Costumes And Characters: Mad Hatter

I would have to say that my love of hats really started with being a spy. I don’t know where the connection between spies and fedoras originally came from, but we decided that spies needed to wear fedoras. And that was the first time I remember really starting to wear hats. I started collecting them after that. I have probably five or so fedoras, including one covered in pink sequins. Then my love of fedoras turned into a love for hats of any kind. Pirate hats, top hats, bowler hats, any kind of hat really. And then it began. The Mad Hatter in me started to make an appearance. And so begins the most interesting chapter of all, because who’s more interesting than a Mad Hatter?

I, like most kids, grew up knowing the Disney version of the Mad Hatter. Short, old, rambling, crazy Mad Hatter in the Disney Alice in Wonderland. He wasn’t my favorite character, that’s for sure. But then, when I was about sixteen, I watched a miniseries on Netflix about sort of a modern Alice in Wonderland. The story itself was a bit strange, it was Alice in Wonderland after all, but I was intrigued by their interpretation of the Mad Hatter. He wasn’t mad, not really, just misunderstood, and a little crazy. He was actually quite sweet and ends up falling in love with Alice. At the end he misses her so much that he leaves Wonderland and goes back to her world to be with her. But this Mad Hatter was completely different than any other interpretation I had ever seen before. Such as the Tim Burton version with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter for example. He was a bit too mad for my taste. Little too creepy. But then there was the Mad Hatter in the show Once Upon a Time, he was very much like the miniseries version. And I liked him a lot.

So, October 2012, before I turned seventeen, I bought my first top hat. It was a dark blue, it was from some Halloween store and was cheaply made and didn’t fit quite right, but I loved it. I put a big flower on it and wore it to a party our friends host every year, it was Mad Hatter Day after all! And then I became obsessed. We were going to have a Once Upon a Time Party in November and I was going to be the Mad Hatter. I searched and searched for just the right pieces for my costume. It had to be perfect. I got bouncy hair pieces that I could clip in. I had my hat already but it needed more. I bought some funky ribbon to tie around the middle and the extra hung down the back. Then I had a big scarf around my neck poking out of the most awesome jacket I own. It’s this cool blue green color and has swirls in the pattern. Then I had half finger gloves and knee high socks to match. It was perfect. My own crazy interpretation of the Mad Hatter.

I would go on to dress as the Mad Hatter for Halloween and I would wear my hat for New Years and other random events. Then the Mad Hatter found his way into my writing. I wrote, and am still writing, at least three different poems about the Mad Hatter. Two of them were for writing projects in school. One of them I actually submitted to a writing magazine on campus and it was printed in it. I was asked to read it at a reading for students who had their work in the magazine. I was terrified. I hate speaking in public where all the attention is on me. I’m a writer for a reason. You can read my work without me being present. I’m the girl behind the curtain; I’d rather be the writer hiding behind the page.  But I did it. I got up there and read my poem in front of everyone. I am glad I did it, but don’t know that I will rush to do it again.

I often wonder if I will end up like the Mad Hatter. By myself in a little cottage, alone with my collection of hats. Of course I’m usually thinking of that when I can’t sleep and am left to find company in my own crazy imagination. I get stuck in my head and it leads me to places I don’t necessarily want to go. The madness occasionally seeps out into my day as well. I find myself rambling more than usual or I start laughing for no reason in particular and can’t stop myself.

Turning into the Mad Hatter has had its good parts too though. I don’t care what other people think of me as much as I used to. I don’t care if they think I’m a little crazy because I am, why hide it? And if I hadn’t been obsessed with the Mad Hatter then I wouldn’t have written the poem that gave me the opportunity to share my writing, and that has given me the confidence to start sharing it with the world. If I didn’t have a little bit of Mad Hatter in me I probably wouldn’t have this blog right now. I would still be too afraid to share what I write. And of course the Mad Hatter has inspired my now quite large hat collection. I now have at least 25 hats in all sorts of styles. The Mad Hatter, like every other character, is very much still in me somewhere. And sometimes, usually late at night, the Mad Hatter in me will make an appearance...

 

 

Tomorrow is Halloween! Come back tomorrow to see how all of these characters tie into the character I currently consider myself.