Why hats are topping off fashions quiet luxury moment, from Florence Pughs Robert Wun ensemble

Loads of them. Hats, hats, hats!

It’s not just on the runways that we’ve seen a return to hats as a mood for dressing with deliberation and care takes hold. And what could be more “together” than purposely topping an outfit with a hat? At the London Critic’s Film Awards in February, Florence Pugh was positively dazzling in fire-engine red Robert Wun topped with a truly haute matching veiled cowboy hat.

Fashion influencer Leandra Medine recently posted a photo of herself in a smart black velvet number, while Rachel Tashjian – the influential American fashion editor and founder of the invitation-only newsletter Opulent Tips – boasts a marvellous collection of hats. Recently, on the podcast A Thing or Two, she spoke of her lust for headgear and shared some of her favourite places for buying them, including The Hat Shop, Amy Downs and Gigi Burris.

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Meanwhile on screen, Emily Cooper, the ambitious American at the centre of the ultimate fashion fantasy show Emily in Paris, is never too far from a beret (though approach berets with caution, especially when in Paris) or a bucket hat.

In the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That … Carrie Bradshaw, whose kooky style still carries well into her fifties, is an ardent hat lover. During the first season, she sports everything from a neat little feather-topped pillbox to an enormous wide-brimmed purple and yellow number.

The show’s costume designer Danny Santiago does not only love hats himself, he sees them as integral to “completing” the looks for Carrie (and co). “I’m an accessory nut and I am a hat freak and we will get in fights with hats a lot on set, because directors of photography, they don’t like to light them, because you’re always going to have a shadow over the eye. So it can be a real dust-up when we have a hat on someone,” he told People in 2021.

“You’ll notice in episode one, when you first see the girls and Carrie has the straw military hat on, she takes it off in the middle of the scene. And lighting is the reason why. It’s always a big fight when they’re like, ‘Can she take it off?’ It makes me feel like the outfit’s incomplete, like the cherry’s not on the top of the sundae.”

Another hat highlight are those from Ukrainian designer Ruslan Baginskiy. His baker boys, boaters and more have lately been worn by everyone from the members of Blackpink to Madonna.

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A particular career milestone for Baginskiy was making a hat for the late Queen Elizabeth. “One of the big moments for myself and the team this year was getting to make a hat for Queen Elizabeth, one of the last things she received at Balmoral Castle,” he says.

He also gets a similar kick out of seeing people on the street wear his hats. “Often it’s just feedback from a friend or a new customer, hearing that they became a hat person only when they got a Ruslan Baginskiy hat. Or seeing how hats can connect people around the world, it’s beautiful,” he adds.

In any case, if you’re still scarred by visions of mid-aughts fedoras or Y2K truckers, or worry you’ll appear a little too enamoured with, say, Kevin Costner’s gruff John Dutton on cowboy series Yellowstone, this new-found wealth of inspiration ought to provide inspiration and comfort. There are plenty of ways to wear a hat.

For instance, if a wide brim feels a little much, you could opt for one of the chic turbans spied at Schiaparelli and The Row for autumn/winter 2023. Then there were the beatnik-esque berets at Giorgio Armani, Dior and Balmain in the same season, which work especially well with natty suits for an appealing off-kilter note.

A highlight at the Balmain show were the mohair lampshade hats, a reference to a 1959 archival piece created by Stephen Jones. A long-time collaborator with John Galliano, over his storied career, Jones has made hats for just about everyone, from Diana, Princess of Wales, to Rihanna and Kylie Minogue.

As he said in a 2008 interview with The Telegraph, “The thing about hats is that they can transform a person … hats make us feel good, which we need now. I like to think people regard my work as a treat, more akin to chocolates or perfume than just fashion. A hat should be a pal, because it’s befriending your face.”

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Meanwhile, Harris Reed dialled up the drama for his debut show as creative director for Nina Ricci, pairing flying saucer-like hats with voluminous and colour saturated gowns and suits.

Beyond the world of Ascot-ready hats and fascinators, there are designers focusing on elegant, chic and make-you-look twice headwear, including Maison Michel, Helen Kaminski, Eugenia Kim and Gigi Burris.

Baginskiy was inspired to work in hats because of his mother and grandmother, who always wore them, and because as a stylist he couldn’t find what he was looking for: “I wanted to use hats but didn’t find that many options available, so I started making them. I guess it’s how it all started!”

Just like fashion, hats tend to be cyclical. It’s something that Baginsky has noticed when it comes to what his customer wants. “Hats, like all other clothes, are affected by global fashion trends,” he says. “We have seen years for classic styles – boater hats, fedoras, baker boy caps and then the era of casual street-cool beanies, bucket hats and balaclavas. But of course it’s our signature baker boy cap that has been a favourite of the RB family through the years. We have seen it go full-circle in terms of trends, which kind of earned it a place as a classic at this point.”

In any case, what Baginsky loves most about hats is that they take a little panache to pull off.

“I think hats are about being bold and kind of brave. They are often a tool for self-expression and showing more of your personality. With a bit of that energy and confidence you will always look great in your favourite hat,” he says.

After all, hats are friends – they can solve a sartorial (or hair) crisis and become a personal style signature. Especially when one is in want of a little put together elegance – a definite mood for right now and one that is always in fashion.

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