Open Mike, here's your hyperlinks:

http://www.freep.com/article/20090122/COL27/901220379?imw=Y

**
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2009/01/inaugural-hat-t.html

-snip-

In that first article whose hyperlink is provided, it's mentioned that the [the hat designer] "Mr. Song Millinery's clientele is 90% African-American, churchgoing women."

The topic of wearing hats to church came up in this Mudcat thread about Black Church Services. In that thread I mentioned that in my experiences in Black churches, the custom was that all females had to cover their heads in church, But that same rule didn't apply for males. Nowadays it appears that most females don't wear hats to the Black churches I attend, though in the spring some women do wear a hat. And I'm aware of a ministers' wives group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that has an annual luncheon and fashion show that focuses on hat wear. The women try to outdo each other in the purchasing and wearing most stylish hat.

Also, in that same Mudcat thread on Black chucrh services, it was interesting to me to note that in the videos of Jamaican church services and in the video of a Black women's church convention in Nova Scotia, Canada, almost all the women wore hats.

I'm sure that come springtime, or even before that, quite a number of those women will be wearing hats with a large in the front like the hat that Aretha Franklin wore to Barack Obama's inauguration.