Hat

Eugénie Safontas

ca. 1935 · straw, silk · Costume Institute

Milliners of the 1930s abandoned the dominant cloche profile of the previous decade and reclaimed hat shapes with wider brims and higher crowns. While severe in color, the black-on-black color palette of this example allows for subtle play between the textures of the glossy straw and smooth sheen of the satin ribbon. In the brim of the hat, an insertion of braid oriented in the reverse direction creates a wide band which refects light differently than the rest of the hat body. To the eye of customers in the exclusive retail establishments of Biarritz, a fashionable seaside retreat frequented by royals and the wealthy where this hat was purchased, this type of detail would have been evidence of superior quality and fine workmanship.

Artist

Eugénie Safontas

Date

ca. 1935

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