From Marlene Dietrich’s Borsalino to Jean Seberg’s Gavroche caps and Coco Chanel’s boater, hats are more than protection from the elements. Throughout the ages, hats have conferred style, set a tone, personalized, sent a message or denoted social standing. If, to you, a hat is nothing more than a head covering to hide a bad hair day, you obviously don’t know that it’s the “it” accessory of spring-summer 2013 collections.
This season, the hat was front and centre at haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion shows. The greatest designers have integrated this accessory into their collections. Whether it’s Chanel’s oversized plastic hat, Jean-Paul Gaultier’s top hat, Giogio Armani Privé’s revisited version of the beret, John Galliano’s millefeuille tulle hat, or Alexander McQueen’s dramatically glamorized bee hat, the result is every bit as spectacular as it is disconnected. But just where does this fashion come from?
Trend bureaus provide designers with highly useful information on upcoming fashions. These agencies specialize in anticipating, detecting and analyzing tends. They observe the present to imagine the future. These trends then help designers who, applying their creativity, style and talent, reinterpret them. And when ready-to-wear and haute couture collections move down the runway, we get to view these fashion trends, which are not always easy to transpose to our daily life. Ultimately, it’s up to us, common mortals, to draw inspiration from these trends and adapt them to our tastes and lifestyle. Love the pretty top hat on the catwalk but it doesn’t really work in the city? So go for a fedora, which is much more practical and guaranteed to give you the look of a chic dandy!
Today, hats are trendy. They’re the perfect accessory to perk up a look and complete it, day or night. They add style and dimension to a figure, regardless of what you’re wearing. They can also completely transform an outfit, upgrading it in seconds, provided of courseàyou know what hat to choose and how to wear it.
A hat has to be selected based on the shape of your face. Women with a long face should opt for a wide-brimmed hat to give it width. Rounded hats are ideal for square faces while asymmetrical hats (soft beret or bonnet) are well suited to round faces. In addition to form, you must pay special attention to colour: since the hat is worn close to the face, it must enhance your complexion!
If you don’t think you have a head for hats, think again…and try different styles. It’s an accessory you have to make your own by wearing it as often as possible. Wear it at home, to get used to it; you’ll eventually forget you’re wearing it. The trick here is to…dare!
