At the turn of the twentieth century, no well-dressed lady would be seen without a hat. American women wore hats even when taking the dog for a walk.
To-day, one hundred years later, at the turn of the twenty-first century, wearing a hat is entirely a woman's choice. Ina Blake, Thelma Williams and Mavis Carrington are three women who chose to attend church always on a Sunday, but never without a hat.
Blake goes even further than Sunday mornings as she tells you " I wear my hats from early morning functions, but not after four o'clock in the afternoon, it is not acceptable to wear a hat after four."
It is to be noted that Queen Elizabeth 11 always wears a hat in the daytime, and usually a tiara on evenings.
As can be seen from the pictures taken by photographer Keith Matthews, Ina's hats vary in size, material and trim.
But are unlike those of the first decade when women hid themselves beneath enormous hats which sat on top of pompadour hairstyles, elaborately trimmed with ribbons, lace, flowers, fruits, feathers and veils, at times all on the same hat.
It is said that a term we all know "mad as a hatter" came out of the poisonous chemicals used as preservatives by hatters to cure the feathers from the brilliantly plumed humming birds, for use on the heads of fashionable Edwardian ladies. These chemicals induced among other symptoms, St Vitus' Dance or convulsions, hence the saying "mad as a hatter."
Hats, which may have been fashionable, but certainly not chic, were enormous over-trimmed hats, fixed to the puffed out hairstyles by long, dagger-like pins. World War 1 and the Emancipation of Women, however, ended the sway of these hats.
Men also wore a variation of hats as going out bareheaded was out of the question, for both sexes.
By the end of the first decade, oriental looking turbans were sometimes worn in the evening, with the proverbial feather or jewels for decoration. Hats now sat deeper on the head with deep crowns and very wide brims, lavishly trimmed with feathers often sticking out beyond the brim or curling round the brim almost touching the shoulders. It was one of the most hat conscious periods in the century and young girls also wore hats. Plain, reasonably small hats with thick face veils, or worn with goggles, were introduced for motoring.
By 1915 hats were less elaborate. Through the war years deep crowns, narrow and wider brimmed hats made in felt or straw and trimmed with ribbons, were worn with brims turned up at the back, and front tilted forward or to one side like a shepherdess hat. With the war came also large squashy-looking berets.
By 1918, the short hair bob was in vogue and post-war hats with soft wavy brims were often trimmed or completely made with lace. Toques and beret style hats, fussily trimmed with feathers, flowers and veils, and three-cornered hats softened with veiling were worn. While head- bands in the same material as evening dresses or contrasting satin or velvet, some embroidered with beads and trimmed with a feather or group of feathers, were used at night.
Hats, like fashion in the early part of the century, changed with each decade. And the 1920's theatrical looking hats with large brims turned up off the face and trimmed with bunches of ribbons or feathers called Cavalier of Musketeer hats, became popular.
There was the helmet cloche hat in the mid 20's; and the deep crowned cloche hats pulled down to the eyebrows and shaped onto nape of the neck of the late 20's. The1930's, the Depression, skull caps with draped folds at the sides and back or modified cloches with brims that dipped down over one eye, and large floppy, fussily trimmed hats were used for weddings. There were also many small styles, pill boxes, flat berets and fez's , lightly trimmed with feathers and veiling and worn tilted forward or to one side, showing rolled hair covered at the back with snoods. Head scarves became increasingly popular.
In the 1940's, the time of World War II, hats were surprisingly fussy, forward tilted doll hats, newer bonnets or boaters at the back of the head, delicately trimmed with ribbons, flowers and veiling; and the Inflated beret style influenced by military headgear.
With the advent of the New Look in 1947, hats got smaller and softer shapes were worn on the back or side of the head. By 1948, headfitting cloche shapes showed more of the face and hair. And in 1949, women wore hats less frequently.
And by the fifties, the new hat shapes were worn straight on top of the head, flat pancake berets and coolie hats in varied sizes. The small pill box was worn straight across the forehead.
Feminine looking toques in draped chiffon or organdie trimmed with roses and veiling, similar to the style worn just before World War 1 returned in 1956. The fascinator as it was called, in Trinidad, was in, and no woman worth her salt went to a wedding without a fascinator covering her entire face.
In the early 60's hats were used only for special occasions, because of fuller hairstyles with backcombing. Jackie Kennedy wore the pill box on the back of her full, bouffant hair style.
It was in the 1960's that hairstyling became more important than wearing a hat and Vidal Sassoon became famous for his skillful cutting, so that hair was cleverly shaped and layered into an even overall length, sculptured and yet soft. Hair was easy to manage and kept its shape.
In the1970's hair care became much more important and hats unimportant.
In the1980's, fashion was hardly the same thing as in 1900. This was the time of T-shirts and designer jeans. Hats included the famous bee bop cap. And the trend has continued to the present time, women choose hats that they fancy, to be worn when they fancy.
As the new millennium approaches, Ina Blake, unlike the women of the 1900's, believes "the environment plays an important part, straw keeps you cool." And gives this advice: "Choosing your hat is important, you have to sort and store them according to shapes and sizes so that crowns fit into each other, so that brims are not squashed into too small hat boxes, and materials kept dust-free."
Ina finds that there is a certain romantic quality about choosing hats "I am fascinated with the different shapes and dimensions, and will buy a plain hat and decorate it for myself. This adds a little bit of mystery and allows you to make a hat ready for formal or informal wear." Ina, who buys a hat wherever she may go, always travels with her hat boxes because also "I hate to see them mutilated by plastic bags."