Sunday, May 06, 2001
Derby fans shameless about hats
By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Chapeaus, fedoras, caps with flaps, wide-brimmed wonders and, of course, there were the derbies for the day of all days in horse racing.
For many, the running of the 127th Kentucky Derby took second place to making a statement of style.
Bright, bold pinks, oranges and blues bobbed on Millionaire's Row. And adding feathers, flowers and tulle made for plenty of individuality.
Nancie Richardson started her hunt for the perfect hat in December. It is the sixth trip the Chicago native has made to the race.
“I have to outdo myself each year I come,” she said.
She bought three hats, but an orange and brown hat with feathers won out.
“Derby is hats,” she said. “You have to make a statement. I'm not coming to the Derby in a dollar hat.”
And so how much did this fabulous accessory from Marshall Fields cost?
“If my husband actually knew how much I spent, he'd cut up my credit cards,” she said.
With each hat there was also a story.
Melissa Brownson of Louisville bought her hat at an estate sale about 10 years ago, she said.
“I've never had a chance to wear it,” she said.
The woman whose estate she purchased it from was wealthy and took a lot of cruises, so Ms. Brownson imagines her on a lawn chair sipping a cool drink while wearing the pink raffia stuck through the top of the straw hat.
Others made hat-making a project.
“It was a team-building exercise,” joked Trish Crawford, who came with a group from Kingston, Ontario.
Her friend Blanche Axton, a native Louisvillian who now lives in Toronto, said she was going for a Kentucky theme: cardinals, horses and roses. She was prepared, but her creation wasn't pricey.
“It was $40 between buying a glue gun, the flowers, the plastic horses and the hat itself,” she said.
Others weren't so concerned about price or preparedness. They wanted to have the most outlandish, outrageous look.
And some, like Tod Wise of Minong, Wis., stuck with tradition. He and a friend put cardboard boxes over their heads and stuck flowers through the top.
Five years ago it rained at the Derby and Mr. Wise put a box over his head and poked holes in it so he could read the program.
“It sort of blossomed like this hat did,” he said, pointing to the bouquet. “It's the special water that makes the flowers look so good. You make a Bloody Mary and then put in one other ingredient.
“But that's secret. I can't tell you.”
Tim Brauch might have won the prize for being the most resourceful. It was his first time at the Run for the Roses. But flowers weren't his thing. He went with hollowed-out fruit.
“We brought the watermelon with us and after we finished eating it we didn't know what to do with it, so I placed it over a plastic hat,” the Newport native said.
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