Hat

Rose Valois

ca. 1938 · wool · Costume Institute

The treatment of felt in this hat from French milliner Rose Valois shows the extreme refinement of French millinery. While the overall scale and crown shape follows the fashion of 1938-1940, the designer cleverly employs different techniques of shirring and braiding to adapt a men's hat style, the fedora, for a sophisticated female client. The asymmetry of the design and the different treatments of the felt, including the leather-like tassel, make any additional trim superfluous. The exaggerated and arched curving lines of the brim give the hat panache, without overshadowing the face of the woman who wore it.

Artist

Rose Valois

Date

ca. 1938

Medium

wool

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. William Ford Goulding, 1969