Hat

Robert Dudley|Merrimac Hat Corp.

ca. 1945 · wool, silk, synthetic, horsehair · Costume Institute

Robert Dudley, a well-known milliner in the 1940s and '50s, designed this visually appealing dinner hat, adopting a masculine top hat form and transforming it into a feminine style by applying brightly colored ribbon and gold mesh. Mesh was primarily used in snoods, a popular style of the period, but here Dudley has used the material in an unusual way by draping it around the hat form. The shape of the hat, worn at a rakish angle over the brow, and the effective use of materials embodies the whimsical millinery designs of the period, and demonstrates the role of hats as reminders of beauty, youth and brighter days during war time.

Artist

Robert Dudley|Merrimac Hat Corp.

Date

ca. 1945

Medium

wool, silk, synthetic, horsehair

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Nini Turcotte, 1949