The Mad Hatter!

All things British…weather included! Packing for London, I had no idea what to expect, it is March after all… But March in London tends to be just as bipolar as March in Bucharest, it would appear. Of course, after spending a year in London, I already knew that. After about a week of intense thinking at what I should pack (I did need something trendy and fun as I was planning on doing a few fashion posts over there), an hour before I actually started packing, it hit me: A HAT!! I mean, no, I don’t usually, if ever until now, wear a hat, but hey, a hat is British, right? To prove a point, I’ve actually had (H&M) the hat you can spot in the pics for two years now and it still had the tags on on Thursday when I started packing. That alone should be an indicator of how often I venture into the hat-world, but for some reason, I thought it was time to wear it and London seemed the right place. Seemed…

As you can see, it is an oxblood felt hat, so it’s totally appropriate for the London weather. Starting from the hat, I packed almost everything I had that matched the oxblood colour theme and was clean (lingerie included-I like to match everything). Since I had only come to the oxblood theme a few hours before departing, I only had a few things clean as oxblood is one of my fave colours for autumn/winter and I tend to wear it a lot.

I had to improvise since my favorite oxblood items were unavailable, and I think that this colour works nicely with navy blue, black and red, which in my opinion, are all British looking colours.

I wore this outfit on the second day in London, because when we got there, on Friday, it was hot and sunny and a felt hat just didn’t seem appropriate. Worry not, as London weather came to its senses on Saturday- drizzle, cold, windy and all the nice things British weather has to offer. So, on that morning, I decided I was finally going to wear my hat for the first time and for an entire day (when we’re on vacation, we leave our room in the morning and come back at night). Little did I know what wearing a hat implied…on a windy day! Basically what happened was that in the first few minutes I got out of the hotel I decided that:

1. My head does not have the appropriate shape to wear a hat- I have no idea how those cool girls that always wear hats do that without actually losing their hat and without bumping into things (I had tunnel vision)
2. It was windy! I really need some tips! Does wearing a hat on a windy day implies using sticky tape to prevent the loss of the hat?

That being said, I tried wearing my hat casually and relaxed for the photos, non-casually when it was raining (one hand on top of my head) and not at all all the other times. Basically, I’d say that I spent most of my Saturday carrying it in my hand.

Overall, I’d say that wearing a hat is, like all the other cool things, a complicated matter. D kept making fun of me, telling me that being fashionable requires sacrifice, and in retrospect, I think he was right. I definitely looked like a mad person between shots, hence today’s post name.

Getting back to the fashion part of this post, I’ve paired the now infamous hat with oxfords (because…London) that have a little oxblood detail on them. These shoes are incredibly comfortable and I got them from Bagatt, for next to nothing, last autumn. I have no idea where I got the navy dress from as I’ve had it for three or four years and I think it goes nicely with my latest FURLA addition (travel exclusive from British Airways-I got it on my way to London). Because we had autumnish weather that day, my Burberry scarf, a black leather jacket and an oxblood cardigan kept me warm, alongside my black Calvin Klein tights. I always feel comfortable wearing a dress and I love the feeling of wearing a dress and a leather jacket, and right now, looking at the pics D took of me, I’m starting to like the whole hat idea (maybe I’ll do that more often if someone decides to tell me the secret of actually keeping it on my head).

Overall, the day I first wore a hat was interesting. I am not going to emphasise on London in this post as there will be a full post on that later this week. Well, this concludes my hat experience and the first of a few posts to come on London (the city closest to my heart).

L.