Hats Off!

I was reading Connie  at Farside of Fifty  yesterday where she mentioned men wearing hats.  It reminded me that my 84 year old father has always worn a dress hat.  As soon as fall arrives he starts wearing his hat and doesn't go anywhere without it until the next summer.  He started wearing them in a era when that was popular and he just never stopped. 

It reminded me of the hats I'd seen my mother wear.  I don't have memories of her wearing one very often, but there were moments.

Like Easter 1955

Also in 1955 was this one of my grandmother (Mom's mother) Mattie in hers.

I love ladies in hats.  I wish I could pull them off.  I just can't.  I've got a couple I take to the beach with me now, but they're not cute...believe me.   I watched the "Royal" wedding, in large part, to see the hats.  Weren't they fabulous!   Those Brits know how to wear a hat.   Another hat voyeur location is the Kentucky Derby.  It was somewhere I wanted to go, just so I could wear the big hat! 

When I was working at Gantos (high end women's apparel), back in the mid to late 90's,  we sold hats. I'm talkin" feathers and rhinestones.     Usually they were bought by black ladies that were buying dress suits.  They looked stunning!  Nothing can turn a head like a well dressed woman in a brilliant hat.  They just put the explanation mark on an outfit.

I would have loved the big hat days of the early 1900s.  ( Big hats/ big hair...I'm seeing a correlation here.)

 

When we visited Biltmore a couple of springs ago, I loved this painting of Edith Vanderbilt..  Now, that is a hat!

 

Big Night Tonight

Tonight is Academy Award Night.  After all the years of watching it, I never am never bored with the parade of gowns and the glint of jewels.  For the average woman, after Prom, how often  do you get to wear a ball gown?  The Awards used to be "the" change to walk the red carpet and pull out the glam one more time.  Today, there is a award show every month.  There's very little build up anymore.  But, I am a loyal fan.  I will be on the couch, in my jammies, with my iced tea scoping out the hits and misses.  OK, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, I'll check out a couple tuxes too. Just on the side here, don't you think Brad looked better when he was with Jennifer?  Remember the shaggy Scooby Doo beard?

There are few actresses today that can display the glamour of Old Hollywood.  Catherine Zeta Jones is one of them.  That woman is ravishingly beautiful. 

The other part of it is that we don't know every iota of trivial information about her.  Good.  I don't want to.   That's why I can't add Angelina Joli to that list.  In the "Brad Years", she has become more dignified and dresses  better.  It's not that I am a Team Jennifer person, which I was, because look at Elizabeth Taylor, that husband stealing hussy, and  'm still a fan of hers.   No, with Angie (that's what George calls her so I will too.) it was that bit about kissing her brother like a drunken sailor and that other thing of wearing a vial of blood around her neck when she was married to Billy Bob or maybe it was the other husband.  I didn't need to know that and the kiss, well, some things you can't unsee.  I know "OLD" Hollywood is gone.  This is NEW Hollywood.  But just for tonight, I want to see oodles of glitz and miles of glamour.  

A lot is said about Ann Hathaway having old Hollywood glamour.   I don't see it.  I could be wrong.  I think she is usually dressed appropriately.  No fake flower hands grabbing her boobs.  No side cleavage. I'll have my eye on her tonight.  Having said that, I don't get the hosts this year.  Ann and James Franco.  Really?   We'll see.  Billy Crystal is a hard act to follow and to me, the only person who has come close is Hugh Jackman.

I've seen most of the movies.  I've got my ballot marked.  My biggest problem is that Amazing Race is on at the same time.  I don't have a DVR so I will be flipping for a while.  My team needs my support too.