Welcome to Hat week!

Hat week is an initiative of Waltraud Reiner, milliner and teacher.
The idea behind Hat Week is to give man, woman and child a reason to wear hats without feeling out of place, looked at or embarrassed for wearing a funky hat. Throughout the years of Waltraud's professional life she has often heard the same old story: ’’I love hats and I wish I could wear them but they don’t suit. Nobody wears hats these days and I would feel embarrassed wearing one on my own."

So Hat Week was born. Apart from having a good time and ‘dressing up’ for 1 week in the year, there is a deeper thought behind Hat Week...

We all change 'Hats' numerous times in our daily lives and we keep many things 'under our Hats'. Depression is one of them; almost everyone identifies with depression at some point in their life.

Waltraud's vision and intention is to raise awareness of this generally and through Hat Week events. She has created the Blue Hat Project for this purpose and specifically to raise funds for beyondblue - the national depression initiative. Therefore some of the net proceeds from hats sold during Hat Week will be donated to beyondblue.

There are many ways in which you can help and encourage others to help this excellent concept. Restaurants and cafes could put on lunches or cocktail evenings featuring hats and make a donation. Individuals can organise hat related events such as screenings like My Fair Lady with a gold coin entrance donation. Find out more about what you can do to help this cause.

‘’A Hat is not just a hat, a hat is the expression of a women’s soul’’
- Lilly Dache, New York in the 1930's.

So stay tuned with your hat at hand for Hat Week 2005.