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Afruit hat is a festive and colorfulhat type popularized byCarmen Miranda and associated with tropical locales. This type of hat has been worn byfashionistas, in films, bycomic strip characters, and forHalloween. The fruit used tends to sit on the top or around the head, and varies in type, e.g. bananas, berries, cherries, pineapples.
A fashion report inLos Angeles Times from 1895 called the use ofmendiant the "newest trimming" for hats, and noted that hats were "tipped far over the eyes".[1]The Chicago Tribune in 1915 reported on fruit ribbons, along with feathers, flowers, and frills, as trim forEaster hats.[2] A report on artificial fruit used on hats was in a 1918 edition ofThe New York Times.[3] Fruit and vegetable trim on "gay hats" featured in the firstmillinery show of the season at New York's Saks Fifth Avenue in 1941, and overshadowed flowers.[4]Lil Picard, a millinery designer for the custom-made department of Bloomingdale's, sought inspiration from nature for her hats and while on vacation "listening to the birds, gazing through the lacy outlines of foliage and watching the ripening fruits, she dreamed of trimmings."[5]
Brazilian "bombshell"Carmen Miranda, who "made a habit of wearing exotic headdresses/hats often adorned with fruit", appears as a singer named Dorita in the 1943 filmThe Gang's All Here. The movie includes a musical number called "The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat" with barefoot chorus girls dressed in yellow turbans, blackcrop tops, and ruffled yellowminiskirts who manipulated giantpapier-mâché bananas and bounced inflatable strawberries off their toes at the whims of legendary choreographerBusby Berkeley.[6]
Inspired by Carmen Miranda's costumes,[6] theChiquita Banana logo featured a cartoon image of an anthropomorphic banana with a human face and a selection of fruit adorning its hat. The logo was created forUnited Fruit Company in 1944 byDik Browne, who is perhaps best known for hisHägar the Horriblecomic strip.[7] In advertising of the 1940s, the logo character's voice was supplied by vocalistPatti Clayton followed byElsa Miranda,June Valli andMonica Lewis. The concept was created by aBBDO advertising team headed by Robert Foreman with the song lyrics written by Garth Montgomery and music composed by Len MacKenzie.[6] The original Chiquita Banana advertisement was produced byDisney Studios and ran inmovie theaters.[8]
The company later becameChiquita Brands International and would use a banana wearing a fruit hatheaddress on its logo for decades.[6] In 1987 the banana character was replaced with a woman by artist Oscar Grillo, creator of thePink Panther, to reflect "the image the public had of Miss Chiquita as a real person."[6]
