“Look here, I have bought this bonnet. I do not think it is very pretty; but I thought I might as well buy it as not. I shall pull it to pieces as soon as I get home, and see if I can make it up any better.”    Lydia Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

Mrs. Bennet and Her Two Youngest Daughters, Hugh Thomson

Having once again missed the Kentucky Derby,  the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, and the Royal Ascot this year, my husband and I settled on attending Del Mar Racetrack’s opening day. Which meant…I needed a hat, er, a bonnet!

Like Lydia Bennet, I had a not so pretty “bonnet” to reconstruct. And first I needed ideas. Reviewing the offerings on Pinterest, (here’s the page I created) I saw a distinct difference between the styles at Royal Ascot (lots and lots of fascinators and hatinators) and the Kentucky Derby (weighted toward flower bedecked picture hats).

Since neither style looked terribly comfortable, I trekked off to a craft store, “pulled an old bonnet to pieces” and came up with this:

My sister told me it was too Hercule Poirot-ish, too 1920s alpine hiker-ish. Always the critic.

She was right, darn it! I was comfortable, and I didn’t strain my neck or bash anybody with my brim, but I was very unstylish. Picture hats like this one

ruled. My favorite was this yellow one. Here it is, front and back:

And while I might have been out of sync with the fashions, my hat wasn’t quite as, um, distinctive as this little number:

Yes, that is a pony on her head!

Seriously, bonnet-watching was as much fun as the races.  If you don’t believe me, click here to see a slide show of the 70 best. If we decide to go next year, I’ll start stockpiling silk flowers for my own bouquet bonnet!

What’s your favorite of this group? Would you wear any of them?

Images: the author, Wikimedia