Ladies' Guild Meeting - March 2010
Greeting us at the March meeting were tables, piled high, with hat boxes of various shapes and sizes on top of which were some of their contents. It was obvious from the start that we were to be given a very entertaining visual talk on a topic near to the hearts and memories of the assembled audience.
Juliet Wrinkel, having driven across from Berkhamsted, has a collection of over 200 hats. She began by opening her Granny’s trousseau hat box dated 1905 and then donned several rather flat styled black hats. She told us that in Victorian times it was expected that black mourning clothes would be worn for three years. As time went on, this would be termed ‘half-mourning’ when grey and purple could be included.
The first gent’s hats shown were a 1938 black ‘bowler’ Jewish hat and a top hat of ‘opera’ style, which collapses into a flat pack. Gill Davis then showed us her topper, which is on display in her home with her grandfather’s dress suit. As she lifted it off to bring with her, the inner band fell out with a lock of ginger hair fluttering to the floor. Had this belonged to a lady and been kept in secret by the gentleman who owned the hat?
The evening continued through history, explained by Juliet with a variety of nurse’s hats (this having been her chosen career). We also saw 1940’s school velour hats, with coloured bands appropriate for the school and, of course, the under chin elastic and the summer version in panama (from Ecuador). This brought us to Luton boaters. Many of us still have them. They are still in production today.
From here we saw Juliet’s collection of ‘family’ hats worn at the many weddings and baptisms in the family. She has four children (three girls and a son) and so needed many special hats as Mother of the bride to have to match her outfits.
The collection included many ‘specials,’ a lifeboat souwester (RNLI), a Modieran knitted hat (well covering the ears and very suitable for the current weather), a fool’s hat with bells on points and a shake out Thai bamboo sunhat. At this point, one of our members, Valerie Wilkinson, showed the sunhat she wore at Wimbledon whilst in the front row of the Centre Court watching Boris Becker; lucky lady!
Dorothy Iszatt showed her summer straw, given to her on the occasion of her XX special birthday and beautifully decorated by the Sunday school. They had all helped with the pieces of decoration and so this hat was very special to the recipient.
Phyllis Smith very proudly and rightly so then wore her ‘Palace’ hat! Having been sent an invitation to a Royal Garden Party last year, a new special outfit was necessary. She looked great in the said hat but unfortunately it rained for most of the day. Well done Phyllis!
Last and by no means least ‘our Janice’ wore her wedding hat, Lady Di style with feathers at the back, somewhat hiding the view of guests. It had also been worn back to front, when she took the part of the goose in the Guild’s panto. Heigh ho, all good fun. Thank you members.
Finally, Judy, along with hearty applause, thanked Juliet for her very full detailed and fun presentation.
We were then allowed to browse the collection, trying them on and discussing our own memories with one another.