Play It Again - My Vintage Hat Collection...A Series
I’ve been talking about my vintage hat collection for a while now and I’ve finally decided to start sharing some of my hats as well as some of my story and why I love anything vintage!
My hat obsession is an odd one because I’ve never felt I looked good in hats…my head is small. Vintage ones do seem to be smaller and they fit my head better. Mostly, I see these hats as works of art and as a way that women were able to express their individuality in earlier times.
My hat collection began when I was in our local thrift store one day. I was taking a donation and decided to look around a bit because you never know what you might find. I made my way to the counter to get my donation receipt, slightly disappointed that I hadn’t found a treasure and that’s when I noticed hat boxes stacked up on the floor…lots of hat boxes. Someone had come in and donated their mother’s entire collection of hats and I bought them all…some of them, sight unseen. I think I paid $100 for 12 hats!
I was very excited and couldn’t wait to get home and go through them to see what I had bought and believe me when I say…I had some treasures.
For several years, they stayed in the closet and I would bring them out occasionally and look at them and put them back up. All the while, I was adding to the collection, but only one or two at a time. They’ve become harder to find and when I do find one…I snatch it up and bring it home.
I’ve always been drawn to vintage things.
When I was about five years old, our family moved into an old house. The house had, at one time, belonged to a family that owned a local department store. It had fallen into disrepair and the last lady of the family remained in the house…old and unable to keep it up. When she died, my parents bought the house and there were many things left in closets and in the attic.
Obviously, in 1968, my sister and I had to make our own fun. Our television was very small and had aluminum foil on the antennae. To say it didn’t work well would be an understatement so…that wasn’t even an option.
There was no air conditioning in the house, but there was a huge attic fan that kept air moving and, on either side of the fan in the attic, there were two rooms…filled with old trunks! The old trunks were filled with ladies clothing probably from sometime in the late 1800’s. I still have a few pieces somewhere in my old house. There were also lots of old newspapers, medicine bottles and an assortment of other things. It was an amazing thing as a child to be able to go through those trunks and play with the clothing. I wish we had realized the value of the things we were playing with, but we didn’t and I’m sure some of it was ruined.
That experience is probably why I love vintage things and old houses to this day. It’s so much fun to imagine the people who wore the clothes and lived in the houses…who were they, what did they do?
Every time I put on one of my vintage hats, I wonder about the person who wore it and where they would have gone.
I’m just now starting to do some research on the history of women’s hats, and as I share the collection here, I’ll share a little more about what I’m learning so be sure to check back often and please share if you know anyone who would enjoy this!
The hat I’m wearing in these pictures is one from the collection I bought at the thrift store. At the time I purchased it, I was probably in my early 50’s and I’m guessing the person who donated the hats was about the same age as me. That would have made her mother about 80 years old, most likely. Meaning she was born in the mid 30’s. This would lead me to believe that this hat was worn in the late 40’s or early 1950’s.
This hat is one of the plainer hats from my collection. I have several feather hats and some that are very large and definitely make a statement! The hard part about wearing these old hats is figuring out what clothes to style them with, and also, what to do with my hair! I’m going to put a little time and thought into the styling and show you how I would wear these hats and make them feel relevant for today!
I so enjoyed writing this post and sharing a little of my life! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as well! If you know anything about vintage hats, I would love for you to share in the comments!