I have been in need of a hat box for quite some time. My bonnets have been getting crushed in the back of a wardrobe for far too long. My dream would be to have a beautiful old fashioned leather one with my initials emblazoned on the top *dreamy sigh*. However hat boxes are not an item you see in shops very often these days, and leather ones seem to be non-existent except for antique ones (which I wouldn't want to use for fear of damaging them). I am sure, if one was willing to spend thousands, then some company such as Louis Vuitton would make one. Oh well one can dream :). Anyway I decided to look into buying the only ones that seem to be on offer these days, which are made out of cardboard. After checking the regular places such as Amazon, I came across The Holding Company, who stock pretty storage boxes and the like. They sell, what looked like sturdy, and rather pretty hat boxes which are made out of recycled fibreboard. I decided to order a lovely pink one with a white ribbon that ties over the lid. However, when it arrived I realised that recycled fibreboard is far from strong and sturdy, and that the box would never survive the train journey to Bath for the JA Festival, or journeys to reenactments. Despite this major flaw its beauty won me over and I decided to keep it and use it just for storage, and buy another one for travelling. :)
It turned out that actually it wasn't big enough to store all my bonnets in, so I needed another one for storage anyway. When doing my research on hat boxes, I cam across a few that were being sold at the local haberdashery shop. Since they were cardboard I thought they wouldn't be good enough, so I went to look for different ones. However, after my first box arrived, I went back to see the ones in the shop and realised that they were actually rather sturdy and each had a very useful handle, which was positioned for easy carrying. There were three, all with the same decoration but different sizes. I bought the biggest one hoping that it would fit all my bonnets in, and it does. So now I have two very pretty hat boxes, and no longer have to wear misshapen bonnets. :)
Birds-eye view of box from The Holding Company
Side View
It turned out that actually it wasn't big enough to store all my bonnets in, so I needed another one for storage anyway. When doing my research on hat boxes, I cam across a few that were being sold at the local haberdashery shop. Since they were cardboard I thought they wouldn't be good enough, so I went to look for different ones. However, after my first box arrived, I went back to see the ones in the shop and realised that they were actually rather sturdy and each had a very useful handle, which was positioned for easy carrying. There were three, all with the same decoration but different sizes. I bought the biggest one hoping that it would fit all my bonnets in, and it does. So now I have two very pretty hat boxes, and no longer have to wear misshapen bonnets. :)
Side of second box - it has a few lovely images of women in 30's outfits.
Top
Close up of the images
another close up
I like hat boxes!! :) I used to have one, and it held my doll, all her clothes AND my tea set! :P I still don't have a beautiful hat to justify having one, but I can dream! ;)
ReplyDeleteLove your hat boxes!
http://misscathie.wordpress.com
Thank you Cathie. :) You had a tea set?! I always wanted one for my dolls when I was younger. :)
ReplyDeleteBefore I bought the 2 hat boxes, the only one I had was one of those rather flimsy ones that you get from department stores when you buy a hat to wear at a wedding.