ATTN:Magazine | Not from concentrate.

Right up until the early fifties, being caught in public without a well-pinned piece of headgear was the post-war equivalent of ambling around the town in bare feet. Sixty years later, open virtually any wardrobe and you will uncloak a spectrum of outfits that weave a whistle-stop tour through the decades, lapelled leather jackets inspired by Lambretta straddling Mods, stiff-shouldered jumpsuits; the offspring of land girl attire. The dependable hat though is all but absent from our hoard, reduced merely to a measly stockpile of woolen get-up for warming ears on winter days. When did the thing of the past become a thing of the past?
If notorious paragon Isabella Blow was right in saying that an extreme hat is more intoxicating than heroin then we are certainly missing a trick. Quite when the hat became a thing of archaic obscurity is difficult to trace, perhaps the clamour of the sixties brought about a revolutionary hurtling into the air of headwear in a surge of liberation. How ever they were forgotten, time and care, and thought for elegance and poise in an outfit have been left behind with their popularity. This spring, liberated as you like, recover lost airs and graces and welcome back the hat with open arms.
Sunless February is a month made for the mysterious and demure, and we should embrace the hat in the same temper; revealing little for maximum effect. Peeper concealing peaks and give-away-nothing veils are perfect for the lingering cold.
At Paul Smith wide, wilting brims disguise everything but the chin, while Nina Ricci offers something between a hard hat and a visor, shimmering purple and so face obscuring that only an etched out chink allows for vision, and Maison Michel’s intricate black veil topped with bunny ears calls for unconventional charisma, and cannot be ignored.
And while heads might be full of ideas of how to wear these delectable pieces, what we do put atop our own needn’t cost so much. Online store lovemissdaisy.com possess a charming collection of cocktail hats in feathers and felt, every one under £40, while the devastatingly underrated Beau Vintage in Winton boasts an entire wall brimming with kaleidoscopic cloches and pillboxes from the forties and fifties. And most definitely persist with the chaotic treasure trove that is Bournemouth’s Retro Realm. It may be bursting at the rafters with articles weird and wonderful, but search carefully and find the most perfect of prizes amidst the pandemonium.