Some people seem born to wear hats. Take the recent royal wedding as evidence. The daughters of Sarah Ferguson are not born hat wearers. Their absurd toppers could have been pulled off by a born hat wearer who finds it perfectly natural to have a minature beige rollercoaster or an angry tuft of feathers on her head. These girls, however, had a "look at my crazy hat" defiance that defeats the purpose of hat wearing. The hat should be part of the whole person, a seamless outcropping of the wearer's very being. The Queen of England personifies the born hat wearer. The daffodil yellow hat, jaunty and spring cheerful seemed both an expression of her joy at her grandson's marriage and also an organic part of who she truly is. Kate Middleton by all appearances seems to be another born hat wearer. The quivering "fascinators" that perch on her forhead like butterflies, or the wide brimmed straws that boast all manner of complicated potruberances look right on her, like she has been wearing such things without paying them too much attention for most of her life. Her choice of a simple viel and a modestly sized tiara had just the right message to her future mother in law in the front row- I speak the language of hats and I defer the crown to you....for now .
In PollySue's I see some little girls walk up to the hat rack and expertly perch complicated hats on their heads, giving their parents a mysterious smile. They don't have to ask which is the right way around, or wether the veil goes over their eyes or their neck. They just know . Other little girls guffaw and point at their reflection as a flowered straw hat is placed upon their heads. "Look how funny I look !"they laugh, and rip the hat off. In the world of hat wearers I fall in the latter category. I was not born to wear hats, and they don't look right on my head, even the straw sunhats I wear at auctions to keep the sun off my face. I am continually aware of this THING on my head that makes me look silly. I am self conscious, I do not see the hat as being a part of me. I would be evicserated by Joan Rivers on the Fashion Police if I tried to walk down the aisle of Westminster Abbey in any hat whatsoever (although she was very hard on the Prime Minister's wife for not wearing a hat.)
I do think that born hat wearers can teach the "scaredey hats" among us a few things about hat panache. One of our regulars here in the shop checks in every week for new hats and approaches the hat rack with gravity and purpose. She always chooses the most interesting, the most colorful and the most elaborate of our hats and places it on her head. With her high cheekbones and regal posture the hat looks just right, as if it were made for her. She repeats this process with almost every hat we have and they ALL look right. They look like part of her personality. How does she do this? I think it is a combination of confidence , poise and that elusive something called glamour that is the very essence of born hatness. It is the thinking that it is perfectly right and natural to turn heads by wearing a hat, no matter for what occasion wether it be digging up tomato plants or attending a society wedding. I also add that born hatness is not confined to women only- there are men who can carry off a top hat or a straw boater with equal ease. One boy of about ten walked by my desk wearing a fedora that looked so much a part of him I assumed he came in wearing it. It was only when he handed me some money that I found out it was ours. His mother later told me that he wore it to school all week and wouldn't even take it off at home.
As a non hat type person I have one story that can give hope to other non hat people. Deep inside an old paper bag at the auction I go to I pulled out a charming 1920's cloche hat. It was made of ivory silk with a tangerine silk band. I put it on my head and unsually for me, it fit perfectly. I bought the hat and took it home, knowing that the brown rust spots on it made it unsellable. Still, when I put it on I felt different, more glamourous, as if I was on my way to some champagne summer garden party filled with interesting and beautiful people. Perhaps with non hat people it was just a matter of findinig that elusive one hat that fits your personality- that feels like you, not like something foriegn on top of your head. I certainly couldn't compete with Kate Middleton or the Queen of England or my best hat customer. But I could say, without irony, this hat, c'est moi.
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