The Blue Hat

Included in the exhibit on Man Ray and Lee Miller that I saw this weekend was a Vogue cover from March 1927 that Lee posed for. When I was a teen, I bought a poster of this cover and hung it above my bed where it remained throughout high school. I had no idea at the time who the model was; I just knew that I liked her face and the blue and the hat. One day I found an old blue cloche that reminded me of this hat at the local St. Vincent de Paul's. Much to my surprise, I discovered a label sewn inside with my first name (talk about coincidences). Later I would learn about Lee Miller and discover the connection between her and my poster. 

I'm not much of a pack rat. In fact, I'm quite fond of tossing stuff out (moving around a lot will do that to a person). Yet I still have the poster and the hat. The poster is rolled up, stored away in a closet but the blue hat is hanging on my coat rack, a reminder of the woman in blue who I first admired all those years ago.