Womens 1940s Hat Styles To Lift The Spirits

In the UK the forties decade was a time of unique fashion trends including headwear. The lack of materials available during the war years resulted in accelerated innovation among designers. It also spurred a trend for homemade customisations using everyday materials such as dyed farmyard feathers and ornamental trims borne of an entirely different function.

Womens Key Hat Styles Of The 1940s

That said several staple styles formed the core shapes for the era. Over the years Revival Vintage have been fortunate enough to buy and sell some incredible hats. For us, they are works of art with a story to tell that we can only begin to imagine.

While 1940s hats were not rationed during wartime, they were heavily taxed at 33% as a luxury purchase. Milliners were charged for a license to sell hats, as well as duty placed on any they sold. Hatmakers attempted to avoid the charges by calling their hats 'headgear' instead. That particular loophole was soon recognised and shut down.

Here we will highlight some of those iconic masterpieces starting with the wide-brimmed variety commonly known as the cartwheel or picture hat.

Cart Wheel Or Picture Hat

Pretty as a picture, shallow at the crown, big at the brim. The width balanced out the new slimmer silhouette of the late '40s. The profile tended to be flat rather than domed. The cartwheel variety sometimes had an up or downturned brim edge exactly like the wheel of a cart.

Often worn at an angle, traditionally to the right side of the head which allegedly dates back to the polite custom of a gentleman accompanying a lady by walking to her left. This ensured that her face remained visible to him.

This oversized structure allowed for creative adornment during WW2 when other elaborate clothes and accessories were scarce. Natural breathable straw was used in summer and then decorated with all manner of things such as whimsical faux flowers and ribbons.

For winter the picture hats were downscaled slightly and sculptured in traditional felt or velvet like the ones shown here. Gathering and pleating in this way was also popular for the colder months.

Sometimes to update an old hat, bonnet shapes were created by drawing the sides of the hat in towards the chin with broad ribbon or chiffon running along the top.

Halo Hats

A halo hat has a much wider brim at the front than the back to create a face-framing angelic halo or aureole shape. You can see here on the inside how the head support is towards the back.

We have come across velvet ones like this top stitched mushroom brown velvet one we had last year but we have also bought them in straw and Rayon.

Tilt Hat Or Percher

These 1940s hat styles are smaller and skewed with the aid of a millinery headband secured at the back of the head like the example here on the left. Others have a stitched fabric 'cage' like this second example from our current true vintage hat collection.  

They looked to have small-scale proportions compared to the oversized picture styles so were given nicknames such as toy or doll hats. Others were named chimney hats thanks to their tall stove pipe shape. Toque hats are brimless with a tall crown.

Mushroom

A style popularised alongside Christian Dior's 1947 New Look collection.  With it's downturned brim it took on the shape of a mushroom or toadstool. This silhouette was reduced in size towards the end of the decade and continued well into the 1950s.

This is my favourite hat, not only for its shape but also for the understated delicate, surface decorations.

The Four Cs - Chaplets, Calots, Casque & Curvettes

Very popular in the 1940s was an array of close-fitting caps, half hats, fascinators and small brimless saucers. Many are sprung to cling to the head without the need for hatpins. Others have a wire frame which also has an element of give to it.

Some featured veils, some have open crowns. They were customised and adorned in so many different ways including ruching, gathers, chiffon, velvet, faux flowers and fruit.  Revival Vintage has had some stunners over the years.

Half hats were crescent-shaped similar to a wide headband, popular with teens but fancier versions with sequins were seen in the evenings on mature women.

Calots sat towards the back of the head so were best viewed from behind.

Pillbox Hats

The forties pillbox hats were deeper than the ones revived in the 1980s. They were neat and rigid, cheaper to produce and therefore to buy. They would normally be purchased plain aside from a possible net veil to the front. This allowed for creativity later to alter the appearance by adding back drapes, flowers or snoods. They were worn directly on top of the head or at a jaunty angle like other women's 40s headwear.

Boaters, Breton, Bumpers & Sailor Hats

The most recognisable sailor hat we know as a boater or skimmer, constructed from woven braided straw. It has a stiff straight brim similar to those historically worn by 19th-century seafarers before the sailor cap became standard. They had a shallow round crown and a wide hat band. A lot of modern ones take on an oval shape.

They were the go-to hat for men and women during the summer months. Women added wide ribbons, bows, feathers and veils to add interest to their practical sun hats. The shape remained in the winter, but the materials were exchanged for felt or velvet.

The Breton hat had an upturned brim like the white cotton sailor hats. These gave an outfit a nautical edge.

Bumper hats were similar in shape to a Breton but the brims curl back on themselves to create a rounded brim like a car bumper. Another great name derived from the automobile industry.

Conical

With the increased awareness of overseas cultures through newspapers, books and later TV and foreign travel, we began to see influences from other countries in clothing and accessory design. Conical hats or Non La were one such example adopted from Vietnamese culture.

Turbans & Snoods

These were ideal for concealing dirty or messy hair when toiletries were in short supply. They kept hair away from the face when working preventing it from getting caught in machinery. They were also great for hiding pin curls until they were suitably set.

Turbans were made using a cotton or rayon square scarf and tied, ends tucked under like a char lady. Later pre-tied versions became available in stretch jersey fabrics for putting on in a hurry for example when an air raid siren sounded.

Snoods were knitted or crochet hair nets, usually worn at the back of the head. They could be fancied up by adding spaced small flowers or ribbon bows.

Both great hat styles for reenactors who have hair that doesn't easily hold the more structured hairstyles of rolls and curls.

Borrowed From The Fellas

Fedoras 

The fedora hat was adopted from the popular men's felt hats of the same era.  They come in several variations such as the classic Tango but all have a dented crown and turn up slightly towards the back. The ladies' versions feature wider brims and softer crowns with larger bows or feathers added. To avoid confusion with men's fedoras they were simply referred to as casual hats at the time.

Bycockets

If you picture the headwear worn by Robin Hood you won't be far off.  

A Medieval style brimmed hat that turns up at the back and is pointed at the front like a bird's beak. Predominantly felt but they were also copied in other materials.

Suiter & Coachman Hats

Suiter or coachman hats are like Victorian riding hats or men's top hats with distinctive curled side brims and tall crowns with a flat top. They sit perched on top of the head and slightly forward onto the forehead. They were decorated with a ribbon hatband, large bows, tall plumes and veils.

Berets

The beret hat was borrowed from military uniforms. Originally a round felt hat perched on a narrow band that sat flat on the head or at a slight angle. The beret shape inspired many other hat styles including the wide flat pancake berets and Scottish Tam O Shanters with their centre top pompoms.

Berets never really go out of style and even now add a certain kookiness to an outfit.

True vintage hats are beautiful, unusual, collectable works of art but there is also space for practical, accessible, smart reproductions and that is why we work with historical milliner Lilegance to bring our customers those options too.

No doubt I will have missed a few but think I have covered the most significant women's hat styles of the 1940s. They were seen as morale boosters in difficult times plus a chance to show an element of flamboyance during an austere backdrop. How great is that? Hats off to hats!