A hat is more than just a hat!!!! By Waltraud Reiner, Melbourne

"A HAT is the expression of a woman’s soul. It is something she wears on her head, but belongs to her heart. It is her challenge to the world. She does not wear it to keep warm or to keep the sun off her face though it might do all those things. She wears it to please her husband or a sweetheart or to get one! She wears it to make other women jealous, sometimes, and sometimes she wears it to get a job. It is the keynote of her personality, the finishing touch that makes her look beautiful, and smart and sure of herself - if it is the right hat." - Lilly Dache French born milliner who made it big in New York City in the thirties.

Hats have also played a big part in my life since the late eighties when I first came to Australia. I am native Austrian and I always liked hats, but never knew or thought about how they were made. When I did my Fashion Degree in Austria in the dreaded seventies, the hat was not an item to be talked about and you would never admit you actually loved them.

So when, by accident, I became a Milliner, my long search for my purpose in life had come to an end. I started Millinery in Melbourne and from there went in search of the “”hat”” wherever my road took me. I ended up in London where I found my dear, dear Rose Cory, who has been making hats for the Queen Mum for many years. She watched over me and I worked under her kind eyes for four years until I found the courage to go back to Melbourne to take over the shop where it all began - I have made hats for many years now. I work by appointment and also teach nationally and internationally classes to demystify the hat for people.

I have followed "the rules" in Millinery and I have broken them. The more rules that I break the more wonderful things I discover. I have turned my mistakes over the years into new designs - in fact my deepest learning has come from making lots and lots of such mistakes. I have burned felts, poured coffee and tea over straws, cut in the wrong spot and had the dog sit on hats (I hope no client reads this). With each ’disaster’ a new lesson emerges; the biggest of all was that I now celebrate every mistake, small or large - right after I have cursed and carried on.

Hats are not always seen on women’s heads but women always seam to love the hat. We are hanging on to traditions in order do have an excuse to wear a hat. We love going to the races which gives us “permission” to wear a hat, so we do when going to church.
I myself wear hats every day when I go out. Without one I feel naked. I also have hats just for use at home. Hats, which take me into a fantasy. I have a hat for sitting on my swing in the Studio, and another one to have breakfast in bed with, in a glamorous robe.
Does this make me “Mad as a Hatter”? I don’t think so! It shows that we can enjoy ourselves and go places by just putting on a hat.
Hats can be in our lives. They were in the thirties, they are today and they always will be. All we need to do is to find a reason to wear one……..and being “’alive”” is a good enough reason for me.
And on this note I will leave you and wish you a “Hatty” Day!