Imagine how I felt when the 1950s famous designer Russ Russell’s granddaughter asked me to appraise twenty of his hats in Montecito. I have a weakness for vintage hats. If what I spend on storage for my 1950s hats indicates anything, I’m quite a nut. I would’ve spent thousands on hats in the 1950s, if I’d been around then. To make up for this, I accumulated a VAST hat collection. I spend $350 a month because my partner thinks I should NOT display the hats at our house. Although I did once threaten to commission custom cabinets for them.
I love Russ Russell hats, along with hats by a few of the other great designers: Mr. John, Frederic, and Svend. Russell was the BEST.
How did these 1950s hat designers succeed?
Advertisements in newspapers made a big impact. Because hats came with a seasonal life, advertising was perfect for newspaper’s daily ads directed to women. A lady found Easter hats advertised in March, Christmas hats in September, wide-brimmed summer hats in May.
I spent an evening perusing old copies of The Chicago Tribune, my childhood hometown newspaper, for hats advertised over the 1956 season. The overarching question in my mind…will hats for women ever return to our heads?
From the 14th century till the 1960s a lady wore a hat. I regret the change for the sake of a bad hair day, and that ‘complete’ outfit. I developed a reputation in my family for always wearing a hat at weddings and funerals, and I plan to continue to do so.
On this Russ Russell appraisal
I spotted a magnificent cherry red hat with dangling red cherries on the crest, perched on a knob. I fell in love. The Chicago Trib of that era says in early March 1956, cherries in red on hats were the RAGE. Marshall Fields advertised a cherry hat design on March 8, 1956, and a full-page ad of cherries on various hats selling for $19.95 to $69.50. When you consider that my mom and dad’s house in Chicago cost $20K in 1955, $69 seemed like a lot of money for a hat. A 1956 cherry hat from Sears, the cheaper department store, sold for $3.99. On March 18 we find the master Russ Russell’s hats advertised in Marshall Field’s special advertising column called “The Fair.” Other great hat designers at their store included: John Frederic, Vincent deKoven, Leslie James, Schiaparelli, Suzy Lee, Agnes, H Howard Hodge, Adrienne, and John Andrews.
Not only could you buy a hat AND SUIT at Marshall Fields, but you could also buy a BESPOKE hat at Lytton’s Chapeaux Boutique on State Street, in Chicago, for $13.95.
Spring the seasons to sell hats
Marshall Fields, my favorite department store growing up, put on a fashion show of hats designed by the Parisian trained Svend. His teacher, Jacques Fath, designed in his native Denmark, and also in Sweden. Svend came to Chicago to show at Marshall Fields on March 13, 1956. If my mom, who lived in the area at this time, couldn’t afford a $30 hat, she afforded a $1.50 ticket to see Svend at the Walnut Room of Fields.
Of course, she didn’t have to money for the Svend fashion show the night before at the Sheraton Blackstone, a command show for 250 Chicago ladies.
If in 1956 you didn’t go downtown, other Chicago stores showed Russ Russell, and other great designers. These stores included Goldblatt’s, Lords in Evanston, and in Highland Park, Edgar A. Stevens Store sold hats. $4.15 got you a nice floral one. And let’s not forget Hats by Sue in Irving Park. Gone are the days of local hat shops, and great millinery artists such as Russ Russell.
The hat by Russ Russell is worth $75 but I’d pay more!
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