Hats for happiness

2014 marks the second year of The Little Hat Project, an initiative that seeks to inspire awareness of mental wellbeing through the art of hat-making.

By KIRSTI WEISZ

Waltraud Reiner has been making hats for almost 30 years.

After earning her place in the millinery hall of fame and receiving the “logie” for milliners, she fashioned a small hat for the hatblock-shaped trophy using nothing but a napkin.

Ms Reiner, founder of Torb & Reiner millinery supplies, then transformed this napkin hat into The Little Hat Project, a project that combines her passion for her craft with her concern about mental health in Australia.

"The little hats give the opportunity to express emotions and feelings through materials, colour and texture," she says.

The project encourages people to make little hats with a 150 word story expressing what hat-making means to them, and how it can be used to improve mental wellbeing.

These hats and their stories will be bound together in a book available in December 2014. The hats will be sold in a silent auction over Facebook until Friday, October 10, which is  National Hat Day.

"We have a lot of different people supporting this project which shows me that mental health is a big issue in the community," Ms Reiner says.

The money will go towards Australia Rotary Health,  which funds mental health research. Their aim is to promote awareness and education in the community.

The theme of the project this year is "brainstorm". This can be explored through contemplating the brain and the mind and how they function. Through understanding ourselves and our own brains, Ms Reiner believes we can better understand others.

Anyone drawn to the project is welcome to send in a hat. Most people involved in the project have been touched by mental health concerns on a personal level, or have observed it as a family member or friend. Some participants are able to share their stories through the hat rather than words.

"One side of it is providing the maker an outlet and the other is for the reader to read and get inspired by beautiful textures and stories," she says.

Ms Reiner wants to give people an opportunity to have courage. She encouages others not to be afraid to start the conversation about mental illnesses.

“We are all afraid that people will say ‘Oh my God, she did that’ or ‘she had that’ … therefore we hide and pretend we are more perfect then we are,” she says.

Hats have been sent in from all over Australia and the world, including Spain, France, America and even one from the Duchess of Cambridge's milliner.

For Ms Reiner, hats are metaphors and symbolise the different emotions felt by humans. There is a hat for grief, anger, depression and happiness. The project tries to send a message to people that "we have a choice to take the hat off and put another one on".

"Hats are happiness in my life," she says.