The Feathered Hat

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There something so poignant about this 40-something woman, painted sometime after World War I by F. Harding. She’s in her … Read more There something so poignant about this 40-something woman, painted sometime after World War I by F. Harding. She’s in her plain but “Sunday best” clothes. Yet she unwrapped for this portrait her one remaining trophy from another era. Twenty-five years earlier, someone had given her this hat. Then she was young, blonde, slim, rosy cheeked and maybe even pretty. An Ostrich feather-topped hat was the height of fashion in the Edwardian era of 1901 to 1910. Such plumes, exotic and rare at the time, conveyed the wearer’s wealth and social status. Additionally, the hat’s extravagant scale provided the perfect visual balance to the tiny waist of the period’s ideal “Gibson Girl” silhouette—likely long gone from this lady, along with the suitors. But here she is, remembering. And if you still don’t have a clear idea of what happened to this woman since, just take a close look at her steely eyes. See less