Girls puzzlingly aspire to be cat-walk models, surely the most brain-dead, tedious employment imaginable, yet inexplicably the most famous are accorded celebrity status.
Given all of that, it will surprise readers to learn that I'm an avid women's fashion follower, enjoying critiquing designers' efforts shown in our weekend press and fashion supplements, and gazing in frock shop windows.
The reasons are my admiration of good design, plus love of colour, particularly with artwork. I confess this interest is only about a decade old and qualify it by saying it doesn't extend to buying fashion magazines.
Hitherto I scoffed at fashion obsessives, indeed one of my daughters borrowed a room in my offices in the late 1990s and with Lorraine Downes (now Crowe), jointly wrote a book on New Zealand fashion.
I teased them at the time for pursuing an unworthy objective.
One of the most unheralded post-war years' change is the advent of excellent design. We take it for granted as it's everywhere, such as sleek modern cars, interior decor, book covers and much more, but this wasn't always so, other than with grand buildings. Nowadays building grandeur is confined to great height.
In a different column I lauded Auckland designer Adrienne Winkelmann who produces world-class creations of truly superb elegance, in glaring contrast to many of her rivals' attention-seeking silliness, at least as with some shown in newspapers. She dropped me a note of thanks and enclosed her latest catalogue, now deservedly residing in my library's art books section.
I mention all of this for one reason, representing fantastic news for our women and girls. Hats are back. Last month I spent two weeks in Germany. Every town and city's shops included numerous milliners and even town square markets contained hat vendors.
Furthermore, it's spreading everywhere, indeed discussing this in a restaurant the waitress intervened and said it was now occurring here.
My office's five female staff have confirmed this and are receiving my unsolicited hat advice, as they do with their frocks. Still, at least I'm interested. The males in the office wouldn't notice if they wore suits of armour.
For example, my petite Cambodian secretary has bought her first hat and copped a bollocking as it's wide-brimmed, thus more suitable to a taller woman. It's caps for you, of which there's such a splendid variety, or possibly a fedora, I've insisted. I should charge them heaps for this wisdom.
The reason I'm delighted about the hat-wearing comeback is that I've never seen a female, whether 2 or 92, who doesn't look great in a hat. But it has to be the right one, depending on one's age, shape, height and outfit. For example, German milliners are big on cloches, which I don't much like, offering a huge range of colours and styles with different accessories.
But these work best with slim younger women, unlike say berets or caps which can be worn at any age, while no woman ever lived whose appearance isn't enhanced by a panama hat or fedora in the right colour.
Actually, the same goes for men, and again, particularly dashing panamas.
The last Wellington milliner's shop closed about a decade back. Hopefully they will soon re-emerge and never again vanish.
Why do I care? Well one advantage of city living is the spirit-lifting pleasure of pretty girls everywhere, and indeed, smartly dressed older women. This alone justifies the influx of Asian migrants whose girls have hugely raised the beauty bar.
So why do women look great in hats?
First and foremost men are drawn to a woman's face and the right hat accentuates and enhances even the plainest girl's visage. So let's hope that henceforth, frock designers show off their designs accompanied with an enhancing hat. I hate to use such expressions but ... they're now "in".
