Shhh! Clandestine photo shoot in the Little Hill Studio

Recently some friends came up to the studio, and while they waited for me to arrive, they did some dressing up and playing with hats.   Among the images they sent me from this spontaneous photo-shoot is one of my fave hat pictures of all time:

I love the intimacy of this picture, the playfulness and humor and self-affection in her expression.  There is a whole story here - she has been trying on many hats, and each has transformed her, emphasizing different facets of her character & reminding her she is debonair, glamorous, innocent, gamine, worldly, woodsy, funny, sexy, edgy, romantic, hip, old-fashioned, seductive, cute ... intimidating ... funny ...

This is perfectly emblematic of what I love best about making hats, and watching people wear them. 
Hats are the poetry of fashion.  They are transformative, quickly-grasped (or not...), and the art is in the play between function, form and brave aesthetic leaping. 

Fashion is not a shallow pursuit at all (malls and big-box stores be damned.)  Self-adornment is as old as humanity, as fundamental and universal as music and language and tool-making.  It is an aspect of culture where the zeitgeist is very close to the surface, where tribal affiliations, sub-cultural alliances, gender, age and regionality meet the Socio-Economic Macrostructure filtered through the fluid ebb and flow of personal self-expression.  It is where the individual body interacts with the collective unconscious.  It is a language, a communicative repertoire, and dressing communicatively is a generous act that offers something of oneself  to others.

What do you wear when you are feeling extra communicative?  any good mirror pictures?