Guide To The Red Hat Society

One day, a woman named Sue Ellen Cooper found a zippy red fedora in a thrift shop, and was so enamored with it she took it home.  Not long after, she came across a poem entitled "Warning" by Jenny Joseph.  The poem is essentially a woman's memo to her family that once she becomes "old," she's going to go about having fun, picking flowers where she shouldn't, pressing alarm bells just to see what happens, and buying pretty shoes but going barefoot if she feels like it.  She also informs them that instead of wearing sober colors, she will wear brilliant purple clothing, and top it all off with a delightful red hat.

Ms. Cooper identified with the woman in the poem so much she decided to frame it and mount the red hat next to it as a sort of tribute.  Soon, she'd mailed "a set" to a friend as a birthday present, and then another.  Soon, it was an "organization" of sorts.

Today, the Red Hat Society meets in major cities across the country.  With a mission to greet life and approach aging with humor and fearless bravado, the Red Hat Society's major rule is that there are to be no rules.  Calling themselves a "dis-organization," Red Hat Society meetings and conventions are intended to be joyful opportunities to sit back, have fun, and tell stories. 

Today, there is a wide variety of Red Hat Society merchandise.  Red Hat Society t-shirts, red gloves, home decorating accents, and, of course, hats, are available.  However, the Red Hat Society does not have licensing permission to reproduce or publish the Jenny Joseph poem itself.  Nonetheless, finding a copy is easy, as it's considered--in the UK at least--to be one of the most popular poems of the 20th century.  There are plenty of editions of "Warning:When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple", many of which feature beautiful and rich illustrations.