But what's the point of wearing a strange hat? The shows from the recently concluded fashion month tell us
There was a time when everyone wore hats, as a matter of custom and social convention. Certain specific styles, such as Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hat, became the symbol of a decade, and perhaps for that very reason they now strike us as antiquated. Formal hats are no longer worn today: after the boom in boho/Los Angeles wide-brimmed hats popularised by Hedi Slimane during his Saint Laurent era — which were hardly eccentric at all — wearing a peculiar hat has become the hallmark of someone "trying too hard," sacrificing practicality to the pretension of projecting a certain self-image. And yet the tide seems about to turn: the quirky headwear trend has slowly made its return over the past fashion month. But how, and more crucially, why?
The hat in the syntax of a look
Beyond covering one's head and adding an accessory to an outfit, designer hats and headpieces have always served the function of expressing personality and, in a broader sense, eccentricity. Traditional English society — the world of Wimbledon and Royal Ascot — has cultivated, better than anyone else, through its noblewomen, the art of the fascinator: that highly ornate, often strangely shaped little hat frequently worn by women of the British aristocracy on various social occasions. With Philip Treacy and Stephen Jones, the modern kings of millinery, and Isabella Blow, queen of the eccentric, the fascinator became an art form, without ever breaking out of its limited sphere of use.
But even in its more debased forms (the dreaded men's fedora and the wide-brimmed hat for women, whether straw or felt), the "statement" hat is like a punctuation mark in the sentence of a look: its presence can shift the meaning, evoking a specific era or a particular culture. Erykah Badu's hats, for instance, speak of personal flair, heritage, and the singer's own tastes. In this sense, the hat also takes on importance on a purely visual level, because it is the smallest element with the greatest impact on a silhouette.
The best example of this would be Loro Piana. The brand is certainly not avant-garde — on the contrary, it offers relatively traditional clothes and looks, albeit with magnificent styling. And in recent years, a slightly extravagant hat that animates its looks has become something of a signature. We don't know whether those specific hats are actually bestsellers for the brand, but it is telling that they appear in every collection. In these lookbooks, the role of the quirky hat reveals itself with perfect clarity, suggesting that beyond the clothes, something more interesting is going on in the mind of the person wearing them. And elsewhere?
Alternative hats for alternative customers
This fashion month, the bizarre headpiece appeared in the shows of around twenty brands. For brands such as Vaquera, Thom Browne, and Venerdì Pomeriggio, for example, the hat served to evoke past eras, more or less ironically: a '60s pillbox hat, a '20s boater, and a '50s denim sailor's cap. Following more artistic and Renaissance-inspired vibes, brands such as Celine, Courrèges, Vivienne Westwood, and Issey Miyake produced more or less amorphous hats reminiscent of the Renaissance chaperon. At the most recent menswear show, Celine also created similar hats by wrapping and knotting shirts around the models' heads.
Elsewhere, we saw various other experiments, more or less singular. Misshapen raffia hats from Bottega Veneta and Junya Watanabe (who also included classic visor caps covered in jewels), micro sports caps and snapbacks from Loewe and MM6 Maison Margiela; flower-shaped cloches from Abra and abstract conical headpieces from Jean-Paul Gaultier, and birthday-hat-like versions from Coach. Oscar Ouyang put an equestrian helmet on one model, Antonio Marras a classic fascinator, while one cannot fail to mention the wide-brimmed hats "fused" with trench coats seen at Chloé.
We don't know whether these hats will actually be available for purchase, or whether, if they are, they will become commercial hits. Today's fashion crowd favours the classic baseball cap — after all, one must appear to dress effortlessly. That said, with the character dressing trend promising, in the coming months, to bring personality back into fashion, it may well find a foothold in hats like these — which, incidentally, also represent the kind of accessible luxury that could lure aspirational customers who have drifted away back into stores. In a world where you can buy a Galliano outfit at Zara (whose collection includes Napoleonic-style hats!) and where you can "LARP" an upper-class look without actually being upper class, the true test of one's personality will be worn on one's head.
