Choosing the Right Hat

I’ve had many women tell me that while they like hats, and would really like to wear them, they ‘just don’t suit them’. I’ve never considered that possibility myself – probably because I love them so much it never entered my head (pardon the pun) that they might not suit me. I say: you’ve just not tried on the right one. And, since spring is the season of the hat, it might be time to reconsider!

Need convincing?

This great story is from one of the supplements of a Melbourne paper, (apologies, I have misplaced the details of the source). Click for a larger image to read. As Melbourne milliner Peter Jago says, “The art of millinery is based on creating headwear that flatters every female form and face. There’s no such thing as a face hats don’t suit.” Spring Racing season is certainly the time to invest, as lots of millinery pop-up shops open up around town. And though it may be ‘the year of the hat’ (thanks mostly to the Royal Wedding), you need not stop at new hats – particularly if your tastes run to more unique, and therefore expensive – fare than the offerings from Myer or David Jones. Consider vintage, in boutiques or online (eBay is a fantastic source).

Vintage Shopping

But how do you find the right size shopping online for vintage? Most online sellers will stipulate a size – don’t buy without knowing the measurement. There’s nothing worse than trying to fit one’s ‘fat head’ into a too-small hat – believe me, I know. Ouch! (My friend Sapphire was the lucky recipient of a vintage cloche that fit her far better than me.)

53–57cm, or 21–22.5”, measured around the crown, is the average size range for women today. Nearly every vintage hat I have seen on eBay has been sized at 22” – luckily for me that’s my size – but that doesn’t mean a 40s style hat won’t work on you since it sits on the top of the head, or a 50s bandeau that will fit most. Look at the vintage diagram below to learn just how to measure your head for the right hat. (Apologies, I have lost the url links for these images.)

The Right Shape For You

So you’re still certain hats don’t look good on you? Finding the right shape to suit your face is a simple matter of proportion; a similar process to how you choose clothing to flatter your figure. Elongate round faces with wide brims or tall crowns, soften angular features with floppy or asymmetrical shapes, shorten long faces with a cloche that has a deep crown, etc. If you need more particular detail I couldn’t do better than direct you to Already Pretty for a thorough look at what types of hats suit which face shapes.

It certainly helps to try on different hats in shops on the high street until you are confident with what suits you before you take the plunge in shopping online. Good luck, and enjoy yourself, because hats should be as fun to shop for as frivolous shoes!

When Needle and Thread Don’t Cut It

Sometimes, when something sinister occurs to a beloved accessory, a needle and thread just won’t cut it.

Such as when one is wearing a new favourite wooden necklace of rings all linked together, and one rises from one’s desk suddenly without realising said necklace has hooked around a protuberance in one’s drawer, and said wooden links … SNAP!

Tragedy!

Selleys Multi Grip to the rescue! A dab here, and a dab there, and one’s wooden necklace is ready to adorn one’s neck once again. Hooray for Selleys, your friendly household glue.

The Crazy Dress

A few summers ago I pounced on a silk Scanlan & Theodore dress in the Albury Salvos. Visiting my niece in the country, I was skeptical about her pronouncement of the wonders waiting to be discovered in this opportunity shop. But this dress alone justified her grandiose declaration.

There was the small matter of just how the very long ties should be woven through the holes in the bodice to form straps. I would figure that out later, I decide. This dress was undeniably a bargain!

On our return to her house, I puzzled over the ties. The seams and tag on the dress are misguiding. But summer was over and I didn’t have an opportunity to wear it. Next year, I promised myself.

Once more the ties confounded me

The following summer, I pulled the frock out. Once more the ties confounded me. In a hurry, I was forced to abandon the project for a garment that did not require an industrial design degree to fasten. Summer passed.

Having hung in my closet for two years, I finally decide to do a photoshoot of ‘the crazy dress’, as I have come to call it. I wrap the straps in all the crazy configurations I had attempted in the past. While I am doing so, I inadvertently lose my grip: the bodice slips sideways. The hole through which the straps are inserted is now in the centre of my chest.

The penny drops.

It’s March, but it’s a very warm Saturday night for autumn. I wear the dress at last to the Moomba Carnival.

The Lady in Cherry Red

Bedecked in red. Do not actually go out into the street like this.

The colour red follows a close second to robin’s egg blue (aka turquoise, tiffany blue) as my favourite colour.

When I attended TAFE in the year after high school, and prior to college, I used to wear a red tracksuit on painting days. This was in the days before Juicy Couture, but it’s not as horrible as it sounds. The top and pants were loose but not enormous, and the top had satin shirttails. I also carried a bright red folio – no boring black portfolio for me to carry my life-drawings around! One of my fellow students called me the lady in red.

I’ve moved on since then. I don’t wear tracksuits, and I am never completely decked out in monochrome. Fashion magazines advise it as a slimming technique, but I would feel a right fool going about in public like that.

Six shiny new buttons, and one of their predecessorsA little while ago I found this cute cropped wool jacket in a charity shop (for only $8!), but it was missing some buttons. The originals were covered in the same fabric, but I bought six new buttons, as shiny as boiled sweets. They were originally $5 each, but I managed to snaffle them during a sale, and paid only about $7.50 for the lot.

I find mending a tedious chore, and put it off as long as possible…

Now, I find mending a tedious chore, and put it off as long as possible. I had a visit with my family scheduled for last Sunday, and I knew I’d be sitting and chatting for a good couple of hours after lunch. This was a prime opportunity to undertake the boring chore. It was a rather cold day, and deliberately I took only this jacket with me so I knew I would have to sew the buttons back on in time to wear it home in the early evening when it was cooler.

Success! I sewed all the buttons back on in plenty of time. Ah, the lengths I have to go to psyche myself up for mending…

The three-quarter sleeves mean that my forearms get quite chilly, but these vintage leather gloves do the trick. The velvet hat is also vintage, by Otto Lucas Junior, and the leather belt I bought overseas, from Mango.

So, several lessons today: do sew (trick yourself into it if you have to); don’t wear all one colour (lest you feel silly); do wear ¾ gloves with bracelet-length sleeves; and do shop on sale. I probably don’t need to tell you that last one. 

The Umbrella Killer (A Story in Pictures)

Over the years I have amassed quite a collection of parasols. Some of them do double duty as umbrellas. Nearly all of them are damaged in some way.

My friend Rapunzel has long called me an umbrella killer, but that is not fair. All but one of these parasols are vintage, so no-one should be surprised if they have incurred damage over the long years.

My friend Rapunzel has long called me an umbrella killer, but that is not fair.

There is nothing wrong with this umbrella. It's pretty lightness means it can double as a parsol in summer.I own so many because I hate sunscreen. It is sticky and greasy and takes so long to apply. Of course I do employ it at the beach, but around town I prefer to protect my complexion with a parasol.

Also, parasols are quaint and pretty, and olde-worlde-y. And they are sensational. It used to amuse me when bogans, travelling into the city from the outer suburbs, would cleverly cry out from their car as they passed me, “It’s not raining!” However, parasols are becoming quite a common sight now, and no longer provoke such witticisms.

Once an African girl (with skin so dark you would not suppose she would have a problem with the sun) approached me in the street to admire my umbrella. She told me she had a skin problem that required she should carry a parasol, but she was too embarrassed to do so. I warmly encouraged her to carry one. Who cares what the hoi polloi think?

It’s about time I took my armful of broken parasols to an umbrella repairer however. 

Read more about vintage parasols here. 

A missing pompom does not preclude my using this parasol

A trio of paraplegics: I was devastated when a crazy tram driver caused me to smash the handle of this white umbrella; I lost my balance on his hurtling vehicle. It has a gorgeous black lace lining. Epoxy glue was not successful, and I do not know what type of plastic the handle is made from. The frill on the taupe umbrella has unravelled (and this should be easy to fix for a patient needlewoman, which I am not). The mauve umbrella lost its tassel, and has a new one attached temporarily by way of a knot.One of the seams has come undone on this leaf-printed umbrella in a zesty shade of burnt orange. I ought to be able to repair this!Nothing wrong with the battenburg lace parasol I bought in Queensland years ago, but I have never yet carried this unfortunate brown umbrella. I don't like the colour. It would be kind to call it caramel and chocolate, but really, it is a shade of baby-poo brown. Yuk.