You can leave your hat on
Traveling with a hat is exactly what you want to do, trust me, I do it always...
“Hats are worn to give one instant character for the day” – Albertus Swanepoel
Headpieces, in all varieties, have been around since ancient man pulled an animal skin over his head as protection against the elements. Thereupon adorning the head has reshaped from purely practical reasons to utterly decorative utterances. Whether it is a ceremonial or religious reason or the intrepid declaration of fashion and style the headpiece, or hat if you will, delivers swift affirmation for any wearer.
Hats, as we know them, are said to date back to Egyptian times and the first pictorial evidence is from a Thebes tomb painting featuring a man with a conical straw hat. Whilst women, centuries ago, were often expected to have their heads covered by veils, kerchiefs, hoods, caps or wimples – the art world delivered the proof. “At first they were symbols of wealth and stature in society, only royalty were allowed to wear them,” says New York (South African born) milliner Albertus Swanepoel. “Hats were also worn as protection during war and against weather elements and then only in the 20th century they became an expression of style”, Swanepoel explains. The word milliner however dates back to the 1500s Italy where “milener” (a Middle English word for a Milanese native) was used for anyone selling fancy goods in the city of Milan. At the time Milan was specializing in straw, ribbons and bonnets – all perfect in the gentle art of hat making.
A Brief Timeline of Hats (in case you’re a history lover, if not you can skip these dates):
~ 3200 BC - One of the first pictorial depictions of a hat appears in a Thebes tomb. A painting on the wall shows a man wearing a coolie straw hat.
70 BC - A young Danish chieftain falls into a bog to be in near perfect condition along with his pieced leather and fur cap. This is one of the earliest physical representations of hats that has been found.
50-818 AD - According to legend, St. Clement discovered felt when, as a wondering monk, he filled his sandals with carded wool to protect his feet. The moisture and pressure from walking compressed the fibers into a crude yet comfortable felt. Hatters in Ireland as well as a few other countries have celebrated him as the Patron Saint of Felt Hat Makers.
1529 AD - The word milliner, meaning a maker of hats, was first recorded in reference to the products for which Milan and the Northern Italian regions were well known (i.e. ribbons, gloves and straws). The haberdashers who imported these highly popular straws were called 'Millaners'.
1797 AD - John Hetherington stirs a riot in the streets and earns himself a £500 fine. What did he do, you ask? He wore a top hat! It's great height and shiny silk luster incited terror and panic.
1865 AD - John B. Stetson begins selling his "Boss of the Plains" hat, the same style he originally fashioned around a campfire while on a trip out West.
1875 AD - The first annual Kentucky Derby marks the largest hat fashion event in America.
January 15, 19?? - While the exact year is unknown, January 15 marks the unofficial National Hat Day. Rumor states that this "holiday" was merely started by hat enthusiasts for no other reason then to celebrate their favorite hats!
Some Albertus designs
Fast forward to the first half of the 20th century and there was definitely a strict hat wearing etiquette for both women and men in western culture. Attitudes toward hat wearing then changed dramatically in the mid-1960s after President John F. Kennedy and the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy both started to appear in public ‘sans chapeau’ – the TV series ‘Mad Men’ seems to confirm these radical changes in hat wearing etiquette that turned hat wearing ‘on its head’ in this period. And so, what came next?
Today designers have realized that headpieces, or hats, have not been saturated in the fashion realm and so people, from Brit sensation Giles Deacon to more mainstream lux-brands like Gucci, are employing a head-cover focused strategy. Even Hermes now has space solely dedicated to hats in select stores and Louis Vuitton recently featured only hats in their window display in their Tokyo store. And in Hong Kong, Lane Crawford had the Japanese milliner Katsuya Kamo (see images below) bring his talent to the department store for an exhibition – for both men and women to admire.
Although geography or gender play much less of a role in hat wearing today there are still cultures around the world that include hats in the usual repertoire of dressing – cities like New York on the one spectrum and Iceland on the other are often seen as hat hot spots. Celebrities have also brought new attention to hats - Justin Timberlake’s impressive array, Pharrell Williams’s collection of exaggerated chapeaux made by LA designer Nick Fouquet and then, of course, Beyoncé who is now rarely seen without a head embellishment (thanks for touring this summer Bey).
An Albertus classic
“Women, in general, spend much more money on bags and shoes than on hats. Although designer hats are individually made by hand, and not in a factory line, like bags, they still don't get the respect that other accessories do,” says Swanepoel. “There is definitely a resurgence currently in wearing hats as a fashion accessory. But if fashion goes through a minimal phase, they disappear,” says Swanepoel.
Albertus’ studio in NY
The South African born designer Swanepoel currently has had hats in department stores like Barneys in New York and has collaborated with the Philippines group of stores, Bench, but makes every hat that comes out of his Manhattan studio by hand.
He has also designed hats for everyone you can imagine including Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Aretha Franklin and, of course, Yoko Ono.
“I am very serious about the craft of millinery, respecting the age-old traditions, but the challenge is to keep it modern and valid.” Being in a niche market, Swanepoel explains that the challenge is to stay ahead of imports and also to remain individualistic in his approach.
Albertus for Target
Whether off to church with a vintage wide brim from the grandparents, or with an elaborate Philip Treacy to the races, hats have a certain sense of occasion. But as the trend of handmade and artisanal continues, designer hats (mostly made by meticulous hand) are just the way to use the trend on your head and so express something totally fresh. Or the other option is, like Lady Gaga does, to use hats as publicity stunts and to attract more than just a little attention. I like to wear it as part of my head, I forget I even have it on - it is always a conversation starter and of course I feel like I have something special with me on all my travels…as Albertus has said to me many times, “A hat is a dot on an I.”
In fact you can order an Albertus special collection hat right here - ALBERTUS