Thursday, December 9, 2010

Miss Swan's homemade hats

Shopping then and now, Part 5
Vintage Betty milliner tools

Hatukauppassa ei ollu vain valmis-hattuja, siellä tehdiin hattuja. A millinery wasn’t just a hat shop selling ready-made hats, milliners made hats of all kinds, big brimmed and small brimmed, using wool, felt, tulle, straw, real fur and imitation, silk and satin, ribbons, feathers, netting and veiling. Miss Swan told me that there even used to be night classes on hat-making at Hillcrest High School, where you could make your own hat, any kind you wanted. Hillcrest Haiskoululla [Finnglish] oli iltaluokat missä naiset opetteli tekemän hatuja, kaikenlaisia.

vintage 1950s white straw hat

Miss Swan told me that she made herself a white straw hat like one she saw in the Vogue Millinery shop downtown Port Arthur. She bought the straw by the yard, started at the top and went round and round. Miss Swan said she also made a black hat that she trimmed with a beautiful black peacock feather that she still has in her trunk downstairs.

antique trunk

Whether homemade or handmade, the point is, hats were locally produced. Kotintehty tai käsintehty, asia on että hatut tehdiin kotipaikakunnalla. Compare with today where most hats are made in China, where some workers make 3c an hour – which is one of the reasons that Walmart can sell for so low. Everything you buy there has a hidden cost inside. Tänään hatut on tehty Kiinassa, missä jotkut tyolaiset tienaa 3 centia tunilla –sitä varte Walmarti voi myydä niin halavala—kaikki mitä sä ostat sieltä on piilottu hinta sisälä.

2 comments:

Ari said...

In addition to slavery work materials have also been cheap and poisonous. Factories of jeans have tried to make jeans lighter by using all kinds of toxic fluids in China and other Asian countries.

northshorewoman said...

this is so true. how many exploited Chinese workers did we exploit this Christmas, I wonder as the masses run off to Walmart?