My favorite Tilley Hat:
Tilley hats are legend in the travel world. Their style, durability, and lifetime guarantee have earned them a level of devotion worthy of nerd-dom. Avid travelers look upon their Tilley hat as a life-long friend and travel companion. There is even a world-wide brotherhood of Tilley hat enthusiasts no less passionate than Douglas Adams fans.
Tilley wearers recognize one another by the distinctions of their Tilley hats. See a traveler in a Tilley? Catch their eye, touch the brim of yours, and give a knowing nod. Sometimes that’s all there is to the interaction. Other times, Tilley hat travelers strike up conversations, buy one another drinks, and forge lasting friendships. It all starts from their shared enthusiasm for the Tilley Hat.
I’ll let you read the Tilley story for yourself HERE if you are interested. Alex Tilley has a lot of reasons why the hats he designs are perfect for travelers. What I want to write about today is a particular Tilley hat that is ideal for traveling writers, the TH9.
I first met this hat in Tilley’s flagship Toronto store. I knew it was the hat for me, the hat that would make me a Tilley-geek.
It has a moderate brim which is important since many bookish types, like me, tend not to get much sun. Protecting our pale library complexions is a delicate matter. In the rain, we also need to keep drops from falling on our glasses obscuring our vision. The TH9 passed the rain test with a flawless performance. My Tilley shed the drops keeping my head, and more importantly my glasses, dry during a half-mile walk in moderate rain.
The virtues of the hat go beyond the environmental advantages. That brim is wide enough to help you avoid eye contact at the internet café when you don’t want to be interrupted but narrow enough that you can peek out from under it to people watch with impunity. I would love this hat even if I never went anywhere farther than the library and the café.
Travel, however, adds a new dimension to the demands I place on a hat. The TH9 is one of Tilley’s Hemp hats. While the hemp fabric is very strong and durable, it has a linen-like look which gives it a certain sophistication compared to some of the “bush hat” styles. While tastes and travel needs vary, I need a hat that is appropriate on business trips as well as explorations. The TH9 even lets me accessorize. It comes with a hemp pouch containing two contrasting hat bands to freshen up the look. (That pouch, by the way, is also the perfect size to keep a small notepad and can be threaded on a belt or even on the hatband.) Like all Tilley hats, it is crushable, packable, and virtually indestructible. Just wet it down, stretch it out, and it dries as pretty and crisp as the day you bought it.
The TH9 has the signature Tilley secret pocket in the crown of the hat. That pocket is lined with a thin flotation device which helps keep contents of the pocket (and your head) dry in the rain while reducing the chance of loss if it falls in a lake. While many travelers use the pocket for tickets, cash, or an ID, my first thought was a notepad! No writer wants to be caught with an idea and nothing to write it down on! Wearing the Tilley TH9 and keeping a notebook in the pocket guarantees that a wander-writer will always be prepared wherever and whenever inspiration strikes. And a pen? Well, remember those loops you can thread different hatbands through? They are also the perfect place to secure your favorite pen. (You can click here to read about the pen I carry in my Tilley hat.)
Read ~ Write ~ Wander
~Angie