HATS CONTINUE TO BE BOTH THE DARLING AND OBJECT OF DEISRE FOR REPORTERS

Washington Post Columnist John Kelly made us proud last week with his wonderful column about hats. He interviewed Don Rongione, president and CEO of Bollman Hats as well as Iwa Hooe, product and branding manager at Dorfman Pacific.

And guess what, he also interviewed Hat Life and gave us a nice mention in his terrific article (as a writer I don't say that lightly). Not only did the article come out on August 2nd, but I did a webinar with him last Friday about hats. I took questions from readers via the Internet and it was a fun fest for hatters with a query or quandary about hats.

A few people mentioned size as an issue (they were looking for large-sized hats) and others wanted to know what hat would look good on them. It is unfortunate that there are not more hat stores that cater to people looking to buy a hat for the first time. In the olden days there were actual hat departments with vanities so consumers could sit down and get fitted for a hat in front of a mirror (Saks Fifth Avenue comes to mind).

I told readers to check out websites such as villagehatshop.com, hats.com and I gave out some of your names and websites as a way to get information and to buy specific hats. There were questions about cloches and one person (who read an old hat life newsletter) wanted to know why hatters did not want to participate in the gifting suite in LA on Academy Award weekend a while back (I told them that many of you were at trade shows that weekend).

There is one other hat story coming out in the media that also examines the current hat phenomenon. Everyone seems to be smitten and surprised that so many young people are donning hats. I was in New York City this week and was equally as elated (and surprised) to see so many people wearing hats. I saw one couple on Fifth Avenue who looked like they jumped off the pages of a 40's magazine. The woman wore a delightful cloche and the man a stingy brim fedora in a light elegant straw. Together they looked like they had just come from a Great Gatsby party (or a dream).

All this is good news. And it should make some of you proud and excited about the upcoming windfall of newly minted hat customers. To make this hat trend even more far reaching is the influence of the successful TV show "Mad Men."

One reporter asked me if people will ever start to wear hats as part of a uniform like men did in the 40's and 50's and I replied, "No way. The consumer today will never take orders from a designer or a trend analyst. People today are more comfortable with their own individual style and are not restricted by rules from the fashion elite (look at what happened to pantyhose).

Below is the article as it ran with a link to the article.

Headwear makes a comeback, but trends can change at the drop of a hat

By John Kelly

Have you heard the news, doctor? Hats are back, baby! Hats on men. Hats on women. Hats on children. Hats on dogs, cats, fire hydrants, canister vacuum cleaners, you name it.

And how do you feel about zis, Mr. Kelly?
I'm not sure, doc. Conflicted, I guess.

And why is zat?
Because . . . because . . . where were these people years ago when I started wearing a hat? Back when wearing a fedora was only slightly less odd than wearing a monocle or a jerkin?

A jerkin?
A sleeveless, close-fitting jacket worn by men in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Ah, I see. But how do you know zat hats are back?
Look around you! They're everywhere. I was in New York a few weeks ago, and every street-corner vendor had teetering piles of cheap fedoras, porkpies and stingy brims. Bloomingdale's and J.C. Penney are full of hats. You can even buy men's hats in that den of Satan itself, Urban Outfitters. The other day outside Whole Foods, I saw a 5-year-old girl in a little gray fedora. A 5-year-old girl, doc, as if she'd wandered away from a kindergarten production of "Death of a Salesman."

Well, zese are your random observations, but are zey supported by data?
Oh, yeah. According to Don Rongione, president and chief executive of Bollman Hats, sales of his company's Bailey fedoras have risen by 12 percent in the past two years. And he's projecting a 20 percent increase this year.

Iwa Hooe, product and branding manager for Dorfman Pacific, the country's largest headwear company, said: "Headwear categories in the retail market have definitely been on the rise. Every year, we all kind of stand around and say, 'I can't believe we sold this many hats this year!' "

And to what do zese hat experts attribute zis rise?
Opinions differ, but you can't discount the role of celebrities.

Ah, celebrities, ze modern demigods we worship from afar.
Precisely. Just look at the actors and musicians -- male and female -- who trundle about town in a natty fedora: Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, R&B crooner Ne-Yo, Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas, Joel Madden from Good Charlotte. Keira Knightley. Brad Pitt. In fact, Diane Feen, editor of Hat Life . . .

Excuse me, please. Zere is a publication called Hat Life?
Yes, and Diane said she's been tracking the hat habits of Brad Pitt for years. He's a hat barometer.

And it isn't just celebrities. Diane thinks customers have evolved. Ten or 15 years ago, you had kids wearing baseball caps. Now these kids are in their 20s and they want something different, something a little more structured. First, they went for bucket hats, and now they've graduated to fedoras.

Oh, and don't forget "Mad Men." Everybody wants to be Don Draper. Well, I am Don Draper, doc, I mean, minus the rugged good looks, the suave demeanor, the high alcohol tolerance, the endless succession of pliable women and the dark secret.

Ahem.

Okay, with the dark secret, but without everything else.

But why should zis hat renaissance bother you? You should be pleased that ze hat is evolving, metamorphosing from an obligation -- part of a uniform, the signifier of the gray man, the corporate cog, ze hat as felt straightjacket designed to constrain ze id -- into something in which its wearer delights.

I guess it's because I worry, doc. Oh sure, it'd be great if this is just the tip of the hat iceberg, and before long we see hat racks in every office, hat-check girls at every restaurant and hipsters moving up to the hard stuff: homburgs.

But what if we're just cruising for a fall? If my beloved fedora can be rapidly adopted by the hipsterati as a fashion accessory, no different from an ironic T-shirt, then it can be unadopted just as rapidly. Fashion is fickle. Now I know how nuns must have felt when Madonna started wearing a crucifix.

Don't you see? A hat is a commitment. Do these fair-weather hat-wearers know the heartbreak of hat hair or the indignity of a rogue breeze lifting your fedora and sending it skittering down the street? There's nothing more foolish than a man chasing his hat, doc, nothing.

Ah, I'm afraid our time is up, Mr. Kelly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/01/AR2010080103065_pf.html