Saturday, May 30, 2009

MY HAT COLLECTION

After seeing my lovely face in a beach-walking hat,

 
my going-to-garage-sales hat,




and an almost-won White Elephant hat,


the kind lady over at TobyBo asked if I have a hat collection, hoping that I would write a post about it.  Alas, unlike Dr. Seuss who had a hat collection covering an entire wall, I do not collect hats.  You've pretty much seen them all.

My Older Son LOVED hats when he was little. 


And when I was younger, I could sometimes get away with broader-brimmed hats.  This Easter outfit was accentuated by a bridesmaid hat from my friend's wedding.



I often wore a Mickey Mouse hat in my college years.  Here my friend and I had promised each other to study instead of chat.



This one is from the time I visited friends in Texas.  Down there, even JC Penney had a very large selection of cowboy hats to choose from.


The most important hats in my life today are the ones I wear to English Country Dance balls.  To be truly authentic, we should seriously consider wearing a turban*, which makes a lot of us moderns shudder.



I guess the movie folks think the same, because you don't see many turbans in the Jane Austen movies.  So I made myself a toned-down bandeaux similar to what Mrs. Bennett wears in the BBC production of Pride & Prejudice.


I now have two of these.  We moderns don't have hat boxes either, which makes them rather difficult to store.  I keep them in a box together, and when I came home from a recent ball, I was rather surprised to see the condition of the hat that had stayed home.

"Gosh, the feather looks like a cat ate it or something!"  I said.

As the British might say, "SPOT-ON!"

 


*Turban photo is from Doris Langley Moore's The Gallery of Fashion 1790-1822 from Plates by Heideloff and Ackermann found on Catherine H. Decker's website.

11 comments:

  1. Well, thank you so much! I feel very loved now. And what a wonderful collection you have of hats and of photos. The white elephant photo was one of the first of your entries I read - and when I decided I desperately wanted to know you someday.  :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. I echo Mom -- this was a great entry!  Thanks!  

    ReplyDelete
  3. I envy you for your " collection" of hats . We need to wear hats 1) in winter to protect our head from the cold .2) in Spring and fall to proctect our head against the rain .3) in summer to protectect our hear against the burning sun .So I encourage you to wear a hat , like me !!! every time . Some wear a hat to sleep too !! Love Michel

    ReplyDelete
  4. The most famous hats are The Queen of England ' s hats!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Isn't it amazing. There was a day when a lady wouldn't dream of going out without her hat! How times do change...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love your hats!  I wear hats too--to garden, to church.  Maybe I should do a hat post too.  My biggest pet peeve in life is the lack of hat shops!  Can hardly ever find a decent hat these days.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I posted too about hats , just like you !!Love Michel

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the hats! The feather one is my favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for remembering Uncle John too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am glad you came and read my little post about my hat . You are such a specialist !! I feel honored .ThanksLobve Michel

    ReplyDelete
  11. Of course, I am partial to the cowboy hat, myself. lolI got the most wonderful surprise in my PO box this morning. I loved the card and Mrs Hat, who is the stamp collector of the world, had never seen that particular stamp before so we enjoyed it twice!Thank you, friend.Old Hat

    ReplyDelete