Hat - Armani
It's going to be a cruel winter for the hat-averse, style-aware
modern male, as well as a colder one. In recent years, it's been
perfectly legitimate to dodge monolithic men's hat trends on the
grounds that you'd rather go bare than have people think you think
you're David Beckham/Pete Doherty/Oliver Twist. But January's
autumn/winter shows saw headgear for every occasion on the runways.
From classic flat caps to fedoras, deerstalkers, cadet caps,
derbys, trilbys and even bowlers, hats of all kinds are key for the
coming winter.
At the January shows, big Amish-style hats were seen at Dior Homme, D&G and Louis Vuitton, while fedoras starred at Lanvin. Missoni's flowerpot hats had brims pulled low over the models' faces, and at Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci gave his models caps with looping flaps above the ears. Yohji Yamamoto's looks were topped with steep-crowned brimmed hats like those the designer himself has worn for years. Dean and Dan at D Squared2 utilised broad-brimmed Stetsons while Galliano, Paul Smith and Burberry offered snug solutions in the form of knitted bobble hats.
Other notable options for headwear include Armani's trilby, seen here, Folk's Cotton Deerstalker, Junya Watanabe's felt hat, Dolce & Gabbana Buffalo-check flat cap and the wool fedora from those old masters of the hatter's art, Lock & Co. It pays to do some homework before splashing out on yours, because the accessory on your head often defines you more than any other garment. Shape, size, and positioning are everything. A hat shouldn't be perched high on your crown or squashed down on your brow. Nor worn in the wrong place (which, according to traditional hat etiquette, includes anywhere indoors). With great headwear comes great responsibility.
