It must have been wonderful to be a milliner in the time of Caroline Reboux; she lived from 1837 to 1927, what great span of fashion and hats! She set up her millinery shop in 1865, in Paris of course, and was soon working with other couturiers like Charles Worth! Her early clients included royalty like Empress Eugenie and later film stars like Marlene Dietrich. Presiding over quite the golden age of hats, she is even credited with inventing the cloche style of the late 19 teens and 1920's!
She became the queen of millinery, employing 150 people at one point. The next generation of couture milliners like Lily Dache and the ladies of Rose Valois all trained and works with Reboux. Though the legend herself died in 1927, the label was so successful and the quality so trusted that the Caroline Reboux label carried on into the mid forties. Top Reboux designer Lucienne Rabaté took over the label after Reboux's death, but continued to create fanciful and exceptional quality hats until the label finally closed in 1956. Though the Musée de la Mode et du Textile in Paris preserves more than 300 Reboux creations, non of their collection is online. Elsewhere it can be hard to track down Reboux hats, but I have collected a few for us to look at today!
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| 1908 |
I can't seem to find many early Reboux creations, but this lovely example from 1908 is quite whimsical for the time! It looks like the straw is liquid or something, being blown back by the wind.
A lovely soft green shade cloche and beautiful floral decorations!
A great straw cloche with puffy velvet grapes!
Another great cloche in lightweight black straw, this hat would go with any of my own 20's dresses!
My favorite of the Reboux hats I was able to find, I just love the rich color of this little straw topper!
A great combination of colors, softest green with ivory and navy blue. This is one I would love to have in my closet!
This might as well be a hat to a bird costume, the shape is pretty great, but the iridescent feathers are amazing! I wish I knew how to work with feathers like this!
This little turban is too cute, I love the puffy little flowers.
More feathers, and another great pop of color with the turquoise on the brown straw base.
I hope you guys enjoyed learning a little bit about Caroline Reboux today! I'm off to finish a new hat I have been working on this week, one can never have too many hats!
Her work was so exquisite. It married form with elegance and beauty with just a dash of whimsy, and you can just sense that she loved what she did - it shines through in each well placed detail and perfect colour combination.
ReplyDelete♥ Jessica
If only the 300 pieces at the textile museum in Paris were photographed/online for us to admire! It would be great to see a wider variety of her work!
DeleteI really like the 1930's and 1940's pieces, especially the black hat with the veil and the turban with the flowers.
ReplyDeleteI too quite like that turban with the flowers! :)
DeleteI have about 5 of Caroline Reboux hats. I bought them at the estate sale of Lucienne Rabate ... they are exquisite. I also own Rabate's handbag and her workdress.
ReplyDelete