Picture hat

A picture hat, also sometimes known as a Gainsborough hat, is an elaborate woman's hat with a wide brim. It has been suggested that the name may be derived from the way the broad brim frames the face to create a 'picture'.

This is a very broad category of hat; some versions may be similar to the halo or cartwheel hat. This style featured in virtually every decade of the 20th century, and has a history dating back to at least the 18th century.

The picture hat was first popularised as a style at the end of the 18th century and is said to have been inspired by the hats seen on portraits of society women painted by Thomas Gainsborough. It was then often known as the Gainsborough Chapeau. Other names included garden hat. These early hats were large, with a wide brim and were designed to perch on top of the lavish hairstyles popular during this era. Hats incorporated details such as feathers and trims – some are said to have even included whole stuffed birds.

The picture hat became fashionable again from the end of the 19th century – popularised in images of Gibson Girls in the United States and Canada and in the Gaiety Girls of the London theatre.

In the early 1920s, The Times described Paris fashions of large picture hats in black velvet trimmed with traditional garden flowers. In the same year, the picture hat was described as: "greatly in favour", alongside the toque. As a fashion correspondent noted in 1922, its popularity may have been due to its adaptable nature: "They are wearable in every season, and vary more in the way they are put on than in shape". Styles were simpler than those worn in the Edwardian era – following the prevailing fashion of cloches by including a more close-fitting crown to flatter shorter hairstyles. A 1920s advert for Harrods' spring hats showcased a black straw picture hat with a wide brim embroidered with silk and chenille. By the end of the 1920s, picture-style hats were changing shape, as noted by a fashion correspondent: "Hats with higher fronts to the crown are being made, and one new shape has a turned-back brim at the side, in the style of the old-fashioned picture hat, but smaller".

...
Wikipedia