Color Is Hard: My New Favorite Hat

One benefit to visiting Filene's Basement more than once a week is that their good hats tend to turn over within about 48 hours.  Don't blink, or you'll miss it.  (The more outlandish hats, on the other hand, never get bought.)  I picked up this gentlehat for $16 in my size, which is very rare given that I wear an L/XL and most hats that the Farragut North Filene's sees are sized M/L or S/M. 

It's a very fine houndstooth pattern that only reveals itself up close.  The crosshatching you see is actually black and brown thread woven over a sort of cream-colored background with that burnt-umber stripe smattered throughout.  It just so happened that the suit I was wearing that day was brown with overlapping pinstripes colored white and rust with a hint of black thread:

Matchy-matchy hats look odd because the fabric will never be exactly the same texture or color as what you're wearing, but this hat contains the same colors as the suit without having them in the same proportion or arrangement.  They just "go" together.