Picture hat

Madame Alphonsine

ca. 1910 · straw, silk · Costume Institute

This masterpiece of millinery art is a prime example of the voluminous and elaborately decorated hats produced around 1910. Attesting to Its supreme quality is the location of its maker on the rue de la Paix , the premier shopping street in Paris, on the same block as the top couturiers of the day, Paquin, Worth and Doucet. The hat is artfully decorated in pleasing tones of pink and blue, with the flowers arranged progressively from closed buds at the left to full-blown blossom at the right. The ribbon is masterfully folded and draped in the manner of meandering ribbon designs found on 18th century textiles.

Artist

Madame Alphonsine

Date

ca. 1910

Medium

straw, silk

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. Frederick H. Prince, Jr., 1967