Cover of the Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1936.
The Ladies Home Journal offered advice on chic hats and wardrobe coordination in its October issue, but it also offered a hat pattern — for three cents — for ladies who might want to make their own summer sun hat out of a bandana.
Calico Madcaps, 1936
” Calico Madcaps” from Ladies’ Home Journal pattern No. 1282, August 1936.
“Calico Madcaps” to make from bandanas; LHJ pattern No. 1282, Aug. 1936.
“Madcaps” designed by Marian Hagen Scherff, LHJ, Aug. 1936. “The theme for this year’s play clothes is American, so into your sunbonnet and slacks and off to the shore!”
My dermatologist would approve of those wide brims. [A lesson learned the hard way: don’t forget to put sunscreen on the tops of your ears. Or wear a hat, not just a visor.] The squarish bonnet that shades the sides of the face would cut down on glare (and peripheral vision.) The cloche-like hat with turned-back brim looks more twenties than thirties, but it echoes this hat being worn the same year:
Two off-the-face hats, 1936.
The hat on the right is from an ad in Woman’s Home Companion, November, 1936.
Hats with Coats, October 1936
“Watch Your Headline over the Collar of Your Coat.” Fashion advice from Ladies’ Home Journal, Oct. 1936.
In order to show the hats in detail, I’ve divided these two illustrations into four.
Top Left:
“Red-brown felt hat, brown velvet applied bow . . . . The new high crown with curling feather.” LHJ, Oct. 1936.
The red-brown felt is worn with a “red-fox-collared green cape.”The red high-crowned felt hat is worn with a gray Persian lamb coat.
Top Right:
Left, a “Brown brimmed hat with blue ribbon,” Right, “Bright quills on a green felt hat with swooping brim.” LHJ, Oct. 1936.
“Upstanding collar on a leopard coat suggests a brown brimmed hat with blue ribbon. . . . Bright green quills on a green felt with swooping brim — above a coat of beaver-like fur.” [At least “beaver-like” fur acknowledges that not many women would be buying leopard in the depths of the Great Depression. But fashion is always about fantasy.]
Bottom left:
Left, a “black corded-felt deep turban;” center, a “raspberry velours toque with flying birds;” right, a “black velvet deep toque with feathers.” LHJ, Oct. 1936.
“A bright tweed coat with Persian-lamb collar takes a black corded-felt deep turban. . . . Raspberry velours toque with flying birds tops a silver kidskin tuxedo collar coat. . . . Black velvet deep toque with feathers — with black kidskin coat, almost collarless.”
The words “toque” and “turban” seem to be used loosely; the “black corded-felt turban” above does not have the wrapped or draped look of the green ” velvet turban” below.
Bottom right:
Left, “black velvet deep toque with feathers;” center, a “velvet turban with quill and veil;” right, “a rust felt with high crown and tricorn brim.”LHJ, Oct. 1936.
Center: “Black Persian coat with turnover collar takes a velvet turban with quill and veil. . . . ” Right, “A rust felt with high crown and tricorn brim tops a black Alaska-seal swagger coat.”
You’ve probably noticed that some of these hats give a nod to Elsa Schiaparelli.
I can’t resist showing a couple of hats from an ad for Dodge cars:
Fashion reporter endorsing a car. Dodge ad, Woman’s Home Companion, January 1936.
Lilly Dache hat from an advertisement for Dodge cars. WHC, January 1936.
“Big Money,” indeed. As Elsa Lanchester once said of a fellow actress, “She looks like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, or anywhere else, either.”
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