Mourning hat

Crocker

ca. 1903 · silk · Costume Institute

Even in the depths of mourning, a socially prominent woman such as Caroline Schermerhorn Astor Wilson, who is believed to have worn this hat, was expected to be fashionable. The work of the designer was made more difficult by the strict dress codes for mourning, which prescribed matte black silk crepe devoid of ornamentation for the period of deepest mourning. Rendered in a fashionable oversize toque shape, this hat displays the genius of its maker in the creative treatment and dexterous manipulation of a single type of fabric to create a variety of textured shapes: puffs, ruffles, pleats, drapery, cockades, bows, and wings.

Artist

Crocker

Date

ca. 1903

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 Orme and R. Thornton Wilson in memory of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor Wilson, 1949