November 30, 2007
"It is impossible for a hatless woman to be chic." --Emily Post
Five years ago, I met my Aunt Nancy, "The Hat Lady", for the very first time on the occasion of her 90th birthday. She was wearing a gorgeous wide-brimmed hat and looking like she just came from Ascot after watching horse races and sipping tea with the Queen.
I was properly impressed.
As to why I was just meeting her for the first time, well, that tale will have to wait for another day. Let us just say I was feeling a bit like I had just stepped out of a "Princess Diaries" movie and found a gem of a relative previously unknown to me.
For now though, let us talk about Aunt Nancy's love of hats.
On her birthday, she wore a light, summer hat made of chiffon and ribbon. It matched her mint-green dress. Aunt Nancy was a vision of loveliness as she sat in her chair and congenially greeted guests. Gracious and refined, a queen by anyone's standards.
I was intrigued and instantly smitten with Aunt Nancy and her hats. This was some special lady I decided. She was not royalty, but she had hats of every color and style just as marvelous as those of any queen!
I think it is absolutely daring and would love to wear hats, too, but whom other than a queen or Aunt Nancy could possibly get away with such a fashion statement these days.
Margaret Mason of The Morning News online magazine writes in a series on fashion, "Hats draw attention, so it takes confidence to wear one well. If you can manage it, other women will assume that you are more fashionable than they. Those women will be correct."
Mason explains that a woman can wear whatever she likes if she has a darling hat on because no one will notice anything but the hat. "And so, you see, hats make life easier and loads more fun" she writes.
And Aunt Nancy had fun indeed! Besides wearing hats, she enjoyed signing her name "OSG" (Old Spice Girl), and often asked her grandchildren to call her Gigi.
Sadly, we lost this hip, chic, and sophisticated Old Spice Girl (age 95) this autumn after she fell and broke a hip. At her funeral, pictures were displayed of her wearing some of her favorite hats. Her two daughters wore hats in her honor, and every woman at the funeral came away wanting to find a magnificent hat to wear just like Aunt Nancy.
During her eulogy, one speaker said what was in all our hearts, "The Hat Lady was one living doll."
I want to grow up and be just like her, but first, I must find a spectacular hat.
