KinSource - Tale of the Week - Woman's Fancy Turns To Hats

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Minneapolis Tribune, March 21, 1902, p. 6

WOMAN'S FANCY TURNS TO HATS

She Comes Down Town to See What the Stores Are Offering.

STYLES THAT ARE NEW

Purchase of an Easter Bonnet Now Absorbs the Feminine Mind.

"In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." I wonder if the poet who sang that old, and now rather frayed out, song knew that it was only because in the spring all the women wear new hats.

I don't believe that the lover would turn to thoughts of love the least bit in the world if the girls all went around in the dingy old black and brown and blue hats which they have worn all winter. Not even a new bunch of violets or a fresh veil can redeem a girl from her old winter hat, and the sooner she thrusts it in the rag bag and buys a new one just so much sooner will the aforesaid young man find his thoughts turning toward her, and so much sooner may she look for the "solitaire" ring and the wedding veil.

When you go to buy an Easter hat, do please put on your prettiest frock and fix your hair at least half way decent. By that I do not mean pulled back tightly from the face and twisted up on a little knot behind. Also if you mean to get a hat in which you will look well during the summer, put a little bit of white about your neck some way, and, unless you have really severe principles on the subject, just a whiff of rice powder on your face.

The hats themselves will do all the rest.

Minneapolis women do not mean to be slangy at all, but they are all going about now saying: "Where did you get that hat?"

They all have hats on the brain now. Every day they troop up and down Nicollet avenue and try on and look at themselves in the big flower-framed mirrors, and go out and get a friend to come in and pass judgment, and then maybe they buy it and maybe they don't. If they do not take the first one, it is safe to assume, however, that they will be the owner of a new hat before the week is over.

Women will do without all sorts of things, they will eat cheap lunches for months, they will shine their own shoes and clean their own gloves, they will even wash their own handkerchiefs and dry them against the window pane, but they will not do without new hats at Easter time.

And mankind in general, and husbands in particular, ought to rejoice that this is so. Everything is fresh and new in the spring. The trees have new leaves, the grass comes up fresh and green, the brooks are replenished by the melting snows and are decked with violets at the brink of their winding courses. Everything in nature rejoices in new apparel, and it is a wise arrangement that woman, the embodiment of every grace and virtue which nature knows, should appear at the beginning of spring radiant in the fairest product of looms and workmanship, wearing flowers and silks and laces and everything which can enhance her charms, adding by her beauty and glory just that much to the loveliness and happiness of the whole world.

FLORENCE BOSARD.

The Minneapolis Tribune, March 20, 1902, p. 6

HATS ARE THE THINGS

WITH WHICH KERR CATCHES THE FANCY OF THE MINNEAPOLIS WOMEN.

Opening day at the milliners is now quite as much of a social function as many a tea or afternoon reception.

At Kerr's yesterday there was a string band discoursing popular melodies, flowers were everywhere, and there was a large throng of well-gowned women present all day long to view the novelties which were offered.

The hats are exquisite and Mrs. Kerr and her able staff of assistants were busy all day long. Many of the "creations" are from Paris. Of these one exquisite little Dollie Varden hat with an entire crown of roses and the brim built of the foliage was particularly admired. The white hats lead in popularity, with black and white a close second.

It takes all the skill of needlewomen and jeweler alike to complete the hats this year. In one large black and white hat the brim was composed of leaves made from lace braid and straw, the crown was of spangled jet over white chiffon surrounded with a rosy wreath, and a sunburst of great pearls and brilliants was used to ornament the up-curving brim.

Large hats will be much favored. One simple looking hat had a wide brim faced with pink and having a wide overhanging frill of black lace. Streamers accompany nearly all of the designs, sometimes made from lace, accordion plaiting or ribbon, and sometimes just the long green stems of the flowers are used. The novelties in braid include one which is called the Chrysanthemum straw, which makes up with much style and is used with particularly good effect in the black and white, and also in a tan toque which has a combination of rose shades combined.

There were an unusually large number of hats sold yesterday, and many who went simply to look on found just the right hat and completed the purchase at once. Roses were given away as souvenirs and the air was filled with perfume flowers and sweet concord of music.