Flapper Girl Hatstand

Look who just blew into town.

A Modern Miss, who still looks pert after all these years.

These were my grandmother's hat stand and hat brush.
My mom just sent them to me, she remembers them in her mother's closet from when she was a girl in the 1930's. Hasn't Modern Miss sailed through the years with her beestung lips and penciled eyebrows looking winsomely coy?

She reminds me a bit of the oldest of Nancy Drew illustrations. I mean to catch the new Nancy Drew movie, just to see the wardrobe. One reviewer noted that each generation has their own idea of what Nancy looked like, thanks to different illustrators. I like Nancy as a Roaring Twenties gal, with a cloche. Now that girl, and Bess and George all had the greatest hats!

There must be a trend going here. Lately things from the 1920-1930's have really caught my attention. Depression glass, silk lingerie, hats and books seem to be the objects of my attention. It was a time when there was a very strong cultural shift from long and leisurely to short and fast moving.

Last night I came across a newish blog dedicated to the writings of the author Grace Livingston Hill, who wrote over 90 books between the late 1880s and the late 1920. She is a pretty "sweet" author, but her writings grew from the dilemmas of the day; old fashion values of purity and honor which were rapidly being replaced with the new thinking that "Anything Goes."
It was true then as it is still today, actually just "anything" doesn't always go well.

If you haven't had a chance to read Mrs. Hill's writing, take a moment and savor a few passages from the blog "Neat and Dainty as a Flower" as posted here.

And girls, do remember to gently brush your hats after wearing to keep then neat and dainty as a flower before you place them on a hatstand.