Miniature millineryI’m wearing a hat of sorts today, and you see more be-hatted types on the streets this chilly winter. Once they were a daily necessity, but now it seems the races and weddings are their turf.  The most glamorous international outing for hats is Ascot which took place last week and The Guardian’s Charlie Brooker gave headgear a right royal drubbing:

Every year it’s the same thing: a 200-year-old countess you’ve never heard of, who closely resembles a Cruella De Vil mannequin assembled entirely from heavily wrinkled scrotal tissue that’s been soaked in tea for the past eight decades … balancing the millinery equivalent of Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum on her head …

If you know your Homburg from your fascinator (or want to), check out our books about hats and millinery.