You've got it wrong, by the way. I don't do it to turn heads; I don't do it to make a point. I do it because 1) I need something to keep the sun off my head; 2) if I'm going to wear a hat for that purpose, a fedora is my favorite style; and 3) I really do just like the style for myself. Forget you all - go and have fun with your baseball caps. I'm going to do what I think is best in this case, though too much of society snickers down its sleeve at me.
Honestly, it may be my grandfather's fault. He wasn't what I'd describe as a gentleman - he was curmudgeonly and difficult by the time I knew him - but about certain things, he was very... Proper. And when I was younger, I distinctly remember a soft grey fedora he had that matched a specific blazer he used to wear. And somewhere in the back of my head, even though that was a huge minority of the time I spent with him (far, far more of it was him in swimming trunks and flip-flops or sandals, sunbathing or swimming or doing yardwork)... Somewhere in the back of my head, that's really how I remember him - a stately old man in yesterday's polite dress, with a somber but kindly look on his face. How much of that is the nostalgic goggles of youth I don't know, but there you go.
Ignoring baseball caps, the first hat I wore was this ridiculous yellow bucket hat with - if I remember right - a red, white and blue hat band. This I wore for years in Junior High and High School, right up into college. Similar to the pic here. There are a few pictures of me floating around - old ones - of me wearing it. The one that sticks in my mind most is a picture of me at my sister's graduation; I was looking back to my left over my shoulder and scowling. Lena, you'll probably remember it... But I can't find a copy online.
When that hat died, I wore a blue bucket hat for a while - into my marriage, in fact. It was very similar to the yellow one, but colored differently. Pretty much, it was a direct replacement... In a slightly less frightening color.
While I was married, though, I got a Minnetonka fold-up hat - lets say, 2003 - and went through three of those in the last 8 years. They were technically a leather pork-pie, I think you'll find (the crown is wrong and the brim too wide for a fedora), but you can argue it, certainly.And then, of course, recently came the current one, as of last week: my felt fedora. And say what you want, mock how much you want... I'm happy with it - thrilled even.
Frankly, I love "different" hats. When I was in Paris last year, shopping for hats with that same friend, she came across a hat in a shop and ridiculed it, saying, "Gah! It looks like something a child would wear!" Of course, she had put it on in the way obvious to her, right on the crown of her head, tying the ribbon under her chin. Indeed, it made her look like some sort of inbred country bumpkin. I, however, fell in love with it at first sight. The perfect saucer hat! I thought. I placed it on my head where a fascinator usually goes and Voilà! Instant chic! I got so many compliments on that hat while I was in Paris. If my friend had heard them, she would have been seething with envy. (This is the hat, the very last one: http://www.canotiersdumarais.fr/femme/femme.html)
ReplyDeleteIt just goes to show that how you wear something is a big part of how the item speaks to other people. Have you ever tried a Panama hat? I used to buy mine at a tobacconist in Claremont, CA, so every time I wore it, I would get a whiff of rich tobacco, which I loved. They're a bit delicate, though. My dad did a great thing for me when he put a bit of silicone at the point in the crown to reinforce it.
Mmm! I love hats!