Everywhere I go I try to catch people wearing hats, buying hats, trying on hats.
The hat departments here are well looked after and no one manhandles hats as we seam to do in Australia. There are signs about how to pick hats up and people are very respectful.
As long hats have ribbons and bows here and a bit of lace they have more chance of being bought. There are a lot of paper braid hats around and some from Italy made from laichow. The prices vary from about $45 - $ 550 for the Italian once.
I saw hats today for over $1200.