Evening toque

Frederick Loeser & Company

ca. 1914 · silk · Costume Institute

Frederick Loeser & Co. was a high-end importer, retailer, and manufacturer of women's clothing and accessories. Knowing Loeser's status as a premier establishment on then fashionable Fulton Street, we can expect the most high style articles to bear its label, and such is the case with this dramatic and high quality toque. The exaggeration of its vertical elements - close shape with minimal brim, tall crown with slanted top, and stiffly wired upstanding bow - put it on the cutting edge of contemporary chic. The 1910s was a decade of both social and technological change. Excitement about modern advances and the possibilities of the future is manifest in the dynamic elements featured on many hats of the period. In addition to a general feeling of movement and energy, overt imagery of flight, such as bows in the form of wings and propellers, was a frequent feature of contemporary millinery design.

Artist

Frederick Loeser & Company

Date

ca. 1914

Medium

silk

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 Mrs. Frederic G. McMahon in memory of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert C. Halsted, 1975