I think today should be...

...a "Say Something" Merry Widow Hat day, don't you..?

From the Edwardian Promenade website:

The Edwardian era was home to many fads and fashions which harkened to bygone days, and the Merry Widow hat craze was no exception. The hat was just another part of the costume designed by Lucile for statuesque English theatre star Lily Elsie, who was to play the main character, Hanna Glawari, in the 1907 English adaptation of Franz Lehár’s operetta, Die lustige Witwe. The play was an immediate sensation, and its wonderful, frothy signature tune, the Merry Widow Waltz, became the craze of the Season. However, it was the hat worn by Elsie, that black, wide-brimmed, hat covered with filmy chiffon and festooned with piles of feathers, became the look for fashionable women over the next three years.

The hat, reaching such widths as eighteen inches, and topped with all kinds of trimmings (even whole stuffed birds!), was a direct descendant of the “Gainsborough” hat worn by the Duchess of Devonshire in that artist’s portrait of the famed Georgian beauty. It’s resurgence was quite timely, as the silhouette of the Edwardian lady moved away from the languid, S-curve of the early 1900s to the streamlined, athletic look of the late 18th century/early 19th century. Predictably, the increasing fashion for this hat resulted in endless jokes in popular magazines like Punch, whose issues frequently poked fun at the difficulties one could get into when wearing a Merry Widow hat or being near a lady wearing one.

The House of Lucile was the brainchild of leading British fashion designer, socialite, survivor of the Titanic disaster, fashion columnist and critic, and yesterday's birthday girl Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (13th June 1863 – 20th April 1935)

Une étoile qui explose dans le ciel

Folies Bergère costumes by Erté




Clare Luce in one of Mistinguett's outfits

"In spite of the conventions of the time, a woman of spirit could easily make an interesting life for herself if she did not waste too much time visiting, attending fittings at her dressmakers, or engaging in love affairs.

"These demi-mondaines loved making theatrical entrances... in very light dresses standing out clearly from the dark suits of their admirers massed behind them and over whom they towered with their plumed hats or lofty sprays of feathers. If every head did not turn on recognising her flourishing soprano laugh, her entrance had failed.

"This is the moment when the Champs Élysées, from the Place de la Concord to the Étoile, and especially around the Rond-Point, gradually awaken[ed] to a night life quite different to the daytime."

- extracts from La Belle Époque: An Essay by Philip Jullian.

In 1895, at the height of La Belle Époque, a young Jeanne Bourgeois made her début as Mistinguett at the Casino de Paris - and the legendary era of the Parisian Folies began in earnest.

Facts about Mistinguett:

• At the pinnacle of her fame she was the highest paid female entertainer in the world.
• It was she who first popularised the "showgirl look" of massive feather headdresses, and the art of entering her stage down a glittering staircase - a look upon which many early Hollywood musical numbers by Busby Berkeley relied heavily for their impact.
• Her early cabaret partner (and lover) went on to eclipse her fame when he landed parts in Hollywood - Maurice Chevalier.
• She became notorious worldwide when, during argument with her American dancing partner Earl Leslie, she shot at him twice but missed him both times.
• Her signature song Mon Homme was destined to become a torch song standard when it was given English lyrics and became My Man, a hit for Fanny Brice that was immortalised by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.
• Mistinguett died, aged 80, in 1956.

"There have been greater comediennes, greater singers, greater dancers - but all in a single package, there has been only one Mistinguett. Complete shows were built around her, she would carry an entire revue on her lovely shoulders, the spirit of the whole evening. Truly, there is no one like her now - and if another great personality like hers should come along, she would be a star exploding across the sky. - Maurice Chevalier.

Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!

Mistinguett on Wikipedia