Dinner hat

Caroline Reboux|Caroline Reboux

ca. 1920 · silk · Costume Institute

In the 1920s, close fitting caps became extremely popular for evening wear. Producing this hat near the end of her fifty-year career as a renowned milliner, Caroline Reboux was well versed in historical styles. She presents here an unusual and intriguing reinterpretation of the calash, an oversized collapsible bonnet of the late 18th and early 19th c. consisting of a fabric body shirred onto hoops, transforming it into a soft and close-fitting evening cap. The self-fabric ruffle historically found trimming the edges of a calash has been reconfigured as a playful frill and top knot on the crown. The designer has further modernized the form by incorporating the contemporary element of an irregular turned-down brim.

Artist

Caroline Reboux|Caroline Reboux

Date

ca. 1920

Medium

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