Vintage hats are a timeless treasure, and a captivating symbol of classic feminine allure.

Why have vintage hats remained so popular? First, here’s a little back story. At one time, a woman couldn’t go out without a hat, without seeming rude or class-less! Hats used to convey marital status, status for one’s place in society, and most importantly, wealth. Hats were also useful tools for women – they protected the complexion from the sun and wind, and could be used as a flirtation device, concealing parts of the face to giggle, or sending a secret, seducing shy glance towards the way of a fine young gentleman.

Hats have been made of cotton fabric, straw, fur, wool felt, and anything you can imagine. The best way to figure out how to date a vintage hat is by looking at the shape. Edwardian times had wide and extravagant hats. In the 1920s, close fitting hats called cloches were a favorite. In the 30s, hats switched from having a cutesy and mysterious shape, to a jauntier design. The 40s brought a graceful and shaped trend, often with veils. The 50s took a whimsical turn, with many hats mimicking idyllic impressionist paintings of women with flowered and bowed hats. Platter hats were also popular in this time. In the 60s the pill box hat was all the rage. Although time has passed and different designs have flitted in and out, vintage hats have stayed popular because their essential meaning to society has remained the same, even though people have started dressing less formally as time goes on.

Vintage hats are a modest investment

High quality and unique vintage hats can be found in a range of prices. This makes them fun to collect and experiment with! Before I started collecting and learning about hats, I was like many others in my assumption that if vintage hats are so unique, ornate, and often using good quality materials, then they must be pretty expensive. I was quite surprised then, when I started seeing that most of the vintage hats I liked, were usually in the $10 to $25 price range. (unless they were rare or made by highly collectible fancy designers). Sometimes, I could find less expensive hats that were damaged at tag sales or thrift stores. Damaged hats with pretty bows, flowers, feathers, etc. can be treasure chests if you start embellishing your own hats, or using the pieces to add to clothing, or create hairpieces or fascinators.

Buying a vintage hat does not cost as much as an entire outfit, but the right hat can create highly fashionable, daring, or classy look. Straw or wide brims are usually worn for daytime casual looks, while closer fitting and more lush styles are usually worn for evening or formal occasions. It’s all about the way you accessorize! The low prices of hats means that your dollar goes further and you can buy more than just one, so try experimenting.

The right hat draws attention to the best features in your face. It’s important to figure out what hat shape goes best with your particular face shape. Many helpful guides can be found online, or you could just go to a hat store and have a ball trying on all the different hats, to see what works best for you.

Vintage Hats are unique treasures.

Vintage hats are like snowflakes, each one is unique. When you’re looking for vintage hats, it’s rare that you’ll come across the same one twice. Each hat has a special touch, because a lot of them were custom made, or trimmed by the owner. Women would often change the trim to go with the new fashions, or season. Feel free to do the same! Deconstructing damaged hats is a great way to get materials to add your own trimmings, just like women did in the past. You can also buy vintage trimmings at a very low price on online sites. The many available styles allow you to express yourself in your own way and you’ll never end up at a party with the same outfit on as someone else!

Part of the fun, is trying on hats at different angles, and with different hairstyles to see how they will look. One hat will have a different allure on each person that tries it, depending on their how they wear it, their attitude, style, and coloring. Try it on backwards! You never know, it could look great. Use a certain hat style to build your own look. Are berets your thing? Collect them in all colors and kinds, add jewelry or pins to set it off. People will look up to your superior sense of style, and ability to have fun with your wardrobe!

Now go out and explore! Vintage hats are waiting for you in all kinds of places. Try shopping online, vintage clothing stores, thrift stores and even ask family or friends what is hiding in the attic waiting for the right person to come along. And prepare to get tons of enjoyment as your vintage hat never goes out of style!

Vivian Vassar (aka Hey Viv!) has been wearing and selling vintage clothing for over 25 years. She is the owner of Hey Viv! an online vintage clothing store that specializes in 50’s style retro and vintage clothing. http://www.HeyViv.com

Hey Viv! Vintage Hats are the finishing touch!
http://heyviv.com/shop/category.asp?catid=27

There are more and more women select walking as their workout of choice to burn calories and better posture. It is really great to stroll briskly around block, walk with home videos, march on place with a TV show or stroll around the park. By doing these, you achieve really both good mood and benefits from workout. Moreover there is a new style of shoes that is created to help you decrease body fat much faster than wearing other shoes.

Indeed a good pair of shoes is not all you need for walking, but the right pair will really take you a long way. The right shoes will really make you more comfortable, keep your feet from injuries and enhance your walking. When starting walking, you really need to find your right shoes for walking that will bring you not only protection but also better posture and better figure.

The key to achieve all these benefits is the earth shoes made depending on the concept that when shoes make toes higher than heels, you body will probably in a more upright manner. This body position is believed to be conducive to a more atomically correct posture. In turn, this will promote your breathing, tighter thighs, flatter tummy and improve posture. Or rather, in this position, your metabolism is stimulated and more calories will be burned while walking.

However, before you buy these great shoes to start your walking plan, You should be clear about you feet type that will really get you the right shoes. Then someone with imperfect feet may worry about being unable to find the right one among these shoes. Such situations probably happen among other shoes, but not with these earth shoes. These shoes for women are normally sized and comfortable. Everyone could find their right ones from earth shoes.

Attention! As every new shoe will take some time to adjust, so do these earth shoes. And probably these shoes will take more time for adjustment. But it is really worth with more calories burned and better posture in these great earth shoes.

Looking for more information about earth shoes? Read about the earth shoes women, you will get what you want.

Winter wear is filling all the store racks all through the cold time of year. The shelves are bursting with chunky and heavy attire all designed to keep you warm. And a large amount of them appear quite dreary and some are positively hideous. Keeping you warm, seems to the only purpose in the eyes of the designers. They sprout about the latest water-resistant, sweat eliminating, weightless capabilities, but rarely take into account the actual garment look.

Furthermore, it may seem that the quality of a number of the goods, is designed to see you through this winter only. As soon as the cold weather reappears, you frequently have to buy a new set of winter attire. This turns out to be a costly and rather frustrating problem. However, unless you would like to freeze, you have few options.

For years, I went through the above cycle, mostly only too glad when the weather heated up, to be able to get rid of the unsightly and unwieldy winter clothes. Until I decided I had had enough. This little annual exercise, was costing me too much, and I definitely did not appear chic in the warm winter woollies. Something needed to change.

This time around, I decided to actually be somewhat more intelligent about this whole episode. I began early enough, to carry out a little fundamental research. To my revelation, I found that there was really a fairly easy answer. Not cheap, but much more cost efficient over time. I found, that there are actually makers, that recognize this problem, and have coped with it in a realistic way. Their answer, create stylish, high quality, tough outfits, that can be kept for a long time.

Obviously, there needed to be a few compromises. You could not match the exact latest fashion look that would be gone tomorrow, but needed to achieve a design that would be elegant and stylish, to be timeless. An added concern, was of course, that only the best grade textile and material could be used, to yield the clothing as sturdy as it needed to be to last for a long time. Furthermore the biggest problem seemed to be to create the actual goods light and efficient enough that they could really be stored without too much difficulty.

Truth be told, there are some suppliers that managed this. One of the best that I found, manages to pull off all of this, without a cost that is completely ridiculous. In reality, if you are able to keep their garments for only two or more seasons, their price becomes inexpensive. The greatest advantage though is the fact that they have superbly smart and modern, enduring styles, that you could sport for a truly long time and at all times appear as if you had just bought them.

There are some great new styles and durable clothes available nowadays.

To find out more, as well as seeing the wide variety of styles available go to Stylish Winter Wear