WHAT IS THE HOT CAP TREND? CAP-IT-als

In fashion it is either in or it is out. After my recent around the world trip I can say that the fedora trend is out and the baseball cap trend is in. N.B. I am not saying that fedoras are dead but that the fedora trend which we have witnessed over the past 10 years has faded.

                 MAKE WAY FOR THE RETURN OF THE LOGOED BASEBALL CAP

We used to say that the baseball wearing boy had grown up and embraced the fedora as a more manly hat. The hipster sartorial trend also helped to make the fedora the hat of choice.
Well, fashion's pendulum never stops moving and it is now landed on a 1970's look. Young guys are wearing their hair longer and girls are wearing flower wreaths in their hair.

Whereas before I would see shelves of fedoras in hipster stores, I now see shelves of caps. Not the classic "gap" pre-curved cap but a very 1970's flap peaked, short crown cap.

So here is what is in the stores from San Francisco, to NYC, to Paris to Cork and surely coming to a store on your street also.

MACYS MENS SELECTION

WELCOME STRANGER S.F.

ACME SELECTION SF.

 NEEDLEWORK CAP ANTHRO

VERY RETRO CAP AT ANTHROPOLGIE

MUSTACHES ARE STILL POPULAR

UNIONMADE  RETRO CAP,  3751 24TH STREET SF.

Toyo with net overlay.

Nordsrum ladies 

Le Bonne Marche

TEAM LOGOS

COLOR BLOCKING

Callanan felt cap style lv249 available at Lord and Taylor winter 2014.

ACCESSORIES MAGAZINE MAY 2013

DEATH OF THE FASINATOR

Interesting story on the death of the fascinator by JULIA NEEL for WWD.
The masses may embrace a feather glued to a headband but the millinery cognoscenti look on in horror.

MAD HATS: The death of the fascinator means more adventurous clients and a return to the hat for London milliners.

The annual summer spate of weddings, garden parties and races is sure to bring on many more toppers. Of course, there’s a class system attached to headwear, with fascinators — a spray of feathers or netting or a flower stuck onto a headband — coming embarrassingly at the bottom of the hierarchy. To wear a fascinator these days is to invite sneers and harsh judgment from fashion cognoscenti.

“Fascinators are (or can be) cheap and easy to make. They are a hat but without the hat bit, and so are great for the high street to [sell] in bulk and for craftspeople and budding milliners to make at home,” explained milliner Piers Atkinson. “But I think the market became flooded with the cheapest and most unattractive designs, and this gave the fascinator a terrible reputation.”

So much so, that Royal Ascot issued a ban on wearing them in the Royal Enclosure, arguably the most formal area of any sports venue. “In 2012 we decided that fascinators weren’t quite the right fit for the Royal Enclosure,” said Nick Smith, head of communications at Royal Ascot. “If anything, it seemed to make visitors more keen than ever to be adventurous with their hats.”

London milliners concur there’s a new sense of experimentation in headwear.

“People are becoming a little more adventurous with hats,” added Atkinson, crediting the likes of Lady Gaga, the Duchess of Cambridge, Anna Dello Russo and the catwalk as trend influencers. “I think a hat is less shocking than it was even five years ago.”

“We have definitely seen a return to the hat,” confirmed Helen David, head of women’s wear at Harrods, citing growing interest in pillbox shapes. “There has been positive growth over the past 12 months across the millinery department. We have seen a greater interest from customers in wearing hats, and they seem less afraid of trying new shapes and taking a risk. This season customers are not afraid to go big, with the large, side-sweeping designs performing extremely well.”

By JULIA NEEL

So, as a reminder to all you ladies.

This is a hair clip with feathers.

This is a headband with flowers and feathers.

This is a fascinator made from sinamy.

And this is a piece de resistance.