A word to the museums -- SAVE OUR HATS!

Wendy Ann Rosen

She’s a well-known Hollywood makeup artist, but to me, she’s a god-send to hatting’s history. She’s even served Cary Grant a drink once… and she pointed out he was wearing velvet slippers at the time. She’s been wearing hats since she was a child, and never stopped. Over time she began collecting them to the point where she began cataloging the art and boxes of which there are one of each left in some cases. She inundated me with a waterfall of knowledge on all the old boutique brands and designers that once were in the height of demand yet are now forgotten in time due to them being part of an industry that became a shadow of it’s goliath self. And it’s not just the hats… it’s the promotional materials, the catalogs, the displays, the posters, the branded brushes and the giant window ornamentation that would draw the eye of a shop's passerby.


She’s on a mission right now to preserve this collection and when it comes to getting the word out, it’s time voices got louder. She looks to catalog all of what she has and build a database that hopefully can showcase all of the brands and styles and what once was common knowledge to some, but now lost knowledge to all. The stories she has… the tales of the old department stores and shops that would just carry accessories. I will go back to hear more and write down more. But this message is just to say, she’s out there. She’s been a magnet for hatting history, milliner history, designer label history. And I hope to see it all carefully preserved and exhibited for the world to see. As she pointed out… the last time she saw a hat on display in a museum… it was just the hat on a stick… no reference to who made it, or images of the inside…. To us, it’s important!












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