Hat's off to her

Step into Bettie Clark’s Odessa home, and it would be easy to believe one is in a Victorian museum. A flapper hat here, tea hat there, Victorian dress over there.
   In fact, she has an estimated collection of around 170 hats in addition to other forms of vintage clothing from the early 1900s. For Clark, wearing the clothes is a way of life that led her to start a local group called the “I Love Hats” club several years ago. The free club meets in a revolving array of local restaurants where they just dress up and enjoy each other’s company.
   Pointing to a cluster of 50 or so hats filling her living room, Clark said she has worn nearly all of them since she wears hats on a daily basis, but particularly wears them with vintage dresses when at church, hearkening back to a time when women wouldn’t even leave the house without gloves and a hat.
   “I don’t wear them to get attention, but to worship the Lord. It’s a good thing there’s another lady who wears hats there a lot also,” Clark said.
   Whenever she wears the hats in public, people pay compliments to her and the club. However, she said many of the comments come from the men.
   “They say they can remember when their grandmother wore a hat like I had or never left the house without one and gloves, even to go to the grocery store,” Clark said.
   It’s almost a mission to do something good with her collection. She said she likes to give a smile to both the wearer of a hat and the bystanders watching. In addition to the club meetings, she sometimes puts on shows at retirement centers. She said just wearing the hats can make people feel better.
   “One lady had been sad for two years after her husband died, but I invited her to lunch with the hats, and she said it was the best medicine she ever had,” Clark said.
   Club member Patt Blaskey has owned the Paddi Katz vintage clothing store for 22 years. She said it amazes her how many people like vintage clothing like the gloves and hats prevalent in her shop. As a hat club member, she has seen the group grow since the beginning. For her, the appeal is the elegance of the style.
   “They have some beautiful clothing and designs. The ladies were so elegant. I tell all my customers about the club,” Blaskey said.
   She said since the club started, it’s becoming popular for ladies to dress up and go to houses for tea parties. Her hat sales have really taken off since that became a trend, and she said many younger people come into the store.
   “A lot of the college girls like the vintage. The saying is true that if you keep something long enough, it will come back around in popularity,” Blaskey said.
   Clark has gathered her hats from numerous sources, but they’ve come mainly from antique stores. Friends and family donated some, while she bought one for just $2 from Catholic Charities.
   She said it is hard to pick a favorite hat from the large collection. Her oldest flapper hat (1920s soft hat without a wide brim, the style of most of Clark’s hats) sits in the White-Pool House with a glass walking cane and another hat with antique pearls hanging down.
   “That one’s truly one of a kind,” Clark said.
   Another of her favorite hats is a beehive style, named because loops on the hat make it look like a beehive with baby’s breath surrounding the loops. One hat is a pink one with hand-sewn petals encircling the hat.
   She said one of the most unique hats is a pale orange one with a feather on top.
   “This is so hard to find. They just don’t exist,” Clark said.
   Perhaps one of the most eye-catching hats is a tea hat with a long black piece of cloth streaming down the back. She said it’s a kind of hat made for women to wear to the Kentucky Derby and is what was worn to teas in the early 20th century. It’s also an example of a hat that she can wear many different ways.
   “I ignore the tag. I like wearing it any which way because each direction has a different look. I think the black piece is supposed to go in the back also, but I like to wear part of it at the side,” she said.
   It’s that spirit that seems to fill her life in other ways. Clark married after meeting her husband in church — if fact they ended up married on just the third date.
   She has hopes to go to Kentucky herself.
   “I will have to go to the Derby someday and wear my hats,” Clark said.

HAT CLUB
   >> Bettie Clark owns around 170 vintage hats and started an ‘I Love Hats’ club, in which members dress up in vintage clothing. For information, call Clark at 557-3172.