Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Millinery: Books that float through the air


I just yesterday came across this link to a ton of millinery books that you can read online for free!

Whoo-hoo! Sweet! LOVE free books that I don't have to shelve, dust or worry about returning on time!

But in the mode of "Great Minds Think Alike" (or perhaps hatted heads have simultaneous brainstorms...) my fellow milliner Cristina has beat me to posting about this collection and has already posted a delicious review of one particular book in the digitized University of Wisconsin collection.

Entitled "Woman as Decoration", the book was written in 1920 by Emily Burbanks.
Based on Cristina's comments, I have just moments ago started reading through it, and bounced onto the this page first:


I've noticed a few grumpy gripping blogposts out there (not that I am naming any names Heidi...) and the idea of pouting in your boudoir (in pearls that should be both real AND long enough to reach below your waist) was enough to make me want to cook up a real good ruffled mood just so I could flounce off to my own boudoir and stay there the rest of the day in the name of being decorative!


Dear Readers: This book has it all. Tips on how to assure that you are decorative while riding in a car, with your pets, gardening, on the lawn, at the shore....the list goes on and on. For years now when I have been asked about my ambitions in life I usually reply that I hope to gracious and decorative. But if I have to choose between the two, I'd choose being decorative.

(This answer goes over really big during job interviews. It helps me to know if the people I am interviewing with have a sense of humor. If they don't, then I don't want the job anyway!)

Ahh, don't you just love it? A whole book devoted to this delightful idea of just being decorative.

You can read the entire book on line here.

Be sure to take a peek, and come back and tell me what was your favorite chapter!

5 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I love the idea of frivolous books!
I just had lunch with a professor from Austria who said that they never show garbage cans/dustbins/poubelles in National Geographic.
Quite true.
The blogosphere - or our part of it anyway - is not the place to wrestle with social problems etc.
So I'm happy to read about hats and pearls.

Marie said...

Jill,

Absolutely wonderful! I love new interesting links and especially the kind you find.

Now, to read.......

Miss Janey said...

Wow. Thanks fro the 411. Miss Janey can't wait to read it all.

Jane Carlstrom said...

It is really interesting to trace the history, place and social standing of women through such books.

Thanks for sharing this great find.

Cristina de Prada - milliner said...

Loved to read your post, hatted minds do think alike!