A swirling, glorious garden atop my head, this hat is the kind of topper that steals the shows, in the best kind of way and I adore having a few hats with such sublime magnetism in my wardrobe. This particular beauty came by way of a stellar online seller who specializes specifically in vintage hats: Blue Rose Vintage.
As I mentioned in Saturday's post, the splendidly nice folks at Blue Rose Vintage contacted me earlier in the summer and asked if I'd be interested selecting one of these vintage chapeaus to feature on my blog. I was touched and thrilled that they were interested in working together, and couldn't say yes quickly enough. I selected the topper that I did because I'm still trying to actively up the amount of green in my wardrobe, but there were many other contenders in the running for my selection as well.
It's scarcely a secret that I love and frequently wear vintage hats (a topic that I really delved into when interviewed by Kathleen Lisson from That's a Pretty Hat last year about my passion for collecting and wearing hats). They've appeared numerous times in my vintage outfit posts here, and are a favourite component of many of the looks I've put together in posts such as those in the Vintage Fashionista Friday series.
A hat is both a work of art and a catalyst for emotion and individuality. It can be sweet and simple, wildly bold, quirky, reserved, sophisticated, playful, enigmatic, daring, enchanting, cute, dramatic, or just about anything else one can possibly imagine, depending on its design, how its styled in the scope of an ensemble, and the person sporting it in the first place.
Sometimes when I post photos of myself wearing a hat, or discuss the topic of hats here on my blog, I receive comments in which people say that they like/love hats, but are wary of trying to wear one themselves. I get that, believe me I do.
In today's day and age, hats are not the fashion mainstay and integral element of an outfit that they had historically been for hundreds of years. A lot of people who were born from 1960 onward, and especially those born in the 80s or even more recently, may have had little (if any) experience wearing a fashionable hat before and it can be intimidating to picture yourself walking down the street in a beautiful hat when no one else around you in wearing one these days.
I believe firmly in wearing what you love however, no matter if others are doing it to or not, and highly encourage anyone with an interest in hats to try one out. It doesn't have to overly fanciful by any means. Pick a classic vintage hat style, such a beret, fedora, tilt or platter hat, in a neutral hue and wear it with one of your absolute favourite outfits, that you already feel confident in. This way you'll be more inclined to not feel as self-conscious while bopping around town, your workplace, school, wherever you may find yourself in your lovely topper.
Chances are, the more you wear hats, the more you will come to adore and feel comfortable wearing them. Believe me when I say that vintage hats are like potato chips, it's exceedingly hard to stop at just one!
Many of us in the vintage world already know this point well however, and find our shelves, walls, and closets teaming with a bevy of old school chapeaus, which we gleefully don at every turn.
This is the camp I'd place myself squarely into, and as such I truly loved getting opportunity to select a hat from Blue Rose Vintage, an online boutique shop that began life offering all kinds of vintage fashion offerings two years ago, but quickly developed into a specialized seller of quite simply, and wonderfully, nothing but fabulous vintage hats (like the examples, all from Blue Rose Vintage, peppered throughout this post).
Their offerings span a wide range of decades (think 1900s - 1970s), depending on the current listings, are reasonably priced in today's market, expertly curated and photographed, and are made up of an inventory that's updated on a daily basis all year round, meaning you could potentially find a new vintage treasure for yourself every time you visited Blue Rose's elegantly lovely website.
Today I'm delighted to be teaming up with Blue Rose Vintage to bring one lucky reader the chance to win any hat they'd like from this awesome vintage hat seller's inventory.
Please note that that the winner will select the hat they want to receive once the contest has wrapped up and the winning name has been drawn, simply because of the revolving nature of Blue Rose's offerings.
How to enter
You may enter however many of the following ways you would like, with one entry per method, up to a maximum of nine different entries in total.
1. Post about this giveaway on your own blog, including a link back to this Chronically Vintage post and Blue Rose Vintage's website. Leave a comment here letting me know all about your lovely post.
2. Comment here telling me one or more of the reasons why you love vintage hats.
3. Like Blue Rose Vintage on Facebook.
4. Post about this giveaway on Facebook, including a link back to your post in the comments here.
5. Pin any of Blue Rose Vintage's offerings to any Pinterest board you'd like, including a link back to the pin in the comments here.
6. Follow Blue Rose Vintage on Tumblr.
7. Follow Blue Rose Vintage on Twitter.
8. Tweet about giveaway on Twitter, mentioning @BluRoseVintage and in your message. Post a comment here with a link back to your tweet.
9. Subscribe to Blue Rose Vintage's Quarterly Newsletter (signup is located at the bottom of their homepage).
Please make sure to leave a separate comment specifying each of the ways in which you entered this giveaway, so as to increase your odds of winning.
This contest is open between today (August 28, 2013) and Friday September 6, 2013, with the winner being drawn using a random number generator the following day and announced in a blog post here shortly thereafter. It is open to winners worldwide.
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A vintage hat is truly is a special element of one's outfit, whether you wear yesteryear styles or are more of a modern style maven, and it's wonderful that we have specialized online boutiques like Blue Rose Vintage available to us 24/7 to shop for classic, beautiful vintage hats (especially if, like me, you happen to live somewhere with exceedingly few vintage shops in your area).
I know that I'm going to treasure my green 1940s floral hat for many years to come and hope that the lucky winner will adore the hat they select every bit as much.
Thank you very much to Blue Rose Vintage for this marvelous giveaway, and to all those who enter for the chance to win any hat they'd like from Blue Rose's gorgeous selection of vintage toppers. Best of luck to everyone!
