Society members are women age 50 and older who bond together to meet middle age head-on and embrace it with enthusiasm, verve and humor. Pink Hatters, women 49 and under, can "red-uate" to the Red Hat Society when they turn 50. A few local chapters even allow men, but they're referred to as "accessories," and they also have to play by a few fashion rules.

At last report there were 47 chapters in Hawai'i, but the number changes almost daily as the spunky organization grows as fast as the Mad Hatter can say "Red Hat." Worldwide there are, according to the Web site www.redhatsociety.com, more than 39,000 chapters, with 37,000 in the United States, 49 in Australia, 19 in the United Kingdom, two in Japan and even two chapters in Egypt.

Each group has an instigator with a title such as Queen Mother, Da Queen, Ali'i Mama or Queen Muddah.

The local groups themselves also have quirky names: Red Hat Mamas, Hot Hawaiian Mamas, Princess Pupule, Dames of Wine and Roses, and Na Wahine Kolohe, to name a few.

And as a timely aside, Monday, April 25, has been declared Red Hat Day in Honolulu by Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

Campy subculture

Sometimes subcultures feel they lose power as they grow in size. But the Red Hatters say the more the merrier.

The raison d'être of the Red Hat Society is to challenge the myth that aging means quietly receding into the background, growing gray and wearing neutral colors. Members wear red hats, purple clothing and the most outrageous accessories they can find.

Some aging people "are worried that they may become invisible," said Harriet Glass of Pacific Heights, who specializes in marriage, family and dance therapy. For Red Hatters, on the contrary, "There's a sense of belonging to a group with a strong identity that will be noticed by the world."

The groups also fulfill some women's desire for strong, fulfilling relationships, Glass notes.

Some women view the Red Hat Society as a way to express themselves and find their own freedom, Glass explained. Women are living longer and longer, and many are living single as their husbands die before they do.

Often lives shrink after middle age. For some, retirement means solitude and a sudden lack of social opportunities. The Red Hatters, however, expand their horizons by taking an expansive, no-holds-barred approach to life.

In what may be an ultimate expression of this philosophy, the Red Hat Mamas, Hawai'i's first Red Hat Society chapter, modeled for a nude calendar last week, as in the movie "Calendar Girls." Among the models was a 91-year-young woman decked out in her red hat — and nothing else. Another of the "calendar girls" had lost a breast to cancer.

Just wanna have fun

"There's a little girl in all of us who wants to come out and play. This is our opportunity to play," said Kimberly Gund of Hawai'i Kai, a former milliner and current Queen Mum of the Red Hat Peppers. "Besides, with a red hat and a purple dress you can get away with anything."

Many of the members have retired from serious careers and decades of putting others first, raising children and caring for husbands and parents. "Now it's time to just have fun," explained Pat Fugere of Ala Moana, a Red Hat Mama. "You cannot help but laugh when everyone's wearing a red hat and purple dress. We're supposed to be eccentric, not classy."

"It's all so funny and silly when we get dressed up. It makes me feel like a little girl again," said Queen Mother Helene Kiyono of the Leeward O'ahu chapter, Da Makuliettes.

Penn State University is conducting a study linking leisure activities with longer, healthier lives. The Red Hat Society is an integral part of the study.

Pat Wienecke of Hawai'i Kai joined two chapters because, she said with a raucous laugh, "It's like one giant sorority."

She loves the sisterhood that comes with dressing in red and purple and heading out into the world as a group. "No matter where you go, you become the center of attention and you know you have a sister there," she said. "We do it for friendship and companionship. You might be embarrassed to go out alone and just have fun, but when you're with a group, it opens up the door."

Gail Longstreth of Niu Valley, Queen Mother of the Red Hat Mamas, agrees with the sorority simile: "Red Hat Society is like a sorority, except people are closer because they are all the same age and have the same interests. The better we know each other, the more connections and similarities emerge."

Membership in the society also seems to be an ice breaker. In the few minutes we waited at the Mission Houses Museum to meet women in this story, Lucy Molloy of the Red Hat Mamas met two groups of Red Hatters from Massachusetts and California, all of whom wanted to have their pictures taken with her for the Red Hatters back home.

Each Red Hat chapter organizes its own outings. While many are food-based and involve visits to tea rooms and restaurants, others go for the gusto in the great outdoors. This week, the Crazy Ladies with a Hat-a-tude, led by Queen Barbie Corba of Hawai'i Kai, rode all-terrain vehicles through Kualoa Ranch.

Other groups have held purple pajama parties, taken belly dancing lessons, toured the USS Missouri, picnicked on a catamaran and participated in parades on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island. Da Makuliettes, a Leeward O'ahu chapter, "danced like the Rockettes on Hotel Street" one First Friday, according to Kiyono.

Na Hua Pala, an East O'ahu chapter, has a weekly exercise class called the Academy of Pulchritude and Panache.

In June, dozens of Hawai'i Red Hatters are expected to descend on Las Vegas for the national convention, which anticipates 6,000 participants. About half a dozen of the Red Hat Mamas will attend in their custom-made purple mu'umu'u. They will accessorize with red eyelash lei and red maribou lei po'o instead of their hats, to further identify them as a Hawai'i group.

Among future Red Hatter activities are a Hot Salsa Night at Rumours April 29 and a ball to which all chapters are invited in December at the Hale Koa Hotel.

Perhaps, in this imperfect world, the Red Hat Society is on to something: a supportive subculture that nurtures and nourishes rather than excludes and marginalizes.

Reach Paula Rath at 525-5464 or prath@honoluluadvertiser.com.