click to go back to main press page

The New York Times

Flipping Their Lids
By ERIC WILSON
Published: August 17, 2006

NEITHER Esphyr Slobodkina nor Dr. Seuss, children’s authors who made imaginative use of chapeaus, could have made sense of all these hats.
Some were steeped with more historic and geographic references than Epcot; others, like the clever caps at Bottega Veneta, were devoid of comparison to anything that preceded them. Marc Jacobs’s oversize toboggans, berets and bucket hats; Balenciaga’s mod riding hats; a hunting cap named after Elmer Fudd — all had a cutesy animated feel, which requires some explication. These are not simple looks to pull off without looking infantile.
Some of the more whimsical styles, turbans with sleeves dangling to the shoulders (Louis Vuitton) or the berets stretched out like pizza dough (Giles Deacon), may be the designer equivalent of those felt jester hats worn by teenagers on the slopes — all flash. But within the many variations of berets, knit newsboy caps and more, there are wearable styles you can, well, take your hat off to.

TRACY WATTS Its linear simplicity suggests a jockey’s cap, but the wool houndstooth and pompom point to an emasculated deerstalker. Fitting, then, that Ms.Watts calls this one “the Elmer,” after Elmer Fudd, whose rabbit hunts were perennially fruitless. Based on a 50’s style, the cap ($190, tracywatts. com) is full at the back, which would have accommodated the hairstyles of that era, leaving room for curls drawn back into a compact wreath, like Rosemary Clooney’s do in “White Christmas.” As for the pompom, it’s the closest thing to a cottontail Mr. Fudd will ever bag.