[1] In the fall of 1997, Sue Ellen Cooper, an artist from Fullerton, California, bought a red hat on a trip to Tucson, Arizona.

[3] Cooper repeated the gift to several other friends upon request, and eventually several of the women bought purple outfits and held a tea party on April 25, 1998, at which the Red Hat Society began.

[4] The society first gained national attention through an article written by journalist Lori Basheda for The Orange County Register, which was reprinted in newspapers across the country.

[9] Both Red and Pink Hatters often wear very elaborately decorated hats and attention-getting fashion accessories, such as a feather boa, at the group's get-togethers.

As of 2011, besides the thousands of chapters in the U.S., there were local chapters of the Society in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Ecuador, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Guam, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Namibia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Wales.