Hats!

I am terrible at coming up with titles. Every post is a slight struggle. Perhaps it’s time to embrace their awkwardness.

So I’m back from Belfast. It was not what I expected at all! Well, being honest, I had no idea what to expect as neither I nor my friend had actually researched the city that much before we left haha. It was actually quite small and, while it was nice and I am very much interested in visiting other parts of Ireland, I’m not sure I would visit Belfast again. Hmm, I think this might be the first time I’ve written about somewhere I’ve been on this blog and felt so distinctly ambivalent about it (I have a lucky tendency to love pretty much everywhere I visit). I don’t want to be mean about Belfast so I will say that there are a few possible reasons for this unrelated to the city itself e.g. I got sick right before I left haha.

I suppose in one way it was good – I’ve learned more about what I should do to make a trip a good one. Don’t get sick, pick where to stay myself, research the place beforehand and figure out what I want to do, get enough sleep. But yeah. I’m glad I went but I know it would have been better had the circumstances been different. I also didn’t get that many nice photos! Darn it. Generally, it might have been one trip too much for this break.

For now, I’m happy to be back in the north east of England. My head feels messy and I need to sort everything out, come up with a routine, get healthy and start taking care of myself properly before my classes start again. This is going to be a tough year, but hopefully the good kind of tough rather than the kind I experienced last year. I’m optimistic!

So on to more fashion-related matters, I wanna talk about hats. My relationship with hats. Hats and me. I have a few of them. I think 8 or 9 now. More will be bought. When I was younger, my parents used to say that I looked good in hats. I thought they were just telling me that so I wouldn't end up with skin cancer but I now realise, many years later, that actually hats are pretty great. While I wouldn't want to return to an era where every outfit required a hat to be 'finished', they are certainly a very stylish way of hiding the fact that you're too stingy to get your roots done.

While I was in Sydney, I tried to take a whole bunch of outfit photos with all the hats I brought with me haha. Maybe you will see how they turn an otherwise simple / whatever outfit into a slightly better than whatever outfit. You will also see pretty much all the clothes I had with me! haha. I think my hat to other clothes ratio was a bit off.

This is my black bowler hat. If there was a 'basic' hat, this would be it. I resisted bowler hats for ages because of how trendy they are. I mean, wearing the above outfit made me feel almost like I was in some kind of 'alternative girl' uniform with the hat, glasses, tattoos and all black outfit. But you know what? It's an easy way to make a simple outfit not a boring outfit. Embrace the uniform. Occasionally.

Click here for the exact hat I'm wearing!

A summery straw bowler in an autumnal mustard colour? I'm wearing that forever. This was $5 from a Dangerfield discount store in Newtown.

Now I grant you this is rather wide categorisation but I don't possess enough wide-brimmed hats to break this down any further hoho. I own but a single variety - a navy blue, wool hat with a chiffon bow that I bought in Camden in my first week of arriving in the UK back in January 2009. It was once completely stiff and is now a little floppy (and as of last week slightly crumpled). I have not taken good care of it, poor old thing... but only because I wear it so much because it goes with seemingly everything I own. No, really. I'm not exaggerating. It's just one of those things.

This is not a Sydney photo. This is actually from 2011 haha.

See, not the most fabulous of outfits but with the addition of a hat, it has ... slightly improved? I could totally be a fashion writer.

I don't know guys, they keep the sun off your face, the rain off your fringe, a slight air of mystery if worn with sunglasses? A felt halo? (too much?)

Here are some on Etsy I like!

 

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

Pillboxes. These are my thing. Any look I would go for is always such that a pillbox could easily be included. They are probably the most impractical of hats. They provide neither warmth nor protection from the elements. Brimmed hats kind of make sense. Bowlers and cloche hats kind of make sense. Pillboxes are literally just a little block of colour added to the top of your head to make you look more put together. I don’t know guys. It works somehow.

This is the one I wear most often – my plain black, wool felt hat. 

Hat: vintage // Coat: Primark // Scarf: Edinburgh Woollen Mill

Here are some Etsy links:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

Our little woollen French friends who will, without fail, make you look like you should be riding a bicycle with a baguette in the front basket. Some might say you should beware pairing a beret (almost wrote baguette) with a striped shirt. I say don’t let the bastards tell you what to do!  …Unless you are a man with a moustache… shave it off, you beast.

Shirt: Saba // Collar: Chicwish // Backpack: Chicwish // Skirt: Bettina Liano

Thanks to Chicwish for the collar and bag! Click the links above for the exact product pages.

I also LOVE the berets in Orla Kiely SS14. Please let me look like that when I wake up tomorrow. Please. Please.

I can post no more. I must leave the house and stop tempting myself by surfing Etsy hoho.

What are your favourite hats? Do you have a certain kind you like / that contributes to your overall look?

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