HAT AS OBJECT AND EXPERIENCE

WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES AND HEAR THE WORD "HAT"?

The argument for object as art has been made through the ages: Decartes, Hussserl, Hegel, Heidegger ruminated and philosophized about the nature of art and it's "thingly" character. What makes an art object? Art theory will always touch upon form, context and the nature of an object, but it is left to the beholder and the artist to define what art is. A hat is an object, either made as a protective or a decorative thing. Wearable, and by definition, an object. But elevate its character to a more creative level and it can be art.

Hats lend an element to the wearer and depend upon personality, personal style, the fashion of the hat, the world view of the wearer. In the past, hats denoted not just style but status. They were and still are a uniform depending upon definition. Geography mandates the shape, the form and the material. A hairdo limits or includes. In the 1930 photograph taken by Margaret Bourke-White, not a head was seen without a hat.


This was NY, in the Garment District and was taken for an article in Fortune Magazine entitled "Cloak and Suit". Cloak and suit is a good place to start. A hat protects the wearer from the elements, and suits the framework that the face provides. Or it should. It should flatter and excite. It should speak volumes about the person, and live not just in the moment, but carry an element of timelessness .

In Lussac-les-Chateaux, in Central France, there are 15,000 year old rock drawings depicting people with hats on their heads.

Hats are part of the universal language of costume. Who, what, where becomes more easily translated with something as simple as the right hat.

Historically, we owe a debt of gratitude to St. Clement somewhere around 750 AD-818 AD. He gingerly placed a piece of carded wool into his shoe and lo and behold, felt was made! Hatmakers everywhere could now use that spontaneous discovery to fashion hats to protect the head. Jump 1000 years ahead to a burgeoning industry in Europe. We, the people, as a colony of Great Britain became both very important, and very disruptive all because of a hat. One could almost say that the American Revolution happened because of a hat. The beaver population of Europe was almost extinct, but we had the in over here. Beaver skins were the first great American Trade commodity.
We supplied Britain with pelts for their hat industry. From 1700-1770 21 million hats made from beaver pelts were made in Britain and shipped throughout Europe. And so, to protect this very precious cargo, the Hat Act of 1732 was passed in Parliament. Limiting the number of workers, apprentices and slaves in the colonies employed in our own hat industry, this Act was the first rumble of discontent within the American colonies. We couldn't make our own hats. Imagine how that went down.

Hats and wars have always gone hand in hand. The Revolutionary War may have happened because of a hat. And the Civil War helped create what is now widely known as the western hat. After the war, as displaced soldiers found their way across these vast United States, appetites whetted for adventure and new horizons, they took with them the remnants of their uniforms. Many a farmer wore basic shaped felts on their heads, the classic floppy style we all know and love today. Mr. Stetson lent a hand and created his own shape, loved it so much that he founded a hat empire because of it.

Military styles always cropped up in female fashion. The hat was the final accessory to mimic shapes seen in uniforms throughout WWI and II. But after the war, when lifestyles changed, styles in fashion changed as well.

WWI brought us the suffragettes sometimes tricorne shapes. The undressing of the 1920's style with the new flapper mentality eliminated the architecture of the Edwardian era from fashion and substituted Art Deco. WWII brought the ode to the ration book, and with it, tiny perchy hats. Dubbed "Doll's Hats" by Elsa Schiaparelli in the late 1930's, while European fashion houses succumbed to the ravages of the limits imposed upon them by dint of war. The proportion worked with the reduced yardage now permitted in garments.

After WWII, when America returned home, home was often a shiny new car. Headroom in the 1950's vehicles was shorter than in vehicles of the 1930's and 40's. Fedoras became not as de rigeur. Costume had bowed to the new carefree vision of fashion, with more outdoor living and less indoor life becoming popular. Hairdos changed. For men, mimicking the pompadours of the early rockers and rebels was much more important that the color of a new fedora. And so, we have what we have. Do take history into account, and look around you. As America grew, New York City blossomed. We welcomed the felted shapes of the Jewish Community on the Lower East Side. We celebrated with our ethnic diversity as more and more cultures brought with them their culture, their joy, and their hats.

Where some of us wear hats for sports, some wear them for events, or protection, there are those who will always wear them for glamour, and a certain note of mystery they add to their wardrobe every day. Hats define, underline and help you to shine in a city that today finds itself often wearing a uniform of conformity. Since the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, fancy hats come out of their boxes . Since the Royal Wedding, fascinators have hit their stride. There is always a new reason to wear a hat to the hatlover. Hatters and milliners follow this simple recipe, put forth by Cheri Bibi, a milliner in Paris: Take some straw, felt, velvet, leather Add a healthy helping of grosgrain Trim with flowers, fruits or anything unusual you may have in hand Add a zest of know how Throw in a pinch of humor

And you have a hat!