silk plush · 60 · winter · worn 1889
black silk plush over a hatter's block, polished to the shine of still
water. the kind of hat that arrives with a coachman and leaves at the
foot of a steep staircase.
the small dent at the rear of the crown is from a velvet glove. it was
placed there each evening at the same coat-stand in the same
vestibule, by a hand that never
hurried.
winter, opera, the long candlelit suppers afterward. it has not been worn since one specific January, but its grain still remembers the tongs.
field-note: a faint white powder along the inner band. theatre dust, not snow.
homburg · chimney sweep · fedora · winter fur · candle