September 15th was National Felt Hat Day. We postponed our post to say happy birthday to Agatha Christie, but it was a fun post so we wanted to tackle the subject a week late.
Some people can pull off hats and look great in them. I actually love hats, but my characters don’t wear them much. Wickeds, do your characters wear hats and if so, what’s their favorite style of hat? Do you wear hats?
Jessie: Liz, this topic is one of my favorites! I adore wearing hats and do so almost daily. Felt, straw, knitted, I love them all! My sleuth, Edwina Davenport is just as smitten with hats as I. She can even be persuaded by her fellow sleuth, Beryl Helliwell, to launch herself into new experiences if they might justify purchasing a new hat!
Edith/Maddie: I like the thought of wearing hats, but most are too tight on my extra-large head (trust me on this), and my head always gets hot even when I find one that fits. It has to be really cold and windy out to find me in a topper. None of my protagonists seem to have my hat issues, thank goodness. Rose Carroll wears a Quaker bonnet when she goes out. And I can vouch for how good Jessie looks in a wide-brimmed hat!
Julie: Edith, I also have an extra large head. When I was in college I wore fedoras. It was the 80s and they were in style. In remembering that, I think I should start to do that again. I loved them. And since they were men’s hats, they fit. I’d love to wear a cloche that looked good and fit–hard to find. As for my characters–Lilly wears a hat while gardening and walking. She’s fond of big straw hats, some with scarves to keep them on her head.
Barb: In the late sixties I had a big, floppy, red felt hat, when such things were fashionable. Alas no photos exist. Now I only wear hats, grudgingly, to keep the sun off my very sunburnable face. Hats, however, always put me in mind of my grandmother, Eleonore Kimbel Taylor Ross, who was a millinery buyer for Saks Fifth Avenue throughout her career, from the 1930s until she retired in the early 1960s.
Here’s my grandmother in quite a felt hat in an ad for Raybestos Brakes painted by Norman Rockwell (1922).
Liz: Love this, Barb! And Jessie, I knew your fondness for hats so I definitely wanted to tackle this topic. I love hats – I have a few fun ones and I’m currently on the hunt for some fun new ones. I love fedoras, and slouchy hats in the winter, and I have a wide-brimmed beachy hat that makes me feel like a movie star when I wear it that is a treasured gift from a friend. I also usually wear some kind of hat walking the doggies in the morning. Makes me feel much more presentable than I usually am at that hour!
Sherry: Barb you seemed to have an endlessly supply of fascinating relatives! I rarely wear hats unless it’s some knit thing stolen from my husband to wear on cold winter walks. My face is so square hats never seem to look good on me. I do have a floppy hat to keep the sun off my face, but don’t wear it often. Chloe might slap on a baseball cap now and then and Sarah something if she needed a disguise.
Readers, what about you? Love hats? What’s your favorite kind? Leave us a comment!