Tea at Trianon: Hats of London

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Hats of London

From Upscale Living Magazine:

The oldest hat shop in the world has unveiled its latest women’s capsule collection by its Couture Collection head designer, the award-winning Awon Golding. Lock & Co was first established in 1676. But its women’s department only opened in 1993. The once male enclave now sells haute couture turbans and perching berets as well as chic cloches, skipper caps, raindrop cap, Dick Tracy fedoras, and other ladies’ headwear.
The Hong Kong-born designer is a former fashion writer and magazine editor. She studied millinery at London’s Kensington and Chelsea College and worked for TopShop and River Island. Her 2020 collection for the historic hat shop celebrates “iconic women for the modern women.” (Read more.)