Titanic Hat History

The period of time known as the “Titanic Era” occured during the Edwardian Era and was named for the British ship that went down in the North Atlantic April 14, 1912 when she struck an iceberg about 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada. This era saw an influx of truly large and even more elaborate hat designs; hence they were tagged Titanic meaning that they were colossal like the ship and these are some of my favorite hats because they’re so much fun to design. And although they are referred to as Titanic Era, these large and elaborate designs are also associated with the Edwardian time period. The media had a grand time poking fun at these extravagant styles and this is a cute example labeled L’amour Discreet:

Titanic hats were celebrated for both their size and their beauty.  

The Titanic Era was followed by WW I and the world was not focusing on style as it had been before … however styles for women were at the beginning of a major change.   By the time the Flapper Era emerged in and around 1926, the hemline rose on shift-like shapeless dresses and corsets became a thing of the past. The stockings were rolled down below the knees and the knees were rouged. The hair style became a close cut bob and although wider brimmed hats were still in style, the cloche hat which fit very tightly to the head became all the rage with these “modern” women.

The Titanic era (1912) was not only a time for building huge ships, it was also a time for extravagant hats!
Here’s the link to some of my more extravagant designs; the ones worn by motion picture starlets and Edwardian postcard models. It was believed that bigger was better!

My rendition of the boarding hat worn by Rose in the movie “Titanic”