Forget the eyes, hats amplify the soul.

I know, heady words, right?  But seriously, there's something profound about watching people put on hats.  Take our experience last weekend at the Lincoln Center Festival of American Crafts.  We had a blast, got our human-contact tanks filled up, and played dress-ups to our hearts' content.  (Nice work if you can get it:))

But there was more going on than we could quite put our cocktail-ring-flaunting fingers on...  For instance, some people make a bee line for exactly the right hat as soon as they come in.  They reach for it, put it on, and everything goes still; suddenly their personality comes into sharp focus & we know something inexpressible about who they are, and best of all, what they like best about themselves.

 Other people start more shyly.   They tentatively choose something demure and wait patiently for room at the mirrors. Then they quietly work their way through more and more exuberant hats until they finally strut off wearing one of our wildest feathery numbers and looking fabulous...

When the right person puts on the right hat it's alchemy, pure and simple.  The hat is transformed from an inanimate object into an extension/reflection/amplification of something that person values about themselves.

Now, which of these beauties will amplify your soul?