The Pittsburgh Press (March 18, 1946)
Millett: Take ‘him’ along on hat shopping trip
Another woman is of no real help but a man can see ‘dimensionally’
By Ruth Millett
“Take a man along when you go to buy a hat – never another woman,” says Keneth Hopkins, who should be an authority on the matter, since he designs many of those creations you see setting off the beauty of such screen favorites as Rosalind Russell, Myrna Loy, and Greer Garson.
The reason for Mr. Hopkins’ “take a man along” advice is, in his words, because “a man can see a woman dimensionally.”
Well, maybe… But that isn’t the chief reason why a wise woman takes her husband with her to the hat shop, Mr. Hopkins.
She has two reasons more personal and practical than simply a desire to have the hat viewed in the dimensional manner.
If her husband helps her select her spring bonnet, willingly or otherwise, she doesn’t have to suffer through anxious hours of wondering whether he will like it or not. For a man’s devasting, “Why did you get a black hat?” or “I guess it’s all right, but it looks kinds of funny from the side” can take the pleasure out of a chapeau for a woman quicker even than can meeting its duplicate at a fancy tea. (Cartoons, funnies and radio gags notwithstanding, men don’t really hoot at their wives’ hats. The ones they don’t like, they damn with faint praise.)
What helps, too, is the fact that men, without knowing just why one little number sells for $6.95 and another for three or four times that price, unerringly say, “I like that one,” when a clever salesgirl brings out an expensive job after showing an ordinary little number.
Nor does the price tag shake their faith in the choice. Not after the saleswoman smiles admiringly and says, “Yes, that IS the hat for Madame.”
So when she takes her husband along, a woman comes home with an expensive bonnet and no need for apologizing about the price. She doesn’t have to work harder, then, to sell it to her husband than the saleswoman worked to sell it to her.
An unmarried woman may take a man along to help her buy a hat because he sees her dimensionally. But a married woman takes a man along because it’s easier, in the long run.