Filled to the Brim

GLAD HATTER: Maryann L. Aristeo does her own repairs on the hats she sells — "It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, trying to figure out what they once looked like." Photo By: Michael T. Regan

A lifelong hat lover opens a millinery dream on Pine Street.

by Rachel Zuckerman

Watching her Aunt Jo model hats on 1950s New Year's Days was far more interesting to Maryann L. Aristeo than the Mummers Parade. The 10-year-old Aristeo, sitting cross-legged on a South Philly bedroom floor, thought her aunt looked "absolutely breathtaking" in the chapeaus with 14-inch brims that framed her strong face. In that setting, hats became both Aristeo's accessory of choice and her life's passion.

Five decades later, the 57-year-old has worn many hats — pun intended. From bucket hats to beaded turbans to classic Hollywood styles, Aristeo thinks headpieces are the ultimate in self-expression.

"There was always something on my head. I just didn't realize it until about 15 years ago," says Aristeo, whose own collection of vintage hats hovers around 1,000 and fills the entire third floor of her Northeast Philadelphia home. Her favorite is a blush-pink, late-'30s model with dotted netting and a foot-long black feather fastened to the side that constantly smacks into the faces of passersby.

Aristeo hopes to bring her love of accessories from past eras to a younger generation of hipsters as well as older collectors and mad hatters such as herself. Lucy, the Pine Street shop she opened in June, sells hundreds of vintage hats, mainly from the 1920s to the 1990s, but with a select few dating back to the 1890s; the store also stocks jewelry, clothes and shoes. (And no, the shop has nothing to do with a certain Old City boite bearing the same name. Aristeo says she chose the moniker both because Lucy is her middle name and out of homage to Lucille Ball's character from I Love Lucy, who often donned fancy caps.)

Lucy caters to Philadelphians in search of a unique look that will set them apart from the crowd but won't set them back lots of cash -- the hats cost $18-$150, with most in the $35 range. Aristeo wanted the space to look like an old-fashioned parlor "where someone would come in wearing a yellow dress and shoes and look for a hat to match." With its antique couches and gilded mirrors, Lucy hearkens back to an era when large, urban department stores such as Wanamakers had millinery shops on site. Aristeo got the idea for Lucy about a year ago, but didn't find the Antique Row space until just a few months ago — and the building's owners were pleased the new store was in keeping with the other businesses on the 1100 block of Pine Street.

So, could Aristeo, who trained as an illustrator at University of the Arts, be on the verge of a trend, with 20- and 30-somethings sporting jaunty flapper hats?

Not necessarily, she says, although she notes that Moore College of Art + Design recently added millinery courses to its curricula. Aristeo thinks a lot of people are wary of wearing something on the head for reasons other than warmth: "It makes you feel different, that's why some people are afraid to wear them," she says. "It takes a certain attitude." She also thinks younger women are especially reticent to experiment with hats. "Younger women come in looking for the neatest, coolest handbags that look like something from today," she explains. "They're not really exposed to hats. They come into the shop and ask me if the hats are old or new."

Indeed, nothing in her shop is brand-new, although she would like it to look that way. The dining and living rooms of her home serve as a workshop where she painstakingly "rescues" 70 to 80 hats every week purchased from dealers and estate sales. Every item sold is sent to dry cleaners or hand-washed herself. "It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, trying to figure out what they once looked like," says Aristeo, whose reseaming of hundreds of hats over the years has provided her with an informal millinery education. "Someone might have filled a hole in an old hat with an ugly flower, which I will remove to restore it to its former beauty." Aristeo has lent her expertise to the costume department of the Prince Music Theater, and more recently, she provided a hat for the AMC show Into Character, which has fans acting out their favorite movie scenes.

And today, while hats might not be as ubiquitous as in other eras, Aristeo sees why women still want to wear them. "There's a romantic side to hats," she explained. "Women relate hats to the old movies from the 1940s. Wearing a hat transforms you, just like wearing a beautiful dress."

Lucy, 1118 Pine St., Summer hours: Wednesdays and Thursdays, 1-6 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays, 1-7:30 p.m.