Imperial Valley Press

New Millinery Is Personality Plus

By Doris Lockett

Women who look to fashion to provide them with the means of portraying whatever side of the personality they wish to emphasize on various occasions, will hail the new showings of midseason and advance spring hats with cries of enthusiasm.

There is no limit to the roles the fashionable woman may assume if she relies on her hats to set the key of the costume and mood. Hats have ever been considered the frivolous woman's greatest ally. The French woman has always recognized the power of a dashing hat set at a dashing angle, and who knows how much of her reputation for chic rests on this one talent. But this season smart women may choose to look demure or mysterious, and the hats to abet their decisions are already being presented in the most up-to-date salons.

Consider the white pique hat pictured on this page. It's demure in a sweet, old-fashioned way at first glance; stiffly starched, crisp, young. But fashion knows when to hold quaintness in check, and instead of the round crown and pink or blue ribbon which might be expected, this new chapeau boasts a sophisticated squared-off crown about which is placed a band of brown taffeta. To further the effect of knowing smartness, the brim is lifted on one side to show the hair, and defeat any tendency for the fashionable wearer to go too far in the direction of sedateness. The brim of this hat so infinitesimal in back, so widely swooping to the front, is a mark of complete newness, one of the outstanding, literally outstanding, tendencies of the new millinery season.

For sheer audacity and completely Parisian charm, the dashing hat in the other picture on the page will find many devotees. This is the type that the woman of worldly poise will certainly have in her wardrobe, for it portrays perfectly the individuality of the fashionable woman certain of her power, assured of her chic.

The hat pictured here is of shiny black straw, very smooth, very soignee, a stunning foil for embellishments of uncompromising red. The color is introduced in a band under the edge of the brim, and in the long graceful feather which thrusts forward over the face from a bird of great imagination posed on the back of the crown. To complete a picture of utter femininity and complete frivolity, an absurd - and tremendously flattering - little veil outlines the entire affair. This is a hat in the tradition of French fascination, a hat to point up an otherwise simple costume, a hat that is destined for many an admiring glance.

There are, of course, scores of women who no matter how delighted they may be with the personality expressed by extremely new hats, must have in their wardrobe several classic brimmed felts. The collections assembled for resort wear are more colorful than usual, many combining fabric with felt. One definitely new-looking affair uses printed challis with felt, and others combine rustic braids, printed cottons and straw fabrics with soft felts.

Crowns are high or lower, depending on the preference and features of the wearer. Many street hats are combining belting with felt. Here one sees youthful off-the-face beret types that have a Breton feeling in the upward swing of the line, and moderately high-crowned models with flattering, dipping brims. Often the crown is open, sometimes 'ears' of the matching belting give added height at the top.

Colors are being carefully considered by all designers. Beige is a great favorite, especially a beige tending toward yellow. Other colors that bid for popular favor as the new season advances are a soft blue allied to periwinkle, but more lively, which Lydia has introduced, kelly green and army blue.

Other hats for spring street wear are also fashioned of braid. These so-called suit hats usually have narrower brims, sometimes turned off the face, and often have the deep back which is so comfortable to wear and so definitely new. Small bretons of meteor braid with bi-color edges or fringed ribbon detail are now making their bow.

Well-designed felts are being introduced for both street and winter vacation wear. These frequently have narrow rolled brims and moderate crowns. One such hat was seen recently in yellow felt with a detailed seaming in the crown that gave a corded effect. The hat was completed with a brown band. Indicative of the lively interest in bright tones for the resort season are charming felts in Chinese blue, amber, dusty pink and, of course, white accented with bright dashes.