The thing about the Melbourne Cup is that for women, it's mainly about these three things (in this order):

1. The frocks

2. The hats

3. The champagne

While I accept that naturally, there will be exceptions to this very general rule, it's probably true for most girls, right? At any rate, it's definitely true of the women I know, in and out of the Cosmo office.

But I digress. Frocks are easy to come by, and fairly easy to pick. But hats - hats are tricky. Personally, I LOVE hats, but rarely buy them. I've bought a total of three hats in my life. A beret, when I was seven (it was cream wool, inspired by Madeleine and paid for by a years' worth of pocket money, no doubt), a grey cloche (I still love it to this day, but my OCD-ness dictated that, when I hadn't worn it for a couple of - summer - months, I had to chuck it) and a fedora, which I purchased proudly, and immediately wore, yesterday. That fedora made me feel pretty damn sexy.

In my opinion, hats shouldn't be confined to the races and St Patrick's Day. Mads, our art director, has been known to wear a fedora to work, and she always looks amazing. Caelia, our features director, wears slouchy berets and cute fedoras, and completely pulls it off. And let's not forget about boys - whenever I watch old movies, I lament that men hardly ever wear hats (unless their surname is Madden, that is). Let's get everyone back in hats.

What do you think? Do you guys wear hats as casual wear? I'd love to hear how you summon the courage to pull it off...I always feel like a bit of a fashion wanker when I wear mine!

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