Awesome Thing (That I Made!) – Feathered Hat Pins

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For decades, I wasn’t able to wear hats. The things just didn’t look right on me. Then a year or so ago I changed my hair slightly and all of a sudden, hats looked grand! I celebrated by buying many of the things. Which was suddenly easy because hats had become stylish again. Or at least basic hats had become stylish again. Fedoras, pork pies, cloches in basic colours. Outside of weddings and horse races, women still weren’t getting their Downton on, even though I think we all secretly wanted to. Damn Toronto’s conservative streak.

In any case, I was tired of wearing plain hats so I started making feathery pins that I could mix and match amongst my hat collection. A couple of these are reworked pins from hats I bought long ago from the amazing Gina at Retro G when she had a shop on Queen West (and never wore, because hats looked dumb on me then), but the majority are whipped up from a pile of goodies bought at Sussman’s on Queen West.

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The current collection – in mostly black, red or purple to match the rest of my wardrobe.
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Purple ostrich feather pin on a gorgeous wool military/fez from Wildhagen.
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Jazzing up a basic black Goorin cloche.
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A feminine grey bowler with a bit of pizzazz to make sure nobody mistakes me for a banker.
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Red Goorin cloche – the feathered bit comes pre-made from Sussman’s, I’ve just added the jewel and pin backing.