THE HAT AS SPECTACLE - THE LARGER THE BETTER

We’ve been talking about the importance of large brimmed hats for protection from the sun. We’ve also heard that consumers are asking for larger brims (rest assured it’s the plastic surgeon telling them that gospel).

So, we put together some great and gracious spectacles at the Royal Ascot that exemplify this trend. Perhaps these hats are exaggerated themes on the same subject, but sometimes outrageous fashion ideas spark something small and wonderful in our creative psyche.

One hatter came up to me at the recent Headwear Association Dinner (in NYC) and asked me why I put so many crazy looking impractical hats in the Hat Life Newsletter. And after thinking about this question for a few months, I now have an answer. And, it is that out-of-the- box thinking sometimes leads to creative breakthroughs.

It is only when we are caught off-guard that our right brain begins to herald something new and delicious. To a designer that is known as inspiration – and without inspiration a designer is nothing but an employee. With inspiration and creativity, they are pure genius.

Enough said.

Fashion designer Isabell Kristensen, a regular at the races, opted to outdo her peers. Her creative (and outlandisha) hat featured a bowl of strawberries nestling in a concentric design, complete with a spoon.

Race-goer on the third day of the Races at Ascot

The Royal Ascot's Ladies Day was more “fierce and fab fashion.”

Princess Eugenie wore a lime-green satellite dish hat at Ascot. The royal, 19, joined the Ladies' Day crowds dressed in purple with a hat that looked like it had beamed from somewhere above the clouds.

Race-goer on the Third day of Ascot

Stephen Jones and Jasmine Guinness unveil the Disney-inspired creation