HATS HATS HATS HATS

By: Guest Blogger ~ Celeste "CeeCee"

I grew up in a Pentecostal Church so seeing big stunning hats was nothing new to me! But, I never really understood the reason for wearing a hat. Some make a biblical reference to the purpose of wearing hats, 1st Corinthians 11:15, which says that women should cover their heads during worship, thus the infamous dollies as a head cover, but, I will definitely leave that up to each individual for their own interpretation. Anyway, as I was saying I have never worn a hat until my very first Fancy Hat luncheon!!!!!! What an experience. My sister Jennie "JayBee" and my mother (Granny) were so enthusiastic for the first Fancy Hat luncheon, and me I was dreading it, I was not only nervous, I was a wreck..a hat?? I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of wearing a hat. However, after seeing all the beautiful women in those hats helped me get my sea legs going and I started strutting around like the belle of the ball. I started looking forward to the event each year and was very disappointed during the years we didn’t have one. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to look back at a little history and some of the African American Milliners who paved the way for this unique profession. I only have one page so this will be brief.

The wearing of hats can be traced back to Thebes and the ancient Egyptian murals. Our sistah’s were doing the darn thing even then!!!!! During and after slavery, black women who worked as maids and servants broke away from their uniforms on Sunday and wore decorated hats to service. The hat, no matter what material it was made from, was adorned with ribbons, bows and flowers. It was the black woman’s one day of individualism. Since then, church hats/derby hats have gotten bigger and bolder.

The height of Chicago’s millinery scene was in the 1940s. African-Americans such as (upper right) Miss Minnie Coleman (left), clerk, and Miss Selma Barbour, (right), managed the Cecilian Specialty Hat Shop, 454 East 47th Street, Chicago, Illinois. Many women at the time trained to be milliners, which was considered a respectable career until hats lost popularity in the 1960s.

During my research on Milliners one stood out, Lula Mae Reeves (fushia hat), she was selected to have her hat shop recreated with thirty of her creations as a part of a permanent collection at the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington when it is completed in 2015. Some of her clients were, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Marian Anderson!!!

All of my friends and family know I tend to get on a soapbox, but this topic is so interesting to me. Ok ok, next, my research took me to Vanilla P. Beane (holding white hat), owner of Bene Millinery, is 90 years old and still making hats today. In 1975, she was inducted into the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers' hall of fame. Ms. Beane has designed many hats for civil and wormen's right activist, Dorothy Height over the years.

Mildred Blount (below) designed all the hats in the movie “Gone With the Wind” WOW!! As I found one milliner it led me to another one. If you are interested in the detailed stories of this profession and those who led the way, below are just a few Milliners you can research. Their stories are intriguing and inspiring:

Lillian Brown Head – Phyllis Eley – Willard Winter – Harriet Rosebud