Hat

The Breton-style hat, adapted from peasant headwear worn in Brittany, was a perennially favorite hat form in the twentieth century. Beginning in the eighteenth century, European peasants adopted national costumes that reflected their particular region and ethnic groups, which were often worn on Sundays and at festivals. Milliners often gleaned inspiration from these traditional, innovative designs. This particular hat form gained main stream fashionability in the nineteenth century when women wore it while participating in sports such as bowling and ice skating. During the 1940s, the Breton was especially in vogue, and was offered in many stylized shapes. This hat, made with high quality straw, is a beautifully crafted example made by Bergdorf Goodman, a New York department store known for their millinery designs. According to museum accession records, it is also a copy of a patent leather Breton-style hat by Balenciaga (see 2009.300.2379), an example of how retail stores often copied French designs, with and without permission from French couturiers.