My famous hat

The last time I went into my neighborhood pharmacy, the owner took me aside. "I have to pay you a compliment," she told me. "I saw you go by the other day in the most elegant hat I've ever seen! Fabulous! It's such a shame we rarely wear hats anymore. A perfect hat adds that touch of finission."

I demurred, but admitted that it was a beautiful hat, and I told her where I got it (from an artisan hatmaker in Provence). I told her my new thing with hats came from a desire to keep my hair from bleaching in the sun. I am a proud brunette in a city where an overwhelming proportion of women my age are blond (so much easier to hide the gray that way). My hair is fragile and lightens very quickly in the sun, so...I've taken to wearing hats.

I have a number of hats, but this one--an asymmetrical fantasy which gives the illusion of being in motion--is the real show-stopper. It is a fabulous hat, rendering me elegant and well-dressed no matter what else I'm wearing. And it is an unusual, one-of-a-kind hat.

When I wear it to do my daily food shopping, it is a nonstop topic of conversation. Complete strangers approach me to enquire where they might obtain one. My produce vendor stopped in mid-sentence, looking into my face. "What a beautiful hat, madame," he said. Well, who am I to deny it?

When I wore it into the butcher shop, the butcher's wife, a stunning woman who for me is a paeon of Parisian elegance, broke into beaming smiles at the sight of my hat. She echoed the sentiment that it was a a blow to the feminine arts that hats are rarely worn anymore. "I'm going to start wearing my hats again!" she declared, apparently encouraged by the fact that a mere American had dared to wear a flamboyant hat.

One thing's for sure: wearing an outrageous hat--or even a low-profile chapeau--is not for the timid. A woman wearing a hat is looked at; she is the object of varying degrees of scrutiny and appreciation, never without at least a touch of admiration for her self-confidence and daring.

Why then am I wearing hats? I am basically a "shy person," in the old nomenclature of Garrison Kiellor. Well, I already explained the factual reason: to protect my hair. But in fact, owning this beautiful hat has been therapeutic for me. It is so beautiful that I must wear it. And you could say, I've grown into it. Through my hat, I've assumed the role of a daring, hat-wearing woman. Vive le ch”peau!

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