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When Everyone Wore A Hat...

Thanks Charlie and Dave re. the handbags. This has surprised me as they seem so brightly coloured. The third lady is also wearing a buttonhole (flower). Maybe it was a special trip of some sort.

Maurice talking of keeping warm, the one constant with regard to hats for babies is parents still put them in hats, albeit modern skull cap types, to keep their babies warm.

Viv.
 
Looking at the fashions in the old pics it seems there was a desire to conform in those days - they wanted fit in. The photo below has a good collection of hats - perhaps if you didn't have a hat you would have to hide !
Image5_Kynocks_at_Witton.jpg
 
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Smashing collection of hats in that photo Phil. Most men have caps - many are those wide caps and the women's hats seem to be either brimmed hats, berets or cloches. One man on the far left stands out - he's wearing a trilby. Must have been a gaffer.

As an aside, the photo shows Kynochs located in the countryside in 1912. No sign of the mass development of the area 20 years later. And what an important role that factory would have just two years after the photo.Viv.
 
Yes Viv - maybe Kynochs was a good place to work. The lady in the pic below worked there in 1901 and a click on her pic will link to a BFI film showing a happy crowd coming out of a works gate. Lots of bowler hats and towards the end the boss in his top hat.

An interesting variety of hats in the film but one or two of the younger female workers are without hats but of course all the men wear hats!
 
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Wear a designer hat & show some flesh; It must be ladies day at Royal Ascot. Gone are the days when Mrs Shilling stole the limelight, but she did turn up in some marvellous hats.Mrs Shilling.JPG
 
I don't think wearing a hat came from the desire to 'fit in' Mohawak. If you go back in history, everyone wore a hat, even indoors. Women had a cap in the house and something more elaborate for outside and I feel that over the years this just vanished from fashion, but slowly. My gran wore a hat right up to the 1960's but then I think she only wore one for 'best' but in earlier years she went to work in one (she worked in a food enviroment mostly, inlcluding Joe Lyons at Galloway's Corner). She went to live in Cheltenham in 1965 and I don't remember her wearing a hat when she went shopping when I stayed there.
 
oldMohawk said:
Yes Viv - maybe Kynochs was a good place to work. The lady in the pic below worked there in 1901 and a click on her pic will link to a BFI film showing a happy crowd coming out of a works gate. Lots of bowler hats and towards the end the boss in his top hat.

An interesting variety of hats in the film but one or two of the younger female workers are without hats but of course all the men wear hats! The film was first mentioned on the forum in a thread Birmingham Faces from 1901 which also has a link in #11 to another film of Blue Coat Children Marching to Curzon Hall in 1901.
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Great piece of filming Oldmohawk. Spotted a tam-o-shan'ter on a young girl in the film - the only one, maybe they were going out of fashion. And how striking is the great mass of workers leaving Kynochs? All those hats on those heads must have amounted to thousands. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
An article on the trends in hat wearing. Admittedly the article's 5 years old but it has some nice observations such as young people are keeping hat wearing alive. And we shouldn't be too quick to pronounce the death of the hat. Viv.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8074663.stm
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Interesting article Viv particularly about the Denton Hat Company making 100,000 felt hats a week in the 1930s to satisfy demand.

I was wondering whether any of those Kynochs workers saw the film they were in and looking at information about Mitchell & Kenyon, they produced "factory-gate films" knowing that people were excited at the chance of seeing themselves on film, and there were commercial opportunities for short films featuring as many local people as possible.
Back to Birmingham and the Blue Coat Children, I think the man below was the most irritating person I've seen in an old film. No wonder the kids in the film look very tense with him fussing around them, that's his hand near the boys ear ! The school hats are interesting.
Head.JPG
 
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Films taken during the day were shown on the same evening in fairground tents or local meeting halls and music halls with slogans like "see yourselves as others see you".
 
What a quick turnaround for those films Nick. Certainly would have been popular.

Here are the Bluecoat girls (Edgbaston) in 1910 in their regulation hats. Only one girl looks pleased to be photographed. Their hats look very functional for all weathers. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1424438492.332218.jpg
 
But in the left background, Viv, is something that I would REALLY call a hat!

Chris
 
Yes Chris, a serious hat! I think the ladies hats at this time were so graceful and a lovely addition to their tailored clothes.

The supply of hats in the 1830s was a very specialised business. Look at the range available on this James Barnett Lillington trade card (from the Revolutionary Players site). Based in New Street, he must have been a very busy supplier. (I note his middle name is very appropriate too!) Pity we can't read the very small print on the card.

For those who had the money, their wardrobe of hats must have been quite extensive and must have presented challenging storage issues. Not like you could just sling them into a cupboard like today's woolly ones and forget about them e.g beaver hats needed be brushed etc. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1424446186.092983.jpg
 
And for good measure, here's a hat maker of the late 1700/1800s. Looks like he's using an iron on the brim. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1424446654.642651.jpg
 
Hi All.

This has been an excellent thread. I grew up in the 1930s and cannot remember ever having a cap. Except for my cubs cap and later scouts hat which I wore with pride. My school cap I put in my pocket as soon as I was out of sight of the school. However I remember that ladies would never dream of going into a church without a hat. My mother was not a churchgoer as such but always wore a hat when attending weddings and funerals.

Old Boy
 
The lady you mentioned on the right looks frightening! Her hat structure seems to be made up of several layers. Maybe she thought it gave her authority. I expect she was a teacher as possibly was the lady in the boater.

The Bluecoat boys (these look like the younger section of the school) were wearing Tan-o-Shanters in 1910 in this photo. George Truman with the glasses seems to be taking the whole photographic process very seriously.

This photo seems to have been taken in the same position as that in post #102. It may even be the same ladies in the background. . Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1424461586.096808.jpg
 
Although hats could be stylish, practical and a reflection of your social standing, they could of course also be a nuisance. Most of the women in this packed Birmingham West End Theatre photo are wearing hats. If you zoom in you'll see many are very, wide brimmed hats, enough to obscure the while view of the stage! You'd have thought it would have been acceptable practice to remove hats whilst in the theatre. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1424699892.132823.jpg
 
I must say, that of all the fine hats mentioned on here, my own personal favourite would have to be the fine woolen one. As introduced to us by the Afghanistan/Pakistan community. It was based on the Russian army style, which was copied by the Afghanistan tribes, when fighting the Russians. They were mostly home spun, very warm and practical. Many of you will have seen the Mujahideen tribesmen wearing them on TV news reports, when the war was at it's hight. Some useless information, you may think, but there's many a strange story told about hats!
 
Looking at all the hats in the thread I realised I only have three hats in the house
Hat 1
The only bit of kit I saved from my RAF days. Last wore it in Brum on leave walking in New Street in 1956. Felt quite proud wearing it !
Hat 2
I wore it recently on a cold windy day but not in Brum. Keeps my ears warm but it's not elegant !
Hat 3.
I wore it last year on a hot sunny day at the Heckington Show. Lots of the local folk wore hats like it so I didn't look out of place !
hats.jpg
 
My nan JENNEY on a ladies outing.jpgThis is My Nans day out with the Ladies of Aston ( have posted this on other treads ) Just look at all those Hats lol
Hello again folks been along time posting on this site regards Keith
 
Phil. Yes I think people usually prefer to blend in with others when it comes to hats. With military hats there's no choice of course. At the other extreme there's Ladies Day at the races -.quite the opposite - with the aim being to make as bold a statement as possible. Day to day though we don't generally share the same confidence in wearing hats as when worn in the past. But I've found that once you start wearing a hat people tend not to really notice.

Keith. What a lovely display of hat finery. A very nice photo, ladies in their best and babies in their best too. They all look so very happy. A well earned day out. Must be about 1920/30s?

About thirty years later here's me waiting for the Midland Red Bus with my mum at Kingstanding Circle on a Sunday afternoon on a visit to my grandma in Sutton. I'm wearing a stiff, scratchy, straw hat with an unbearable chaffing elastic under the chin. This possibly accounts for the look of sheer humiliation on my face in the photo. Oh dear ..... Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalkHD1424986922.975638.jpg
 
I always loved to see ladies in hats going into church. When I was in a choir, a lady would not enter the church without a hat, or a scarf, around her head. Hats at weddings also seem to be going out of fashion. Once upon a time, a lady would love to dress up for a wedding.

A few weeks ago we attended a wedding. People were well dressed, even one or two hats, but a lot of the women were bareheaded.

No one seems to bother these days. Call me a male chauvinist man, but I do think a woman, in a nice hat, gets attention.


Here in Norfolk, at Burnham Market, called locally, "Chelsea by the Sea". there is the most fantastic hat shop. The only problem? The hats are ridiculously expensive. Probably one of the reasons why women do not bother so much these days. Style seems to be less important that casual, comfortable dress. Or is it just me?

Eddie
 
what a smashing photo of your nans outing keith...dont think i can see anyone who is not wearing a hat...any ideas where the photo was taken

lyn
 
Vivienne14 said:
About thirty years later here's me waiting for the Midland Red Bus with my mum at Kingstanding Circle on a Sunday afternoon on a visit to my grandma in Sutton. I'm wearing a stiff, scratchy, straw hat with an unbearable chaffing elastic under the chin. This possibly accounts for the look of sheer humiliation on my face in the photo. Oh dear ..... Viv.
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Well Viv, I suppose you had to look smart if you were going to Sutton on a Sunday afternoon. As a child I always thought of Sutton as a rather posh place and was always smartened up before visiting relatives there.

I previously posted this photo here of me wearing my Uncles steel helmet during WW2. I can't see my face in the photo but was probably quite happy when my Dad lifted me up on our brick air raid shelter to take the photo.
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Viv, I think you are very lucky being able to wear a cloche. I do have an imitation suede/fur thing that I wear when it's extremely cold, but I really would like to be able to purchase a hat, possibly a cloche, for the winter months. My problem is that my head is very small, and hats always drop down to my nose! I have had many a laugh trying hats on in M&S with a friend who suffers from the same problem and we both look like we are trying to imaitate Freddy 'Parrot Face' Davies with half our faces being covered by the hat. Being small isn't much fun at times!
 
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Vivienne. Just looking at your lovely photo (#113), and it reminded me of our youngest grand daughter, taken many years ago.

You both look beautiful, but mischievous little girls. Now nineteen, our grand daughter still is both. No doubt you are still the same!!

Eddie
 
My Mother used to buy hats from C & A. (coats and 'ats!!)
A few years ago I attended a wedding at Birmingham Register Office, the female family members all had elaborate large hats. I overheard one lady at the reception asking where they should put their hats safely, as they didn't want to lose the rental deposits if they were damaged! The last time I wore one to a wedding it was borrowed.
My Nan had a box of "trimmings", felt flowers, cherries etc. and she trimmed her own hats, I did the same for my second wedding with veiling and beads!!!
rosie.
 
Hi rosie I also trimmed my hat for my wedding I put lace so it came over my face with white flowers,I have a passion for big hats and wish I had been born when they were worn more often.
 
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