Derby Hat, A Bit Small

As promised, a return to flowery hats. This hat would have been appropriate to wear to the Kentucky Derby. I might have if I'd owned it the year I went to the derby with Chris and friends. As my grandmother was still alive at the time and thus in possession of her hats, I wore a much less fancy but still serviceable straw hat of my own. After that one Derby trip I decided that unless I get Derby tickets that include actual seats, I will not go back. It was fun enough as a one-time thing, but cheap seats without seats gets old quick. I did win money on the Derby, which helped make the day more worthwhile.

But back to the topic at hand - it is weird that depending on the angle at which I stand, my belly looks monstrous or actually kind of reasonable. It certainly does not feel reasonable these days. I am feeling very sluggy. In addition to being tired much of the time, moving is a big annoyance. This means I try to minimize movement, which in turn makes me feel like a soggy potato. Yes, a soggy potato. If you don't like the metaphor, get your own blog. Ditto if you think I should have ironed the ribbon. It was 9 pm, you are lucky I am smiling at all.

Feeling a little silly about tipping my head in order to get more of the hat into the picture.

Here is a better view of the hat:

The flowers are actually pretty impressive, both for their exuberance and for the fact that I can identify several of them as real types of flowers.

In addition to these flowers, there are a couple bunches of impatiens, a rose and several other types of flowers I'd have to think hard about but could probably identify. It impresses me that the haberdasher didn't just make up flowers, but recreated real ones for this spring beauty.

Ok, I should have ironed the ribbon. Maybe I will later, but more likely I will just think about it for a while and then decide against it.

The hat bears two labels, one from Adolfo (probably this Adolfo) and the other from Chester Weinberg. I know Adolfo had a shop in New York (and according to the label, also one in Paris), so this could have been a hat sold at his NYC shop but made by Weinberg. On the other hand, I know Adolfo made hats, and I can't find much about Chester Weinberg as a milliner. Weinberg was apparently a Parsons graduate who was active in the '70s. (I found this post and photo about a cool dress he designed.)