I am off to California! Why? After my fingers did the walking I found a milliner that had her showroom and factory in one place. I knew I could try on MANY hat styles and determine which one I really liked. Ultimately it would be easier to purchase one on the web that way. I felt certain that a web purchase was how the hat experience would end up.
First, I created a document where I could drop the pictures of the hats I liked from all over the web. Bookmarked the websites and then I had one document that had side by side views of the hats I liked. Since I was going to California to visit my sister Melea, I gave her a call and warned her that we were on a mission and going hat shopping for the Derby. She was thrilled and the adventure began.
Louise Green
One of the milliners that I was going to visit was Louise Green in Los Angeles. I loved her hats so much I had two pages of hats to check out. Since my trip was short and sweet we had to maximize every moment. I arrived on Sunday night with Vic. (He had some business in LA.) Monday morning Melea and I took James to school and headed to shop for hats. We only had Monday because Tuesday morning we went to the airport and headed to Phoenix to watch our niece Natalie Rachelle get pinned for her Nurses degree. Then literally 24 hours later Melea went back to LA and I headed to Reno to catch up with Vic and go snow skiing with our friends from Florida!
Milliner Garden
We found the showroom/factory without a hitch. Just imagine opening the door and you enter a room FILLED with hats! Racks and Racks of hats! A milliner garden! Every shape, size and color … for women and for men! And there in the middle was Louise Green herself. I recognized her from her pictures on her website. So I introduced myself. I learned later that she has 20 couples from LA area going to the Derby too with hats for all. Melea and I had a ball trying on hat after hat after hat. It is very interesting how some hats were ‘you’ and others definitely were not!
I had already purchased a Derby dress. Black and White … of course. Even though technically I was on the fence as to appropriate color. Not very “spring-like”. I justified it since it did have a floral print on the top of the dress. So I knew I was going to get a black and white hat. But there was this one hat that totally captivated me. A pink and black one!
The Oaks hat
Well maybe I was going to get TWO hats! After all I was going the The Oaks race and there everyone was to wear pink since the fillies were racing and it benefits Breast Cancer. Here is the dilemma. The pink and black hat (AMY) would have to have a black dress…a faux pax for sure. But the hat won and I bought it. I also bought Vic a hat. Wasn’t sure of the Derby hat… just in case I changed dresses.
So we continued to shop. Went all over Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Looking for Pink shoes and also Teal shoes. Thinking that I might wear Teal shoes with the Black and white dress and then have a teal, black and white Hat! Thinking that would make the faux pax okay! <grin> After canvasing Rodeo Drive the decision was clear, stick with black shoes!
The Derby hat
When I told Vic about his hat … no way Jose’! He didn’t want another hat … the only hat he wanted to wear was the one that the kids bought him in Italy. His Borsalino fedora. That night I looked back at all the hats online that I liked and kept deleting the obvious ones and I kept coming back to the black and white hat at Louise Green’s. So the next morning on the way to the airport I called Louise Green Milliners and said no Vic’s hat and to add the Black and White hat (GRACE) and had her add black trim around the brim.
Why don’t we wear more hats? I just LOVE my hats!
Hat Shopping DONE! check!
Now for all the attire!
Tags: Churchhill Downs, Derby Hats, Living It With Lisa, Louise Green Milliner, The Kentucky Derby, The Oaks