Isabella had already gone upstairs and ought to have been undressing, but it happened to be the hour at which the creative instinct in regard to hats was strongest in her. Hats, which in daylight's hour appeared in hopeless ruin, had been known between ten and midnight to assume the semblance of perfection."
This is from The Blue Arch in 1910 by Alice Duer Miller, who best-remembered for her novel Gowns by Roberta from 1933 which was made into a film in 1935 with Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Isabella is the sister of the heroine of the story, Nina, a young woman who has studied astronomy who wants to work as a scientist despite the fact that the wealth of their family makes work unnecessary and the traditions of their family identify making a suitable marriage the only acceptable purpose goal for a young woman. Isabella was working on a large, lace hat which in 1910 would have been lace drawn over a covered wire frame. Such hats sat on top of large up-do hair styles and were held on with long hat pins.
For the last day of my fashion history class this year, I brought in several hats of my own making, and a student who had her hair up that day served as my model. If my students are any proof, the charm of hats persists
