'Red Hat' women say fun, fashion have no age limit

By THERESA HOGUE

Gazette-Times reporter

The dining room at the Hilton Garden Inn resembled a bobbing landscape of bright colors Friday afternoon, as the capacity assembly of Red Hat Society chapter members - each wearing a bold red hat and purple and red outfit - participated en masse in a Mother's Day tea celebration.

The Corvallis Red Hot Red Hats hosted the event, but groups came from Salem, Eugene, Portland and even Tillamook for a full tea. The menu included finger sandwiches, quiches, fresh fruit - and as much glitz, glamour and bling as each woman could manage to fit on her person.

The Red Hat Society is an international organization started 10 years ago by a group of women inspired by the poem "When I'm an Old Woman," by Jenny Joseph, and was originally meant as a way for women age 50 and older to get together, dress up and enjoy an old-fashioned tea party. One of the most-quoted lines from the poem, "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me … ," is meant to convey the sense of fun and irreverence and always-youthful confidence - exemplified by wearing an ornate red hat, often adorned with purple.

Red Hat has since become a major industry brand. Red Hat accessories, brooches and clothing now are sold online. An offshoot of the group, the Pink Hat Society, is for women younger than 50. Upon reaching their 50th birthday, Pink Hat members participate in a "red-uation" ceremony into their local Red Hat chapter.

"We do some silly stuff" during the ceremony, giggled Sharron de Montigny, the "queen" of the Corvallis Red Hot Red Hats. The queen is the founding member of a chapter and - if she wishes - can rule indefinitely (unless she's deposed). In the past seven years since the Corvallis chapter's creation, no one else has volunteered to reign.

At one end of de Montigny's table sat Barbara Breaux, a New Orleans native who had to leave her hometown three years ago because of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Breaux's hat was a jumble of roses.

"I made mine a New Orleans Mardi Gras hat," she said, with a note of pride.

Breaux joined the Red Hot Red Hats after a friend wore her red hat to a church service. She was intrigued with the hat - and what it represented - and she now loves having tea along with the dozens of other women in the group.

Betty Smith was dubbed "one of the gussiest" by de Montigny for her penchant for extremely fancy attire. Getting gussied up is one of her favorite things, Smith admitted, and while she was attired head-to-toe in purple and red Friday, she kept bemoaning the fact that she "wasn't very dressed up" compared with some women who were literally dripping in costume jewelry.

"It makes us feel like little kids playing dress-up," Smith said. At one time, she owned 40 red hats, most of which she decorated herself, but she has since sold many of them, and now owns around 20, including one purple hat.

"I've cut down to about 10," de Montigny said.

Smith has been a member of the Red Hot Red Hats for four years, and she thoroughly enjoys the chance to participate in twice-monthly teas and to travel to new tea locations around the Valley. Sometimes the husbands even join in, she said.

"They wear purple shirts."

Although the Red Hot Red Hats have 64 members, only about 20 usually show up to each tea meeting. De Montigny is determined to leave membership to the chapter open, no matter how many women join.

To join the Corvallis Red Hot Red Hats or learn more about the Red Hat Society, contact de Montigny at 753-1502 or see www.teatimeadventures.com.