Apr 9, 2007

Chapeau chic

Classic accessory tries for comeback once more

Associated Press

There are probably more women with hatboxes in their closets than with fashion hats these days.

A century ago, a proper woman almost never left the house without one on her head. It was a style statement, social statement and a way to tame hair that wasn't washed, lathered up in product and blown dry every day.

Now, it's no longer considered impolite to be bareheaded when you visit a friend, and there likely is a hair salon around the corner.

So what would it take for the hat to come back?


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Hats and head coverings have been getting a good show on the runways lately, and that could give the concept a boost.

Cleo Glyde, style director at Marie Claire magazine, notes that the riding-inspired dome hat featured at a Balenciaga fashion show last year was a hit. At the fall collection previews, Marc Jacobs made a striking statement as models wore dressy, colorful hats with brims of varying widths reminiscent of the 1920s and '30s with their menswear-style outfits. "The mannishness of a hat can be very stylish on a woman," said Glyde.

Jacobs' blessing certainly is a good sign, adds Brooke Jaffe, InStyle's accessories editor. "We look to him a little bit as a god. ... So many of the fashion shows were about these clean polished looks ... and with clean and polished comes the hat."

Also recently spotted on the runway were Proenza Schouler's minimalist cloches and Michael Kors' ribbon woolen beret that perfectly topped his classic American sportswear. Prada and Donna Karan even touted turbans.


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Hatmaker Kathey Schickli's store Drinks on the Plaza is in Louisville, Ky., home of the Kentucky Derby, scheduled for May 5 this year. Her customers want wild hats - hats with feathers, flowers and sparkles.

Derby hats, inspired by the hats worn at England's Royal Ascot horse races, are the most fun to see and the most fun to make, Schickli says. But since these hats don't come cheap - they're in the hundreds-of-dollars range - Schickli has noticed that women are wearing them for other occasions too, including warm-weather weddings and graduation ceremonies.

Easter, with its tradition of bonnets, seems like another good time to trot out a hat. "It can kick up your church outfit," Schickli said. Plus, a lot of people like to buy Easter hats for their little girls.

(Still, some of Schickli's younger customers shy away from full-blown hats, instead favoring either headbands or "fascinators" - decorations attached to a hair comb - that glitzy bells and whistles.)


MORE CONFIDENT WOMEN

Milliner Eugenia Kim, who won the Council of Fashion Designers of America award as the top up-and-coming accessories designer in 2004, says a hat is like a canvas for the wearer to paint an image of herself.

A fedora, a style that Hilary Swank sometimes wears, is tomboyish - sexy but masculine, Kim says, while a cap, consistently a best-seller for her, oozes casual cool. But, she agrees, most women who wear hats aren't shying away from the limelight. "If you go to a bar and wear a hat, most of the time, you get free drinks."

Jaffe agrees.

"Hats are a touch to make you feel different. They're very personal and there's definitely a trial-and-error process. You have to be fearless and patient to find the right one," she said.


MORE PRACTICAL REASONS

Hats, of course, can do a lot more than just look good.

Betsy Thompson, fashion spokeswoman for retailer Talbots, says even fashion hats can have utility.

"Hats are great at graduations. That's a practical place for them - you're out in the sun, it's a dressy occasion, you save your eyesight from glare," she says.

Deborah Rudinski, merchandise manager at trend strategist firm Henry Doneger Associates says that younger women who have been raised to shun the sun, and wear baseball caps and visors for sports, and also have shown a willingness to put on newsboy- and cabbie-style hats and oversized berets.

But nobody thinks that's usually the reason.

Says Glyde: "Most of the people I know who wear hats do it to be fabulous."