I asked my friend LRY to help me get some hats in Australia before she came to the U.S. She gave me one as a present. The hats are identical, except for the color, and they're from one of my favorite Australian hat manufacturers, Barmah. I have yet to get a hat from Akubra, as Akubra hats are rather expensive. What you see are Squashy Suede hats, in mocca and chocolate colors. I have two other hats from Barmah, both from the canvas line. The Squash Suede hats are rather inexpensive, I think -- they're only US$40-something. Now I need an occasion to put one of them on, instead of the canvas hat.
American men really should start wearing something other than the baseball cap (and the fedora). Now Aussie and cowboy hats probably do not match the modern Western suit, but that's all the more reason to get rid of the modern Western suit. Who's with me?
LRY told me that there is a public service campaign in Australia, warning people about overexposure to the sun and skin cancer. (See, for example, the website for the Cancer Council South Australia and SunSmart Victoria.) Australians are encouraged to put on more clothes and cover up, and to use skinscreen and umbrellas even. Here in the United States, you generally see only Asians using an umbrella on a sunny day, though I believe I saw an African-American woman do it once. Never a Caucasian. Has the fine parasol industry been brought back to life in Australia? If one is going to make use of an umbrella on a sunny day, why not have a fashionable one?
(Pink Frosting Store sells some.)
We really need something similar in the United States to raise awareness about skin cancer. (And it doesn't have to be a Federal program, if the states would wisen up and get their act together.) White Americans are used to the tan as a sign of beauty. (Or at least a sign of leisure.) Why is this so? Is the lack of pigmentation really that bad? Conan O'Brien makes fun of his paleness all of the time. The absence of color in the skin can be a sign of ill health, but I don't think normally pale people are unattractive.
It's funny, women don't want wrinkles because they think it is unattractive (at the very least it can be a sign of age), but do they do all they can to avoid them? Americans can be so preoccupied with beauty and short-term results, without looking at the consequences of their beauty practices. How about preserving their beauty (and health) in the long run? With respect to tanning (or overexposure to the sun) and skin health, you can't have your cake and eat it too.
Even Southern women seem to have forgotten this truth. I don't remember seeing any women wearing hats in Virginia, Kentucky, or Tennessee. (Maybe they put on sunscreen instead. I doubt it.) While I was at Opry Mills in Nashville, there were a lot of fit mothers, which surprised me since I had read that obesity is growing the fastest in the South. But they weren't covering up. (And the women there had the same fashion taste as American women everywhere else.) Now, perhaps the incidence of skin cancer in the United States will not be as high as that of Australia because of the relative locations of each, but wouldn't it be better to be safe than sorry?
A woman who protects her skin from sun damage and pre-mature aging has at least fashion sense, if not a different sense, i.e. common sense. If we cannot appeal to women's concern for health, then let us appeal to their desire for beauty and its maintenance. Generally, men are drawn to a youthful appearance, if not the reality, and women know this. (Though men may not notice the freckles as much as the wrinkles.) 30-something y.o. women with wrinkles and freckles on their body, those spots that do not go away, and some skin discoloration, look much older than they are. So why not act to keep the youthfulness and vibrancy of one's skin as long as possible?
The sun-beaten, weathered skin look is only attractive on cowboys. Or captains in the Royal Navy?
(source)
Or just brawny men who work outdoors in general...
I note too that East Asian women are no longer trying to preserve their light skin, especially with celebrities who have too much time on their hands and spend their free time on the same sort of outdoor activities that Westerners first popularized. Can Asians avoid getting freckles? I think so... but they just don't seem to care these days.
On Tuesday evening, when I was driving to Barnes and Noble at Stevens Creek and San Tomas, I passed by a store (which replaced... what was there before? a liquor store? or an auto parts store), Australian Products Co. In their front window large umbrellas were displayed for sale.
Parasols:
Check out Pamela's Parasols, Lace Parasols, and Ladies Victorian Parasols.
Hi-tech parasols at Deveta.
Parasols
Austen Regency Accessories
Jane Austen Regency Gifts and Books
Costume Classroom: 19th Century Parasols
Sun Protection Clothing
Sun Protection Clothing Shop for the family
C Wear
Solartex Sun Gear
Coolibar
Radicoolaustralia
Equator Sun
Sun Emproium
Related Links:
Skin & Cancer Foundation Australia
Indiana Jones does have a nice fedora, but it has a wider brim than most fedoras, doesn't it?
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