid colors, which have been substituted for the widely heralded gingham hats. Red linen with black satin ribbon, and green linen with black satin binding rise up against the others. There are wrapped turbans taken from the Orient and worn with capes. They are considered the exact type of head covering to go with a flowing body covering. They are made of satin; of the new satin straw, which is as supple as cloth; of obi crepe; of shantung, and sometimes of Chinese brocade. They are as complicated in their twistings as the headgear of the Cobbler of Cairo or that of a negro of the old South. Wheat May Be Worn, Not Eaten. Women In mass these days appear like a wheat field with the wind blowing over it. The tops of their hats show these stalks of forbidden grain, vari-colored, shredded, curled and dissevered. It Is no longer wheat colored. It goes into every dyepot that is managed by the American manufacturers, since we have begun to stand on our own feet in the dye business. The milliners have Invented a curious and complex 1 treatment of wheat after it comes from the dyepot In red, blue, yellow and green. They put it through some trick of magic in the back rooms, and It emerges as a first cousin to an aigrette or as a half-sis-ter to an ostrich feather. Along with the wheat go popples. The two rest together on one hat with an amiable grace. We have great qpen, scarlet poppies from Spain and England, and when they are not used with wheat they encircle black hats or yellow ones which have streamers of black velvet ribbon. (Copyright, 1918. by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

Biscuit and Black Hat for Afternoon. It Is Made of Straw and Georgette Crepe and Has an Evenly TurnedDown Brim. The Trimming at the Back Is Broad and High.

Chinese Hat of Bright-Red Straw. It Is the Most Oddly Shaped Turban of the Spring. It Rises in a High Point at Center, Where It Is Finished With Tall Sprays of Aigrettes.