round box for hat

Once the Great War of 1914-18 began, fashion was influenced by the new wartime employment activities women had to engage in and the need for more practical utilitarian dress could not help but filter into what there was of mainstream fashion.  Uniforms were everywhere as women did jobs once done by men and every job had a distinct uniform.

Before the Great War being in service as servants was the usual employment for most women as housemaids, cooks or seamstresses.  Choice had opened up in the last two decades and slowly some had become shop workers at the new emerging department stores and the more technically minded had become stenographers or telephonists.  Women began to seriously participate in sports and needed clothes to move freely.  Fashion adapted to their needs providing outfits for golf, climbing, skating, dancing, keep-fit, swimming and cycling. You can read about hat fashion of the 1900-1920 era here.

Then when the Second World War 1939-45 started, hats became less practical as people had to rush to air raid shelters and they would literally drop everything.  Barriers of etiquette became broken down and although hats were not rationed in order to boost morale their wearing decreased.

Hats that were worn were generally practical and often homemade knitted warm hats, berets and hoods.  Fast hats were formed as women tied headscarves into an instant hat such as a turban.  Designers produced various new styles, but many only became universally popular after the war finished. You can read about hat fashion of the 1930s here.

For the  shape of box for hat, there are book shake box , two pieces shape and foldable shape box as well as two tuck end box shape.

As the years have passed hats have slowly lost favour, even for weddings and worship with only a proportion of the congregations donning them.  They have never been worn universally since the 1920s.  They were popular again in the 1980s for weddings and special occasions after the Princess of Wales, Diana used them to add a sense of sophistication to her persona in the early days of her marriage.  Once she found her confidence she abandoned hats for most occasions.

Hats when worn today are either worn for a special dressy occasion such as a wedding or conversely as casual statement attire in the way that caps might be worn the wrong way around.  Functional hats are still used by uniformed workers for corporate identity or protection as well as by many individuals in inclement weather.  Individuals wear fur hats or simple fleece beanie hats in very cold weather and use sunhats in very sunny weather.  Those who cannot bear a hat unwittingly adopt a hat form built into a garment, as in a hoodie casual zip top.

It is unlikely that the hat will ever die as an accessory as it offers far too much potential for drawing attention to the face.  Fashion designers are aware of this and every so often exploit this fact in the hope that fashion followers will adopt the hat. In the world of logos, branding and status symbols the hat is an easy and usually less costly item to purchase from a design house and can make them a great deal of money if a particular item catches the imagination of the public.  Often it advertises the company name.

Unfortunately the fact that a hat being relatively small is more easily affordable by the masses, means that every so often an item like the Burberry cap found itself eventually banned from certain social venues as it became associated with poor street and pub and club behaviour.  Recently Burberry withdrew this hat in order to disassociate itself from those who wore it as a uniform that gave the message bad boys!