At a recent artisan fair, a woman looked over my display of handcrafted hats and then said, "I wish I was a hat person."
I hear that so often.
Here in the United States, we do not have a hat culture. (Baseball caps notwithstanding.) We dress our babies in all styles of headwear, our toddlers in sun hats, but when we reach adulthood, we don't wear hats for fashion. (Some of us do, of course.)
We do, however, wear hats for function from time to time: winter hats for warmth, visors for outdoor sports, sun hats for the beach. And have I mentioned baseball caps?
Many women think they don't look good in hats. And yet they absolutely do! My theory is that they feel this way simply because wearing a hat is something they aren't used to doing. It's a new habit, one that takes some adjusting to before it feels less foreign. Every new habit takes time to establish itself as a normal part of our lives.
So let me tell you something: everyone looks good in a hat.
Adding a hat to your outfit is the same as adding a purse, a belt, shoes. It is an accessory that completes the outfit -- actually, accentuates the outfit.
I love this quote by Donna Zakowska, author of Madly Marvelous: The Costumes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: "Without question, the hats were the most demanding items to produce, and beyond being merely decorative, without them many costumes were incomplete."
I'm not saying we need to walk around all decked out and bedazzled like Mrs. Maisel. But we can find our own hat style and feel good about it.
How you wonder?
- Start with the headwear that captures your attention on others. Is it the fabric pattern, style of the hat, adornments?
- Get to know the broad range of styles: beret, cloche, tulip, pill box, button, boater, percher...
- Start a Pinterest board and add the looks you love. Eventually you will see a pattern in the aspects that you are drawn toward.
- Buy yourself a cute hat and look at yourself in the mirror -- not a glance but a good, long look at your beautiful self and say, "I look amazing!"
- Don't be afraid to experiment with your fashion style. Just wear the hat. You will be delighted by the compliments you receive, and you will be that person that others think looks really cute in a hat.