Hat Girls

I love, love, love hats! I so wish American women would rediscover the amazing functionality of hats! No time for shampooing....grab a hat! Haven't shampooed in a week? All the better....wear a hat! Pony tail day....pop on that hat! Suddenly your style looks totally planned. Young, old, or in between, there is a hat out there for every head.

I was hopeful the Royal Wedding might inspire a hat renaissance here in the "colonies." I'm still waiting. (Patience may not be my strong suit......I believe the Royal Couple is still honeymooning.) Love the tiny "fascinators"....they should be worn for the name alone..... that Princess Kate has made famous. Love the wide brimmed hats you might have seen at the Cannes Film Festival last week. Love the beach hats you'll see on most any shore. I even love baseball caps on Sunday afternoons.

I wonder if many women are simply afraid to make hat mistakes. There is most definitely the opportunity for chapeau faux pas, as the world saw with the daughters of Fergie at the Royal Wedding. Did they not harken back to a story of wicked step-sisters? Yet, even those horrible hats had people talking. And maybe that's another fear that could potentially ummm.....decapitate my hat wearing revolution. We want to fit in, not stand out. Why is that?

A local friend of ours each spring hosts what she calls her "Mad Hatters" Brunch. What fun....her breathtaking garden party my once a year opportunity to sport a hat and not feel stares of disapproval. There is a stunning lady in our church who rather frequently wears hats. They are beautiful. I have, however, on occasion heard the buzz and seen the shaking Methodist heads. I may break one out just to profess my hat solidarity with her.

Our girls donned hats a couple of times on our recent New York trip. One word. Fabulous. I wished I had packed one. My family's next generation....could they be "hat girls?" Time will tell if they continue to find opportunities to experiment with hat couture. Maybe they will champion my planned Hat Renaissance.

I had Kate in hats continuously when she was little. Although some may call them fascinators, Kate most definitely found them aggravators. As soon as her coordination would allow, she was reaching up, plucking them off, and throwing them as far as she could. The more I adored them, the harder my daughter fought against them. (If only I had been astute enough to realize then this may be a sign of my life to come......)

I'm not sure I always loved hats. One of my earliest hat memories involved one with elastic under the chin and an Easter Sunday worship. Throughout the service, I popped the elastic against my neck. Boiiing.....boiiing.....boiiing......certainly loud enough to be a distraction for anyone sitting nearby. Needless to say, my mother shortly and strongly reminded me that such hat shenanigans in church were totally unacceptable. Suddenly, my neck was not the only body part experiencing a painful reminder that the elastic popping was not such a good idea. That day I must have hated hats.

As my sisters and I plowed through our mother's things, among her treasures we found some incredible hats. They would have all been mine, except for one literal little detail. My mother had a tiny head and thus tiny hats. Sadly, I have neither. So our beautiful cousin, definitely a hat person in her own right, was the recipient of some of the best of "Pat's Hats." I know those will be worn in style by one who most decidedly earns the esteemed designation of Hat Girl. Wear it and them proudly, My Love!

The Kentucky Derby provides an American hat day of the highest order. Closer to home, the Carolina Cup brings women in wonderful hats to the beautiful and elegantly equestrian town of Camden. But why only once a year? Ladies, we must do more! The very existence of hatdom is in peril.

Functional, fashionable, fanciful, fabulous, fun hats....borrowing from Shania Twain, Let's Go, Girls! Whether fascinator or fedora, floppy or...... my alliteration fails me as I run out of fitting "f words".....find (there's one) and wear the hat that says you!