PORT ANGELES — What does a well-groomed Port Angeles resident wear for a sesquicentennial?
Pretty much any fashion from the 1860s to the 1950s, Kathy Monds, executive director of the Clallam County Historical Society, told a group gathered for a class on millinery — hat-making — in preparation for the 2012 Heritage Days Festival on Sept. 15-16.
“Port Angeles may be a relatively young town, but it has an exciting history,” Monds said.
The historical society is encouraging residents and visitors to don 1860s-style fashions for the yearlong celebration of the 150th anniversary of the 1862 founding of Port Angeles.
But there is no reason why people should wear what doesn’t fit their own personal style, she said.
Port Angeles has 150 years of historical fashion to choose from, Monds noted, and not everyone wants to wear hoop skirts or top hats.
“If you prefer the 1920s, wear the 1920s,” she said, noting that the fashions of many eras require certain hairstyles for women.
Long hair is more suited for Victorian (1860-1900) or Edwardian (1900-1910) fashions, she explained, with small, sometimes oddly shaped hats designed to be perched on top of elaborate hairstyles.
Short hair became popular in the 1920s, with hats designed to be worn over short hair, she said.
The weekend class was taught by Richard Stephens, head of the Port Angeles Downtown Association’s Heritage Day Committee and a Peninsula Daily News advertising account executive.
Stephens, a professional costume designer for more than 20 years, re-creates historical fashion for the Port Angeles Light Opera Association.
He guided his eight students through the basics of design for period hats, from fabric bonnets to feathered or flowered straw sun hats.
The class was at Waters West Fly Fishing Outfitters, which carries a wide variety of feathers and fur that can be used to design and decorate headgear from sumptuously elaborate to elegantly simple.
For the 2012 Steam Ball, a Heritage Days event that celebrates the 19th-century era of steam and Jules Verne-style adventure, a top hat decorated with a pair of antique goggles and some old brass gears would be appropriate for a gentleman, Stephens said.
But for a day of shopping in the re-created 1862 Port Angeles, a simpler hat with a feather or two may be more appropriate
A well-made hat was a basic necessity of ladies’ fashion for Port Angeles’ first 100 years, Monds said.
Through the 1950s, millinery and matched accessories were a matter of basic grooming. “You would have never appeared downtown without a hat and gloves,” she said.
The historical society is looking to re-create the era for the sesquicentennial, with as many costumed residents as can be included.
The events mark the year, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed an executive order establishing Port Angeles as a town site with the most acreage set aside for military use.
Lincoln’s act caused the Board of Trade in 1890 to call Port Angeles the “Second National City.”
There are a lot of local resources for hat and costume materials, and many Port Angeles antique stores carry old hats that can be remade, Stephens said.
Costumed events include the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party on April 14 at the Elks Naval Lodge, the Spring Tea on April 21 at The Landing mall banquet room and sesquicentennial events in June leading up to the Heritage Days in the fall.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
