A Hat Person
on still trying to be a hat person despite never really being a hat person...
I’ll confess: I always wanted to be a hat person. In the movies, a lady who wore a hat was just a step above when it came to style. Oh, the elegance! And the drama it added to both a spectacular dress and how the most basic of dresses seemed like a work of art.
In addition to films, as a child my grandmother had a collection of hats in the top of her sewing closet. A women who was still working up through the 1960’s as a seamstress, she often wore a hat to work. But in thinking back, probably not to church because Southern Baptist ladies in Texas didn’t wear hats the way the Catholics did.
But alas, I have never really been a hat person...
I’ve tried over the years but they never really look, well, right. Perhaps my head is not the right shape. Or perhaps it’s the shape of my face. Or maybe, I just don’t have good taste when it comes to choosing a chapeau.
It’s a skill I envy of other ladies. Not in a “little green-eyed monster” way, but in sheer admiration of their skills in dressing themselves from head to toe.
But on me, hats just look dumb.
No, I’m not fishing for compliments. At 56 years old, I am pretty honest about what works for me and what doesn’t.
Yet, don’t think I still don’t attempt the hat thing.
Despite abandoning things I couldn’t quickly perfect as a child (a topic to explore another day).
I have a couple of big straw hats to wear to the pool with wide brims that provide enough shade to allow me to read a book whilst I lounge. They often end up beside my on my chair.
I have a suede bucket hat I purchased for a winter trip to DC the first year we were together. Though I had hoped for a look that was romantic or glamorous, I reads goofy and lack of style.
A stocking hat - the ones with the little pompoms on top - to keep my head and ears warm in the Midwest Winter. And it inevitably just makes me feel hot and leaves my hair a mess of static electricity.
I always wear a hat or visor of some sort when I golf. It’s necessary for both the way it shades the eyes as I line up a shot. And for protection from the sun. But it comes off the second I’m off the course.
I often wear a beloved golf hat, stained and well broken in when I do any kind of gardening. I purchased it on the first golf trip we made back in 2011. It, too, often finds itself off my head and laying next to my water (or my current favorite sports drink (in Mango Passionfruit).
Despite my inability to choose a hat that looks attractive on me, I’ve purchased four hats this year.
Yes. Four.
All from Chord, which was created by Mary Orton Scudellari as a source for luxe level baseball caps in an array of fashionable colors and beautiful fabrics. And to combat the bane of my existence when it comes to any hat I wear on the golf course which is any make-up I wear sweats off onto the hat. The sweatband on the Chord hat’s aren’t cloth, but a brown leather.
My first order was honestly just a way to support a creator whose content I enjoy. I ordered a basic black nylon hat, something that goes with most of my wardrobe. And as I was checking out, I decided to grab a cream colored twill hat since I wear a lot of cream and khaki in the summer.
And yes, in subsequent drops of new hats, I’ve purchased two more. A maroon twill that mixes with a staple of my fall and winter wardrobe of more black and lots of burgundy.
And then came the hat I’ve worn three times just this week: a black and white herringbone in a heavier material that’s perfect for winter. Unlike the aforementioned stocking type caps that leave my hair a staticky mess, this has been just perfect to help keep me warm on 20-degree days. Which we have had in abundance this week.
To be honest, I still don’t see myself as a “hat person”.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t keep trying. Perhaps wearing a hat that was created by a very stylish woman will help me feel a little more stylish…
What about you? Are you a “hat person”? Is there something you feel you fail at but keep trying?
I keep trying, too, but never feel like I pull it off!