CATEGORY 5. Humanities: Critial Research

2nd Place
NAME: Amelia L. Brown
TITLE: Where have all the Mad Hatters Gone?

The history of costume and fashion informs historians about the society and culture of a specific group of people or time periods. Costume historians use fashion to analyze the effect of historical events. However, they explore these subjects only broadly and rarely bring them under the fine microscope of one time period, one group, or one piece of clothing. In the first half of the twentieth century, women's hats as an accessory (as opposed to something to keep warm in the winter) essentially disappeared. Milliners, like other skilled artisans of the past, were driven out of business by a changing society that no longer needed them. Scholars have studied very little about milliners and the history of hat making on a specific, concentrated level. No one has investigated the specific causes of the disappearance of the millinery trade and how its disappearance relates to the events of the twentieth century. By focusing exclusively on the millinery trade of the first half of the twentieth century, I can produce a more complete and satisfying history of the industry than the broad-spectrum books currently in existence. More importantly, I use millinery as an example of the sweeping impact the social changes and events had on every aspect of the culture of the twentieth century.

Millinery was a thriving trade at the turn of the twentieth century and nonexistent by the middle of the same century. Specific events, such as the World Wars, had a devastating effect on the hat making industry. The women's movement and trends in fashion also contributed to the loss of the trade. I provide concrete evidence of the impact of these factors as well as other issues. The changing status of women in the first half of the twentieth century played a substantial role in the sale and popularity of hats.

Evidence gathered from the United States Bureau of the Census shows a steady decline in sales and number of millinery shops from the beginning of the twentieth century until about 1960, when stores are almost nonexistent. Statistical evidence (gathered from American history textbooks and journals) showing the number of married women working outside the home, for example, demonstrate the substantial transformation of women in the early to mid twentieth century.

Women's issues link the significant events of the first half of the twentieth century and the changes in fashion for women. As women gained freedom from

social constraints, they also gained freedom from their clothing. Fashion, like all art forms, is a reflection of the society in which it was created. Women's changing attitudes about fashion and their place in society resulted in a very low demand for hats. The styles became more casual and, as women sought the rights that men enjoyed, more androgynous. Cumbersome hats that prevented participation in sports or the workforce quickly lost popularity. The articles and accompanying pictures in fashion and women's magazines, newspapers, and advertisements, demonstrate the trends in fashion that led to the disappearance of milliners, as in the New York Times articles calling for women suffrage supporters to give up hats as a sign of solidarity (equating hats with women's low status).

I explore how women's liberation led to a decline in the popularity in hats, thus resulting in lower hat sales. In addition, I examine the difficulties the millinery industry faced from bad publicity, such as the Audubon Society calling for a millinery boycott for the protection of songbirds (feathers were a common hat trimming). I separate the industry into the small, usually female-owned, milliner/artisan shop and the large, usually male-owned, wholesaler and department stores. As declining demand hurt the small milliner, the large, corporate wholesalers and department stores offered mass produced hats at low prices in beautiful settings, with which the independent artisan could not compete. These retail giants began to decline with government regulations on materials during the World Wars, import duties on millinery supplies, and new, strict labor guidelines. The government no longer tolerated their unethical (though profitable) practices, hurting the industry tremendously. Millinery survived for a few years after the regulations, however, because hats remained extremely popular, keeping the industry afloat. However, the pursuit of equal rights for women changed the fashion world, to the detriment of the hat. The large businessmen pushed out the independent artisans, though the law of supply and demand eventually put the corporate giants out of business as well.

Finally, I probe the larger themes that the millinery industry in the twentieth century embodies. The millinery industry brings together some of the most important events and issues of the twentieth century: the Wars, the Depression, the women's rights movement, the incorporation of business, labor reform, even protection of the environment. Millinery is a microcosm of how these forces affected all different parts of society in the twentieth century, especially the women's movement. Most milliners were women (at a time when women could not usually work outside the home), yet women's distaste for hats led to the demise of the trade. The millinery industry showed all sides of the fight for equality, eventually coming full circle. The industry had afforded one of the first entrepreneurial pursuits for women. But, women's liberation destroyed the millinery industry, originally a stepping stone to equality.