THE UTAH MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS OPENS AN EXHIBIT OF HATS FROM HISTORICAL TO CONTEMPORARY

The hats – that range from ceremonial to festive – are trimmed in everything from feathers to tortoise shell. "Head Trip: Around the World in Forty Hats" runs through August and spans the globe.

“Hats are as different as the people who made them, yet they show how alike we are. It seems that every culture and society has had a need to cover and adorn their heads,” said says Bernadette Brown, curator of African, Oceanic and New World Art at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on the University of Utah campus.

“Before ID cards, people identified themselves by wearing distinctive costumes and hats. In Africa the colors and patterns used in hats indicate what village a woman comes from,” said Brown.

“Elaborate Easter bonnets were once the rage. No self-respecting member of London's high society would appear on the street without a fancy hat during the Regency and Victorian periods. Jackie Kennedy started a fashion craze with her pillbox hats in the 1960s,” she added.

Some of the hats in the exhibit are used in rituals, ceremonies and religious events. Many religions require their spiritual leaders to wear distinctive clothes and hats, notes Brown. “In some cultures, special headgear is thought to not only identify the priest or shaman, but to help him communicate with the spirit realm.”

An elaborate silver candelabra (in the exhibit) was worn by Egyptian brides a century ago. "The tradition was that the bride was escorted to her new husband's home on the night of her wedding. They would carry a candelabra to light the way. Then someone decided that instead of carrying it, she would wear it on her head."

The candelabra hat later became part of the wedding ritual. An elaborate candelabra would indicate the bride's wealth and status. There's a hat in the exhibit made of frog skin, one from Romania made of a pounded-flat mushroom and a Spanish comb-hat was made of tortoise shell.

“Even if we don't wear hats anymore, references to hats have become a part of our everyday language,” said Brown. “We talk of "a feather in one's cap," "throwing your hat into the ring," "a bee in one's bonnet" and of "passing the hat." Using phrases like that are considered part of a universal language, she said.

Brown hopes the exhibit will give people a fun way to see history, fashion and the decorative arts. She also hopes "it will evoke a sense of how alike we humans are."

"Head Trip: Around The World in Forty Hats" is at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah Through Aug. 12. Call: 801 - 581-7332 - www.umfa.utah.edu

Kuba hat	Yaka beaded hat
Bethlehem headdress	An Aztec Penacho dance hat representative of headdresses worn by Mesoamerican rulers.
Peineta, a tortoiseshell comb worn by upper-class women in Spain.	Pillbox hat made of velvet and feathers, from 1960-80.
White marabou feather hat	Toque made of felt with decoration made of rare Persian lamb.

Courtesy of Utah Museum of Fine Arts