HEADS AND HATS.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 126, 1 April 1926, Page 2

HEADS AND HATS.

EFFECT OF SHINGLING, ©ut of the Fashion Troubles. The millinery sale periods, with their patience-taxing “ bargain hunters,” are over Tor another few months, hut with the difficulties that the new season’s goods are presenting the saleswomen wonder which is the lesser of the two evils. Dame Fashion decrees that hats must match milady’s gowns perfectly. So varied are the shades of the one colour in the new dress goods, however, that one finds millinery showf rooms are carrying an extensive stock |to try to meet all demands. The sales i people are finding that when the correct colour has been obtained the size of the hat is wrong, or vice versa, or j that the style is not what the customer demands. Consequently a looker on must observe that the patience of the saleswomen is even more taxed than it was last seasdn. The greatest difficulty seems to be the size, for London and Paris dictate across the waters that all heads must be shingled or the owner of a “ crowning glory ” forever go hatless. So small are the imported hats that it is with an emotion well-nigh approaching consternation that the sales-

woman experiences when she is asked for a model to fit the head of milady with a mass of hair. The saleswoman knows she has nothing that will be anywhere near the required size, but she smilingly and obligingly brings forth those of the stock which she knows to be the ■ largest. She murmurs to herself that if milady only had less character or more courage and would have her hair shingled she would have a greater chance of getting a chapeau. If she would only “ follow the crowd ” unmindful of what friend husband would have to say when she met him with a “ boyish cut ” ! How his disapproval would vanish when the “ perfectlydinky felt ” was displayed. “ Now, I darling, I shall be able to wear anything, and I can get such cheap hats. I shall not have to take anything just j because it fits me, but now I can choose. Fancy, this adorable little thing cost only 29s 6d ! ” Friend husband would approve and be glad that he would no longer have to listen to tales of milady’s having “ gone all over town, and nothing would go on my head.” How much easier it would make the choosing of a hat if there were not this difficulty of the sizes both for customer and saleswoman. The matron is made to feel that Dame Fashion no longer regards her. She must never grow old ; it is fatal. She must “ flap ” until she reaches the grave if she wishes to get anything to wear these days. The matron certainly does look ludicrous trying on the small hats that are worn this season, and she almost wails that she will never be able to get anything to suit her. The tactful saleswoman whips off the hats before the tired matron is too much out of conceit with herself, and suggests that something suitable for madame should be made. It is indeed a grateful shopper who returns a few days later to find that something has been made for her, and she leaves the showroom a happy woman, for she really had given up hope (as she confided to her dear friend Mrs. Grimes) of getting anything to go on her head at all. Customer and saleswoman alike know that getting a hat is a more difficult proposition each season. The saleswoman knows, too, that as the season wears on, and the best of the hats are bodght by those fortunate ladies who can always ''afford to buy the “ pricey ” goods at the season's commencement, leaving little choice for the many who will come later, that her - difficulties will increase tenfold. Her advice is to shop early, while there is a choice of greater variety. With the difficulty of the positively large head size the saleswoman has to meet the difficulty of the positively small one, but this is more easily overcome than the f >rmer. In the case of a hat being too small for a large head it is practically impossible to alter it, whereas a hat.too large can usually be made smaller quite successfully. It is always a relief to a saleswoman when milady asks for a hat that will “go with anything.” She almostigratefully turns to the fixtures where the black, navy and brown hats' are kept, for she knows that from such a selection she will find something to suit. Humour hardly enters into her work during these first weeks of the new season. There is an intensity about milady’s shopping that communicates itself to the willing assistant. Milady feels it is imperative to get a “ perfect match ” for that new bottle green ensemble and will go to any price almost if she finds something “ adorable.” The saleswoman, however, meets each customer with , commendable patience. She deals with each one as though her greatest interest in life was the matching of a hat for milady’s gown, her only guide for colour being an infinitesimal precious scrap snipped off from the inside seam.