White Linen Night, 2007

A few years back the Houston Hat Net and the Dallas Hat Band took a trip down to New Orleans to tour the New Orleans millinery shops and to attend White Linen Night.
White Linen Night occurs the first Saturday night in August, when the New Orleans art galleries all stay open late, with new pieces on display.
Since it is ALWAYS unbearably hot in New Orleans in August, everyone knows that the coolest garments to wear to an event will be made from white linen. And so that was how the event was named; everyone who attends wears their best white linen attire.
It was a popular event to the degree that I'm talking streets that are in gridlock with humans, not cars!
After the hurricane destroyed much of New Orleans many New Orleans customs were adapted to Houston as a means of making our temporary guest feel more at home. Many of the displaced New Orleans residents have permanently moved to Houston, and now call Houston their home.

Two years ago White Linen Night was held in Houston in an area known as simply "The Heights." It is an area of Houston just slightly above sea level, so the name must have seemed fitting when the area was developed at the turn of the last century. Since the Hat Net had attended the New Orleans White Linen Night, it was only fitting we attend the first WLN in Houston.
It was unbelievably hot, and fun. We knew we would make it an annual event!

Last night was the second White Linen Night in The Heights.
We were a very small group this time; Marie, her great granddaughter Zoe, Diane, Bernie and myself.
WLN, however, had gotten much bigger. The celebration had caught on.

Marie

Diane

Bernie

Marie and Zoe. I had taken a picture of Zoe up close earlier, and the picture disappeared! She is a gorgeous young lady, and her Madeline hat was a perfect choice for the evening.

Yeah, I know, WHITE Linen Night, not orange, for heaven's sake. Each year I look for a great little white linen dress, and never yet have I found one I liked. I had just got the cute little cellophane straw topper off of eBay (a steal at $2.99!) so I decided to add one of my grandmother's pins to the bow and just go with a citrus mood instead.
Stand out from the crowd, you know what I mean?

The first store we hit was called "Wear It Again Sam" which was all vintage clothes.

I had no problems finding a store with loads of great little hats! I just looked though, most of them were tiny sized.

I understand why some women get into collecting purses. It doesn't matter what size you are currently wearing, your purse will still fit just fine!

Orange seems to be making an appearance here too...I liked the multicolored clutch purse, what a fun piece!

How many purses did they have?
Lord have mercy, that there's a lot of purses!

I was tempted to get this fun sack purse with plastic beads.

There were tables of jewelry everywhere.

And retro fashion modeling! How adorable, modest, and sensible. Love the curved bangs and earrings!

Bernie had left me inside of "Wear It Again Sam", and caught some of the street modeling. He watched these two girls in other vintage swim wear and snapped a picture. The lady next to him gave him flack for taking a picture....how embarrassing. She didn't realize it was a scheduled fashion show I guess.

The shops in The Heights always have kooky fun stuff like this clock.

The Houston Art Car Association was in attendance as well. They treated us with an impromptu Car Parade later; Sue was merrily rolling around the corner in her Hippo car as we left. My personal favorite was the dragon car with double dragon wings, and a great tail as well.

I did mention the shops all had food, didn't I? This shop had home-made tamales and nachos. The sangria punch was the perfect drink with the mini-Mexican buffet.
Most of the shops had wine or champaigne or punch. I think that is funny, because The Heights is a "dry" location. It is not possible to buy wine or beer, nor may it be served in a restaurant unless you bring your own and they uncork it.
But...on White Linen Night?
Free drinks and drinking on the streets!
Very New Orleans style wouldn't you say?

Six kinds of fudge was offered at Lovejoy's Antiques. The raspberry fudge was awesome!

And we found a great print of bluebonnet meadows in the Hill Country at 30% off!

Not bad for $27, including the frame.

Lovejoy's hands out these old fashion style paddle fans; believe me, I sure used mine to keep cool year around.

I never did get a street scene shot to my liking; the crowds would just press in, and by the time I got my camera up, everyone had pushed on. This was a sample of the white look, though there were plenty of women who "kicked it up a notch" walking along in elegant dresses and high high heels.
Good for them I say.
And here's a card to my podiatrist, keep it up, you'll be needing him soon!

Bonnie Blue was out front of one shop.

She is The Woman who Rocks, that is, paints portraits on rocks and has painted pictures of many famous folks. She came to one of our Hat Net events last year and painted a rock with me on it. Naturally I wanted one of Bernie in his hat...

A lot of the stores were antiques shops and art galleries, but the scooter shop had their wares out as well. I think I want a pink Schwinn bike like this one for Christmas.
I'll be good, Santa, I promise!

Harold's in the Heights is an upscale men's clothing store that now also has women's clothes. They had models modeling in the window. Bernie asked me to strike a pose as well.

The evening was just lovely, very warm but not hot, and the sky which had produced a deluge earlier in the day was now filled with strawberry pink clouds. We had to walk around puddles, and this one served admirably to reflect the beauty above up.

White Linen Night 2007: It rocked our world.

Wish you could have been there too!