ALL AROUND MY HAT

This is going to be a fun post because we get to spotlight two of our favorite subjects: hats and Judith Boyd, better known to you as the Style Crone.

Earlier this year, you will remember (or click here if you don't) Judith came to New York and we all got together at Carol Markel's home.  On that trip, Judith brought each of us a marvelous hat.  That alone was (to quote Olive Oyl) "so utterly, utterly!"  

But better still, Judith had picked them up at the final closing sale of Brigitte NYC, which we had recommended to her on a previous trip here.  A marvelous store whose products were as creative and original as the eponymous Brigitte herself, it was absolutely dedicated - in spirit if not in official policy - to women of a certain age.  Among her many brilliant ideas, Brigitte had a habit of salvaging materials from her scrap heap and making one of a kind hats out of them.  They were simple in construction, but had the same effect as a cherry has, cresting an ice cream sundae.

Above is the wool hat she gave Valerie, laid flat.  It was recently brought out of storage now that temperatures have begun to drop.

If that were all, the post would end here.  But you know how we love to experiment, so below is the same hat, shifted incrementally around the head.

It works no matter what you do with it, and each way it looks like a different hat.

Here a tip of the hat to Judith, who ferreted this hat out of a huge pile of hats.

For those of you who are curious, the tag is at the big round end.  (Raise your hand if you thought it was at the small straight end.)  Readers, of course you can't get this kind of mileage out of all your hats, but you'll never know till you try.

Experiment!  (When no one who might laugh is looking, of course.)

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Did you recognize the title of tonight's post from the song by the 1970s folk rock band Steeleye Span?  Enjoy the song and the '70s clothes, below.




(Click here to see it full size.)  Enjoy the handsome young men in their de rigeur long hair and dark mustaches of the period.  Valerie used to have an armlet just like the lead singer's.  And back then it looked just as good on her as it did on Maddy Prior, seen here with her hair parted straight down the middle, also de rigeur back then.