Bridport Hats
The idea came about after I had photographed the two Bridport Hat Festivals. I then looked at my archive of Bridport photographs and found that hats had made all sorts of appearances from the carnival to the Remembrance Day parade. More than enough, in fact, to fill a book. My intention has been to produce a light-hearted yet affectionate publication to celebrate the colourful nature of Bridport's hat wearers.
As a child, growing up in London in the 1950s, I seem to remember that everyone wore hats.
My mother would invariably be behatted with exotic, feathered creations on shopping trips to the West End and my father would not have dreamt of leaving for the City without his bowler. I myself was obliged to wear a cap with its indecipherable monogram to school every morning.
My dad, who knew about these things, used to decree “Lock’s for hard hats, Herbert Johnson for soft.” My grandmother had been a milliner in the Thirties (‘Hats by Suzy’) and I used to dress up in my grandfather’s Lincoln Bennett top hat.
In the sixties, under the influence of John Lennon, I had bought what was referred to as a ‘student’s cap’ (from Herbert Johnson, naturally) but as an art student in the early 1970s, I wore nothing on my head but long hair. However, my oldest friend, the same age as me, used to go to work at the discount house wearing a splendid silk hat and tails.
As a photographer I have always been nostalgic for those black and white days when everyone looked so well dressed, when the High Street was full of individual emporia and everyone wore hats. Of course change happens the world over. I mean, when was the last time you saw a Frenchman wearing a beret?
Foreword by Roger Snook
Paperback 90pps Price £17.95
88 colour images
ISBN 978-0-9560090-4-3
Publication date: November 2011
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