For a ‘garden or porch party […] the summer girl may wear her most picturesque, most be-flowered, most lacy millinery possession […] a picture hat of some fine open-work straw trimmed with roses to match the flowers in the dress. Or it may be a lingerie hat of lace’ (Evening Star, 1904).
In the Edwardian era, summer dresses were often worn with a matching summer hat made of thin fabrics and trimmed with lace, ruffles and flowers.
‘Appropriate headgear for such a suit is the lingerie sailor of eyelet embroidery trimmed with white taffeta ribbon and large white roses with green foliage.’ (Marysville Daily Appeal, 1907)
How I Made My Edwardian Summer Hat
For my Edwardian hat, I draped white chiffon over a foundation of white cotton fabric and sewed it down by hand.
‘With the summer gown the summer hat will appear […] And one of these is a piazza hat for nice wear, yet so simple that any one might imitate it. The whole trimming consists of a veil or scarf, bordered with lace and rather longer than wide. This is laid around the hat in a swirl and is shaped with the fingers until there are many folds.’ (San Francisco Call, 1903)
And by the way, my Edwardian hat is actually just a slip-on cover for my 18th century hand-braided straw hat! That way I don’t have to store two hats. 😉
Related: How To Make A Straw Hat From Scratch
Then I trimmed the hat with two large white ostrich plumes, a white satin bow and a pink paper rose.
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My Edwardian hat is inspired by the following antique Edwardian hats: hat with plumes and roses (photograph), 1910s hat with plumes and flowers at the MET museum, 1908-10 hat with draped net or chiffon and roses also at the MET, 1907 garden party hat with large roses (photograph) and this 1906 painting of a straw and tulle hat with roses.
What Is An Edwardian Lingerie Hat?
In the Edwardian era, lingerie dresses – aka summer garden party dresses – were often worn with a matching hat for summer garden parties or other dressy occasions.. These elegant summer hats were called “lingerie hat”, “piazza hat” or “garden party hat”. An Edwardian lingerie hat was usually made of sheer white or pastel colored fabric and richly decorated with lace, ruffles, embroidery, silk flowers, ostrich feathers and silk ribbon bows.
Related: How To Dress In The Edwardian Era
‘The summer resort girl really makes a dashing picture in the big hats she affects this year. They are made of chip or of soft folds or malines and are trimmed with garlands of flowers, morning glories and wistaria being favorites just now. Ostrich plumes are used a great deal, too, and always have a captivating way of trailing over the brim until they touch the hair.’ (Los Angeles Herald, 1903)
Antique Edwardian Lingerie Hats
Here’s a beautiful Edwardian photograph of a woman wearing a frilly Edwardian lingerie hat and a hat with ruffles and lace. And here at the Philadelphia museum is a beautiful antique ca. 1905 lingerie hat trimmed with lace ruffles and pink silk ribbon. And here’s an antique 1900s crochet lace hat.
Handmade Hats
Edwardian lace hats should be handmade so that the woman would be considered “smart” according to the following source:
‘But the lace hats, the lingerie hats, one of which should go with each summer frock, should be of the maid’s own creating, if the wearer would be “smart.”‘ (San Francisco Call, 1904) ‘A bit of one’s thin shirt waist suit will furnish material for the hat which can be quickly and easily put together by hand.’ (The Washington Times, 1904).
‘The English sailor or hats of slightly curved brim […] are covered with eyelet batiste, the brims and facing being of colored silk or mercerized braid. […] A band of ribbon encircles the crown and is caught with pink roses […]
Design for hand-made brims […] Valenciennes lace insertion is treated as though it were a lace braid in Renaissance work, forming a series of scrolls with spider webs connecting the irregular spaces.’ (The Salt Lake Tribune, 1906)
Related: DIY Tape Lace
Washable 1900s Summer Hats
Edwardian lingerie hats were often made of washable materials like cotton fabric or washable silk fabric and cotton lace trims. And because you should never wear a dirty hat in the 1900s, sometimes the whole summer hat was so designed that it was washable.
‘The newest hats […] are put together in such a manner that they can be taken apart and washed. […] the handsomest hats of all are those which are made of white lace and white insertion […] the washable hat, however simple it may be, is not always a cheap hat.’ (The Washington Times, 1904).
The ‘lingerie hat […] is certainly very pretty and becoming. It is really nothing else than the lace and embroidery hat, such as is generally worn by children. These hats are of French origin and were made fashionable in France last summer. Now they are worn in summer in preference to any others, as they have the advantage of being light and cool and washable.’ (San Francisco Call, 1905)
Edwardian Hat – Made From A Doily
Some Edwardian lingerie hats looked just like a doily, like this antique 1900s broderie anglaise hat at the MET museum or the flower-trimmed lace hat on this drawing from 1905. And in the Edwardian era, a summer hat was sometimes really made with a lace doily!
‘A summer hat. One can be made by using a doily set, the large piece hollowed out to fit the brim of wire frame; one small doily for top of crown. The remaining five can be used as a rosette or for sides of the crown. Fill under the brim with gathered mull or net. You are saved lots of work of embroidering and yet have a handsome hat, which is easily laundered.’ (Marin Journal, 1907)
Related: How To Make Eyelet Lace By Hand
‘These hats are simple and easy to make at home […] A hat frame with a large round crown can be bought for 35 cents. Cover this with tarleton and provide an embroidered center piece and an embroidered doiley to match. These two pieces, which are intended as part of the equipment of a dinner table, constitute the lingerie that makes the real lingerie hat. The large center piece must be cut out in the middle and fitted to the rim of the hat frame. The doiley, when edged with Valenciennes lace, will make the crown of the hat. Around the crown a wide piece of soft satin ribbon is to be tied with a large bow in front.
For the under part of the hat, buy two yards of accordion plaited ruffling of chiffon or lawn, and sew it deftly on the bottom. Between the scalloped edge of the linen and the edge of the ruffling sew on an edge of Valenciennes lace, joining the top and bottom together. This is an easy, ingenious and inexpensive way to make a hat that would cost more than $15 if bought, and the result will prove to be prettier and daintier than any hat that can be purchased.’ (San Francisco Call, 1905)
How To Make A Wire Frame
Edwardian lingerie hats could also be made over a wire frame. Here are two antique Edwardian tutorial on how to make wire frames for summer hats: 1902 tutorial and 1910s tutorial.
‘The lingerie hat […] hats are built over wire frames covered with tulle, chiffon or mull. […] A number of large hats are likewise built of all-over lace, Valenciennes, baby Irish, Irish crochet, Guipure, and Cluny, mounted on frames of white silk wire and faced with the lightest chiffons, mulls’ (The Salt Lake Tribune, 1906).
Tilted Hats
The garden party hat is a ‘slightly rolling, saucer shaped hat, which tilts perilously over the tip of a pretty feminine nose and rears itself alarmingly at the back, where it appears to rest upon a very substantial foundation resembling an old fashioned flower bed or a section of a florist’s window.’ (Los Angeles Herald, 1905)
Related: How To Make An Authentic Edwardian Pompadour Hairstyle
In the early Edwardian era, hats were often turned up on one side and the underside of the brim was decorated with roses, like the hats on this fashion plate from 1906 or on this Edwardian photograph. And here’s a similar antique hat from 1902 by Madame Virot at the MET museum.
‘The round sailor shape is still used, but the wire is so bent, and twisted as to leave for the hat but little of its original style, although it must still remain individual. Where formerly the brim was round and in the lace ruffles were perhaps hidden wreaths of tiny rosebuds now where the lace is turned high up on the left side one or two roses are laid becomingly against the hair. Near the crown flowers of some different shade are placed, and soft ribbon may be inserted through the pattern of the lace.’ (Los Angeles Herald, 1905)
‘Few hats are worn off the face. Almost without exception they are worn quite far forward, but most of them bent upward instead of downward, so that the hair across the forehead is not hidden. Few hats have any brim at the back; hence the line of the back of the head is almost straight. […] Many of the new hats are made with an inside crown rim that lifts the hat from the head and prevents the brim from shading the face too much.’ (San Francisco Call, 1901)
Colors Of Edwardian Lingerie Hats
‘To be strictly “swell” one must have one solid white hat.’ (San Francisco Call, 1901) ‘In general, the dead white hat should be worn by none except the girl with dark hair and delicate complexion, and is therefore, the most difficult of all hats. […] All reds and pinks are becoming to most dark-haired women […] A cluster of red berries or a knot of scarlet velvet enhances the beauty of such hair.’ (Los Angeles Herald, 1904)
Decorations For Edwardian Summer Hats
‘There are tulle hats, chiffon hats, hats of flowers, of leaves, of fancy straw, hats trimmed with feathers […] Soft rosettes of taffeta silk and immense roses are sufficient trimming and all that is needed to make the hat really smart looking.’ (San Francisco Call, 1901) ‘With light summer dresses there is never anything so attractive as the large brim lace hats, made either very simply or else elaborately trimmed with garlands of flowers, festoons of ribbon and long ostrich plumes all at once.’ (Los Angeles Herald, 1905)
Lingerie hats are ‘made of either lace or embroidery, it is in many instances beautifully trimmed with ribbons or flowers, and even wings and ostrich plumes are occasionally seen. The materials generally used for the foundation of these hats are flouncings, all-over embroideries or laces or hand embroidered linens or lawns. For anyone who has the slightest knack for millinery, these hats are not at all difficult to make at home.’ (Lingerie Hats, 1906)
Related: How To Make Edwardian Net Applique
Flowers For Edwardian Lingerie Hats
‘The lingerie hat, has blossomed forth like a veritable rose garden in June […] Lillies-of-the-valley and small fluffy heads of lilac, white and lavender, are graceful and conservative.’ (The Salt Lake Tribune, 1906)
Related: Edwardian Gold Thread Crochet Flower – Tutorial
‘One hat had a top trimmed with wreaths of button roses […] and little chains of the roses hung down the back. The back trimming is very important and few hats are finished without it. […] Hats are trimmed with many rows of Valenciennes lace. […] Roses by the bunch play a very important part in the season’s styles. […] The roses should be just life size and they should be of several colors, a red rose, a white rose and roses in several shades of pink’ (The Washington Times, 1904).
Eaton’s Spring and Summer Catalogue from 1904 advertises different millinery flowers to trim hats.
Veils For 1900s Summer Hats
Some Edwardian women wore their summer hats with a bobbinet tulle and lace veil over their face like the women on this photograph from 1902.
‘After the hat a veil is the next consideration. The newest style is one in creamy lace in the form of a scarf, to be tied behind, the ends falling down the back’ (San Francisco Call, 1901).