CALLING ALL HEADWEAR PEOPLE: YOUR SHIP HAS COME IN

The hat has officially been deemed fashionable and cool by the fashion press. Of course this epiphany was not brought about by a dream (or on a whim) it was more a matter of the fashion power of top designers.

So pout no more hat vendors and hat retailers – good times await! And if Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune says so, then it must be true. In her own words: “The return of the hat - traditionally sculpted, but jaunty and youthful - is the leitmotif of the French fashion season. Planted raffishly above anything from a long cardigan to a blouson jacket, the hat symbolizes a look that can be summed up in two key words: displaced elegance…if one item needs to be bought for the new season, it is that perky and dashing hat.”

And Menkes is not the only journalist (and fashion avatar) predicting the come-back of the hat. Kim Crow, the fashion editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (I know what you’re thinking, what do they know about fashion in Cleveland) said the same thing. “Expect to see the hats next fall, too, as they are omnipresent on the runways. They've shown up all over Michael Kors' luxurious collection, as well as at Anna Sui, Oscar de la Renta, Baby Phat, Jill Stuart, Luella Bartley and others,” said

Fashion writer Crystal Dempsey (from McClatchy Newspapers) also said the HAT is hot in her recent article, “Designers' hats foretell a big comeback next fall”

This is what she had to say about this top of mind subject: “Hat lovers, rejoice. Next fall and winter, headgear will make its big comeback. If it doesn't, I'll eat my new knit cap with earflaps.”

“Designers have topped off the fall/winter collections with a range of hat styles to suit anyone's head. Marc Jacobs' show became a virtual hat-a-palooza with everything from fetching fedoras to cozy cloches.

DKNY updated the classic beret for 2007's That Girl. Betsey Johnson's pom-pom hats were playful and sexy. Michael Kors added to the warmth of his cool collection with fur and knit headwear.”

Dempsey also loved the jeweled headpieces at Alice Temperley that were made by Dickon O'Hagan in England.

Now that you know that good days are ahead for headwear business it’s time to get involved with the Headwear Association. It is also time to step up to the plate and be a part of the new promotion and marketing campaign to promote and educate the public about HATS.

Do you realize that the Headwear Industry does not have a venue to reach out to the public at large? But, there is a movement in the works right now to do just that. But we need your support and attention. I often wonder why so many of you still think its ok to go it alone.

Below are newspaper articles written by fashion editors that extol the virtue of hats.

Hats off to 'displaced elegance'
By Suzy Menkes
PARIS

The return of the hat — traditionally sculpted, but jaunty and youthful — is the leitmotif of the French fashion season. Planted raffishly above anything from a long cardigan to a blouson jacket, the hat symbolizes a look that can be summed up in two key words: displaced elegance.

That means taking components of traditional masculine style and shaking them up in a fashion kaleidoscope. Or, to put it in modern terms, all the icons of elegance are dragged around, as if on a computer desktop, with thick sweaters put under formal jackets, sports sneakers brought alongside brass-buttoned military coats and hefty boots paired with tuxedo pants.

The results of this melding, layering and linking included Saint Laurent's dapper diaper look: smart jackets worn with low-crotch pants. Or fleck-and- check melds at Hermès, where sweaters, jackets, vests and pants all had subtly different patterns.

At YSL, the designer Stefano Pilati created a bold collection, mixing tailoring and cowl hoods and creating big formal coats from a soft shoulder.

The Saint Laurent show underscored a story of the season: the importance of outerwear. Pilati's powerful coats included a long, swishing style with a red woolen panel and a coat with gilded, quilted lining. In a menswear world of puffa parkas, the YSL coats were heavyweight, but imposing. So were the formal tweed jackets, which were blown up, 1980s style, to boxy proportions.

Accessories had a strong focus. And if a giant pink bag looked like just runway fodder, there were other smart pieces, from rubber-soled shoes with side buckles to cowl hoods, one even in astrakhan. They gave a signature to a collection that is gaining customer respect.

According to Robert Polet, the Gucci group's chief executive, YSL sales were up 19.8 percent in 2006. And although Polet would not give a timeline for struggling Saint Laurent to break even, he said, "We see new proof in sales that structurally we are moving upwards."

Hermès holds a lofty position as a house that is the epitome of quiet luxury. Give or take a teal blue crocodile jacket, the collection that the designer Véronique Nichanian sent out whispered of elegance and excellence in its subtle mismatches among the three formal pieces of checked jacket, striped vest and plain pants. For every impeccably tailored jacket, there was a calculatedly untidy neckerchief or a black- and white- flecked sweater jarred ever so slightly with a navy coat and white pants. These tiny, deliberate fault lines gave a vibration to a collection that the designer defined as mixing "rigor and sensuality."

It really needed to be touched and savored up close, rather than shown on the runway, where the luxurious fabrics, let alone details like a silver chain necklet or sleek cuff links, could barely be appreciated.

Now that Jean Paul Gaultier is creative director of the Hermès women's line (and the luxury company holds a 35 percent share of his house), he can permit himself some fun at his own Gaultier line. And from the moment that models came out with ginger wigs and mutton-chop whiskers with matching pony skin jackets or velvet suits, you knew that this was a splendid spoof.

"I found a Bad Hair book from the 1970s," said Gaultier, who took his bow in a blond wig and had the hairdresser Odile Gilbert, who had been crimping at the back of the runway, also take to the catwalk. The big hair men and their female counterparts were a diversion — and a witty one — but this was not really a 1970s revivalist show. Instead, Gaultier showed the best of his excellent tailoring in a slim camel coat or a navy jacket.

Just because some of these elegant pieces were worn over a glitter gulch of sparkling leggings or with embroidered spats over matching cowboy boots, that did not detract from their sleek style. If men's fashion now is all in the mix, Gaultier's was mad - but exuberant.

Paul Smith is master of the mix and owner of the concept of displaced elegance, borrowed from True Brits and reworked with casual clothes. This season's show was as quiet as a country weekend, with its moss-green and mole-brown velvet jackets, its houndstooth coats and corduroy jacket (albeit with a Union Jack lining). The overall feeling was that a layer of mud was covering Smith's merry colors and floral prints, which were reduced to embroidered flowers on a jacket back.

Yet, if less deliberately eccentric, the collection mixed craftily the aristocratic (tailored military coats or a clotted-cream Aran cardigan) with the plebeian (crumpled jackets and colored loafers).

"It's for the 19-year-old 'son of,'" said Smith, referring to his idea of a young aristo turning up at a country mansion with a chaotic bag that had missing pieces — hence the hunky sweater under an evening suit and a woolly hat to top it all off. To fit the season's greatcoat mood, there was a military vibe with bold silver buttoned coats and more buttons — multicolored and mismatched — on the vests that closed the show.

At Lanvin, the clothes were in soft fabrics and indeterminate shapes, while the season has mostly focused on a positive masculinity. The base of the show was dressy clothes, but shiny satin lapels were pitted against a rough cotton jacket and sneakers finished off a smart navy coat. Make those flashy pink hightop sneakers and you had a kooky look.

The designer Lucas Ossendrijver, overseen by Alber Elbaz, took ideas of pliable fabrics with comfort and ease from the women's line. But there was something soggy about a washed satin jogging suit. The rounded jackets, often with only one button, were stylish, especially when they were accessorized with soft and hard touches: a satin lapel flower, an off-center cravat and a plush riding cap.

Ann Demeulemeester said backstage that Virginia Woolf's Orlando had been her fashion hero, explaining the dark and brooding romance of black morning coats with vents at the back, often worn with Edwardian vests and always with riding boots.

Lapel badges with magical figures were part of what the Belgian designer called her "fairy tale." Its story was of a poetic dandyism, more elegant than her familiar layers under asymmetric jackets. When loose shorts were layered over narrow pants they still suggested the remnants of nobility that Demeulemeester inserted among shearling coats and padded jackets.

But if one item needs to be bought for the new season, it is that perky and dashing hat.

N.Y. FASHION WEEK
Check out the hats and the bags
Audiences themselves cue us in
Friday, February 09, 2007
Kim Crow
Plain Dealer Style Editor

New York - In this city, it's all about having the right accessories. Part of what makes fashion week is watching the audiences around the runway. After all, every show starts at least 30 minutes late, so there's plenty of time to check out what the fabulous from all over the world are wearing.

Black clothing rules this week, and I'm seeing far less premium denim than usual. Most of the women are in dresses, layered over turtlenecks and thick woolen tights, and skinny black pants tucked into flat-heeled boots. There seem to be far more straight men than usual at the shows. I don't know if this is a byproduct of the metro-sexualization of society or just a chance to gawk at pretty girls. No matter, I'm seeing men in wool coat-blazers worn over wool hoodies everywhere.

The hottest look this wintry week - and I do mean hot - is a huge furry hat, the taller the better. With wind chills dipping below zero here, every chicette worth her Choos is sporting the Nanook of the North vibe. They come as tall stovepipes, flap-eared trapper hats or stuffed-mushroom button caps. Some are simply fur-lined nylon and wool, but mostly they're mink, raccoon, sable or muskrat in all their glory, worn by men and women alike.

Expect to see the hats next fall, too, as they are omnipresent on the runways. They've shown up all over Michael Kors' luxurious collection, as well as at Anna Sui, Oscar de la Renta, Baby Phat, Jill Stuart, Luella Bartley and others.

The "it bag" of the week is Louis Vuitton's spaceship-silver Miroir Speedy handbag, which apparently comes in two sizes - big and obnoxiously big. At the Michon Shur show on Wednesday night, I sat next to two large guys in thigh-length man furs, one of them carrying the LV Miroir in a gym-bag size. He cradled it protectively on his lap, but it spilled onto my lap, too.

Just because I'm nosy, I checked out eBay to get the going rate for the wait-listed bag - $2,600 for this space oddity. At least you can check your makeup in its reflection, even if you can't contain it on your lap.

Most humiliating celebrity moment of the day:

After the Michael Kors show, I walked out right behind Kim Cattrall of "Sex and the City." She was extremely friendly to all the gawkers around her, including me. When our gazes locked, I blurted out "My name is Kim, too!" and grinned madly like an idiot. Yes, this is the best I could come up with. "How nice," she replied and sidestepped away.