Name that Hat!!

[ryan]

Hello all!!
Attached is an image of my GG Grandmother Rebecca Ann Hopkins (nee Hart/Matthews). In the original image Rebecca is stood beside her husband Thomas Hopkins (the man to the left of this message!!). The photograph was taken circa 1940 in Exeter. Can anyone tell me what kind of hat Rebecca is wearing in the image? I have never seen anything like it before!!

Thanks for reading!!

Ryan.

P.S. - Sorry about the quality of the image. It's a scan of quite an old and worn photo.

[Jane Masri]

Hi Ryan,
Is there any way you can reduce the size of the photo? as it's all rather fuzzy & seems to blend in with the background.  Would it be some sort of turban or a hat made of Astrakhan?

Jane

[trystan]

My initial reaction was that it was a "mortar" (the kind that graduates wear, or professors)

Is that a line going up the centre of the hat, or could it be a mark on the photograph?

[trystan]

I've reduced it a little if it helps anybody:

[Biker]

I'd say Astrakhan too but it's rather large for one of those, and they are generally worn by men?

Trystan, LOL, I don't remotely see how that could be a mortar, unless it's been in curlers    Knowing my luck, you will be proved to be right  as all of the photo is 'curley' if you know what I mean.

Sorry, my posting has gone 'up the wall'.

Regards
Jonathan

[trystan]

How about the hat that the lady is wearing on the left:



(on  http://www.1940.co.uk/history/article/fashion/fashion.htm )

Trystan

[Arranroots]

Hi Ryan

Did Rebecca keep a cat ??

(Sorry, couldn't resist!!)   

Arranroots

[ryan]

Thank you for your replies everybody and apologies for the poor quality and large size of my upload. Having previously been unfamiliar with Astrakhans, I have found few good examples of it via a Google image search but I believe that they are generally a bit too small. Having read that link to the info on 1940s women's fashion provided by Trystan, it provides incite into women's adaptation of existing fashionable accessories including hats, gloves etc perhaps Rebecca, despite her age, still kept up with the latest 'trends' by adding-to or altering an existing hat?
Another opinion of mine which I have just developed is that her hat kind of resembles a Chef's hat, although it is black as opposed to white.

About that line on the hat, it looks as if it's some kind of lace or cord attached to somethin round

And Arran, for any animal's sake I hope she didn't!!

Ryan.

[JAP]

Ryan,

It's hard to see where the curly hat leaves off and the curly background begins!  But I suspect that the piece apparently sticking out at the side isn't part of the hat i.e. that the hat isn't actually like something Napoleon might have worn but just goes more or less straight up.

There is a picture in a page of ladies' hats at:
http://www.createthemood.uklinux.net/hatshop/hatshop1.htm
which is rather like your hat.

It is described as (emphasis added) a "Vintage black Astrakhan-style chimney-pot hat, about 7" high".

I recall an Astrakhan hat (not quite as tall) of my mother's like this in the 'dress up' box I had as a kid!  It would have been of 1930s vintage.  With it was a matching Astrakhan collar which was narrow at the back, did up with a big black button in the front at the middle of the neck, and then two flared pieces went out for about 3" each side.  Wouldn't mind having all that now - very retro!

JAP
PS: And I guess, that, if it does stick out at the sides, Rebecca might well have thought that a Napoleon-style hat was very dashing!
PPS: There a 1940s bicorne hat at:
http://www.costumes.org/classes/uafcostumeshop/pages/costumehistcollect/1940.htm