Twin Leopards

Just when you thought I couldn’t possibly have anything more to say on animal prints (as did I!), I came across this little trifle in my collection of unpublished stories: a leopard print hat made from sinnamay. I’m not quite sure what to call this shape, except perhaps a modified trilby, with the narrow brim folded up on one side and down on the other.

I bought this in a thrift store for around $4, and what delighted me was that it is like the fraternal twin of a hat I bought many years ago (at a much higher retail cost, I may add), only in a more refined shape. In the shop I also thought the print was exactly the same, but when I pulled the other out I saw they were quite different. They still do look like they came from the same milliner, don’t they? The trilby is by Italian label Caterina Lucchi.

I’ve pulled a picture out of the archives of the other hat, which is in fact by Jendi, an Australian brand. This one is quite definitely a fedora as it has a broader brim (you can see other angles here). Now that I have both to compare, I’m not sure which I prefer after all – I’ll keep both!

Photos: March 2017, January 2010