HAT DOCUMENTARY - HATS OFF - OPENS IN THEATERS

At 93, Mimi Weddell, still goes to the gym

It took Jyll Johnstone ten years to make “Hats Off,” a documentary tribute to a 93-year-old hat lover and actress named Mimi Weddell. And the reviews are pretty good. And so are her hats, I hear.

According to the New York Times, “Hats are central to Mimi Weddell’s story. She estimates she has about 150 in the apartment. Some perch on chairs, free as parrots; others are constrained in boxes. They are part of the style that made her one of New York magazine’s 50 most beautiful New Yorkers three years ago and brought in the Vuitton ad and the bit parts in films.”

How do you like that? Hats make the woman, sometimes. “I’d sell myself for a hat,” she says.

What is it she so loves about hats?

“Hats give you a frame,” Ms. Weddell says. “However dreary you feel, if you put on a hat, by golly, you’ve changed everything. I keep telling my daughter, my granddaughter, everybody, ‘If you don’t wear a hat, you’re missing it.’ ”

Weddell is so proud of her hats that she loves to show them to visitors. She has a Lily Daché from the ’30s an old Adolpho of brown and white feathers and a wide-brimmed black tulle hat over wire mesh a la Dior. “In the bedroom, still in its shopping bag, is a floppy white hat from Chanel. The price tag: $495.”

Ms. Weddell lives in an Upper East Side co-op she bought decades ago for a pittance. Widowed at 65, she had unpaid bills to pay so she started a career in acting and modeling.

The reviews have been favorable: “You’ve seen Mimi as upper crusty ladies in Louis Vuiton ads, in TV sitcoms and horror flicks. In addition to whatever else the role requires, Mimi brings an air of elegance to her work. And she usually wears one of her hats - she has an extraordinary collection of them -to convince casting directors she’s the right gal for the part. Mimi tap dances, does somersaults, totes props almost her equal in weight. She's indefatigable and undefeatable. She will inspire and enchant you.”

The film is produced by Ms. Johnstone and Michael Arlen Davis and was released by Canobie Films and Abramorama.

Weddell’s motto is "Rise Above It.” She that saying posted all over her apartment as a constant reminder to focus forward. That’s pretty cool, I think.