The essential hat

July 30th, 2012 by Lynne McNairn

This image shows a selection of hats from Powerhouse Museum’s collection along with hat boxes and display stands. These hats were made between 1900s and the 1960s and all but one were made in Australia.

For centuries hats were an essential fashion item with etiquette guides suggesting that it was ‘disgraceful’ for ladies and gentlemen to venture out without the appropriate hat for every occasion. For ladies of a certain social standing this could require several changes of hat (and outfit) per day. As a result hats were one of the most profitable lines for large and small retailers alike. Cities and towns had many specialist milliners catering to the needs of the fashionable man and woman.

Hats went out of fashion in the 1960s with the advent of ‘big’ hairstyles and casual dressing.

The Museum holds a large collection of hats and millinery equipment that collectively document changes in design and materials used in millinery.

Post by Lynne McNairn

Photography by Andrew Frolows
© All rights reserved

Tags: fashion, hat, hat boxes, hats, millinery, retailing, shopping

The Powerhouse Museum's Photo of the Day blog features a new image each day, chosen from the Powerhouse Photo Library.

The majority of these images have been taken by Museum photographers for a variety of purposes such as for exhibitions, of objects in our collection, events, behind-the-scenes and location shots. We also feature many images taken by our Flickr community and from our visitors. We hope you enjoy the photographs and stories.

The licensing of each image varies however we are trying to release as many as possible under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 license.