Hats, Hats and More Hats - WSJBy ALEXA BRAZILIAN

From the runways to the streets, topping off is an essential act for fall.

Great article curtesy of the WSJ.

Often referred to as the orphan of the accessory world, hats are parentless no more. It's been quite a season for chapeaus, which popped up on the runways in London, Milan and Paris, and were the talk of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding in April. Now, the oh-so-British flourish is taking Manhattan, as English milliner to the stars Stephen Jones's exhibition, "Hats: An Anthology," travels stateside from London's Victoria & Albert museum to the Bard Graduate Center, Sept. 15 through April 15.

In addition to the toppers included in the U.K. show—Mr. Jones's countless collaborations with designers like John Galliano and Rei Kawakubo, Cecil Beaton's hats from "My Fair Lady" and iconic pieces from other English milliners—new American headwear will join the party. Estée Lauder's silk turban from the '70s, an Andy Warhol wig, Babe Ruth's Yankees cap, FDR's top hat and the bunny ears Candice Bergen wore to Truman Capote's Black and White Ball will sit alongside designs from contemporary U.S. milliners such as Ellen Christine and Albertus Swanepoel. "American women wear their hats with more wit, panache and irreverence," said Mr. Swanepoel, who was born in

Pretoria, South Africa, and who supplied a miniature cowboy hat for the exhibition. "In South Africa, hats are worn for going to formal places like parliament and horse races—it's certainly more serious." Mr. Jones agreed. "Hats fit into American culture and British culture very differently," he said. "Baseball caps, for example, are such an exotic thing for us Englishmen, just like the crown is exotic to Americans.

I hope the exhibition will make Americans realize what a good time wearing a hat can be. Dress up a bit and you'll have a ball."

That's just the message designers on both sides of the pond sent for the fall season, transforming the aristocratic accessory into a democratic one. Marc Jacobs punctuated looks from his own collection with felt berets (made by Mr. Jones) and capped models in bellhop hats in his sexy dominatrix designs for Louis Vuitton. Alber Elbaz created wide-brimmed preacher hats for Lanvin to accompany his '60s cocoon

coats and mini cocktail numbers; Hermès showed cloche-baseball hat hybrids in supple caramel lambskin. There were also evening looks, such as veil-like lace fascinators from Manhattan designer Jason Wu, along with more whimsical takes from Miuccia Prada—who created sequined and shag embellished swim caps—and Riccardo Tisci's felt panther-eared helmets for Givenchy.

Although designers showed their collections before Will and Kate's nuptials, the event certainly gave the accessory an image boost. "The royal wedding made hats newsworthy enough for Americans to take notice," said Manhattan-based designer Eugenia Kim, who's had her namesake millinery since 1998. "Sales of our big-brimmed hats have increased for fall '11 and spring 12, and requests for fascinators have increased inordinately," she said. This enthusiasm should only build with the release of Madonna's film "WE"—on the Duke of Windsor and his American bride, Wallis Simpson—for which Mr. Jones, in collaboration with costume designer Arianne Phillips, made dozens of hats. "The truth is Wallis always said she didn't much like wearing hats; it was more out of necessity," said Mr. Jones. "In those times if you walked out of your house without a hat, people would think you'd taken leave of your senses."

Today, however, the converse is more likely to be true. Mr. Jones offers advice for getting one's head in

the game. "Hats are much less of a commitment than a statement dress. You can't take your clothing off, but if a hat suddenly feels too much, you can. If you're putting lots of thought into your clothing, that's serious. If you put thought into a hat, it says you're having a really good time—they're light and easy!" On selecting the right hat, Mr. Swanepoel suggests looking for a style that complements the shape of your face.

"It's all a matter of contrast. When I fit people I have simple rules I follow," he said. "If you have a square face, wear a round hat. If you have a long nose, your hat should have a short brim, and if you have a narrow face choose a rounder hat. Opposites attract here, or rather cancel one another out." And as for hat-phobes? "Try wearing it at home first, and then move on to a short trip to the deli," said Mr. Swanepoel. "If you're shy it's the perfect thing to hide under."

Callanan Hats China

I just retuned from the grand opening of JACOBEAN China. Jacobean is China's only hat store. The flagship opened this weekend in Beijing's SOHO VILLAGE shopping center which has prestigious stores like Burberry, Lanvin, Versace etc.

We had a great press turnout fro Vogue China, AD, SPACE and FOR HIM MAGAZINE. The editors were very interested in how we would design hats for the Chinese face shape and how we intended to adapt hat fashion to local Chinese's trends. These were interesting questions so we explained that we designed fashion hats that are sold internationally. The interviews really became lessons os on how to wear hats, how to choose a hat to suit different face shapes and height statures. In the end everyone was quite excited and the champagne was flowing.

The tie trim fedoras were very popular.

Tony looked great in the laced trim fedora and James the store manager in the backgrounds preferred a flat cap.

 The flowers kept arriving.

 I got your back covered.

 My buddy Kock.

callanan hats at Lord and Taylor

Callanan fall hats are center stage at Lord and Taylor's flagship, New York City, store. I love designing for my Lord and Taylor lady. Trends may come and go but the Lord and Taylor lady has style no matter whats in or out.

The bitone dimensional fedora is exclusive to Lord and Taylor under the Callanan legacy label. The pecan/orange combo is a head turner but my personal favorite is the teal/charcoal combo.

The modern military militant is softened with floral scarf.

This menswear inspired fedora is fedorably feminine trim with patent leather and a Guinea fowl feather.

sometimes red is just red. curtsey of the WSJ

 U.S. federal judge has stepped on Christian Louboutin SA's red-soled shoes.

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In a ruling Wednesday, Judge Victor Marrero denied the fashion house's request to halt sales of similar shoes made by Yves Saint Laurent, saying Louboutin would not likely prove its use of the color deserved legal trademark protection.

The issue may pale against the sea of red flowing in the markets lately, but it is big business for Louboutin, which has long colored the bottoms of its shoes to make them stand out.

The company won a trademark for red soles from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2008 and filed suit against PPR SA's YSL in federal court in Manhattan earlier this year, alleging some of its competitor's shoes featured soles in shades of red that were uncomfortably close to its own. Judge Marrero wasn't swayed.

Lindsay Holmes/WSJ

A federal judge initially denied Christian Louboutin's trademark lawsuit, which accused Yves Saint Laurent of copying its signature red-soled shoes. Left, a Yves Saint Laurent Trib Too pump. Right, a Louboutin Bambou pump. Both pairs cost $795 in New York City.

"Because in the fashion industry color serves ornamental and aesthetic functions vital to robust competition, the court finds that Louboutin is unlikely to be able to prove that its red outsole brand is entitled to trademark protection," the judge wrote in his opinion.

Louboutin didn't respond to requests for comment. David Bernstein, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton who is representing YSL in the case, said the company is gratified by the court's decision. "No designer should ever be allowed to monopolize a color," he said.

Color is regularly trademarked in industrial uses—for instance, pink fiberglass insulation—where its only use is typically to distinguish a product. It gets trickier in matters of fashion, where color actually serves a fundamental purpose.

Complex uses of color like Burberry's plaid and Louis Vuitton's monogram have been trademarked, as have Tiffany's signature blue boxes. Levi Strauss & Co. has filed hundreds of suits against competitors it alleged infringed on its trademarked stitching and tag that decorate the back pockets of its Levi's jeans.

But Louboutin's claim breaks new ground, says Susan Scafidi, academic director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, who said she hopes the case goes to trial. The dispute is "the most interesting case in fashion intellectual property that has come down in the past couple of years," she says. "I really want an answer."

The judge delivered his views with flair of his own, invoking Whitman ("A lawyer said, What is the red on the outsole of a woman's shoe?) and asking readers to visualize "industrial models sashaying down the runways in displays of the designs and shades of the season's collections of wall insulation."

He even sketched out an imaginary suit between Picasso and Monet. His conclusion: "Color constitutes a critical attribute of the goods." In other words, it can't be trademarked.

But the order didn't settle the broader issue. The judge ordered the parties to show up in court next week to argue why he shouldn't just cancel Louboutin's trademark outright.

Some in the industry say the recent development just raises more nettlesome questions for designers trying to have some measure of protection for things they consider fashion signatures.

"Clearly, the [United States Patent and Trademark Office] took an unprecedented decision when it agreed to register the color as a mark," Steven Kolb, chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, wrote in an email. "The issue is who has authority to decide this … the USPTO or the courts?"

—Christina Passariello contributed to this article.

Write to Ray A. Smith at ray.smith@wsj.com and Ashby Jones at ashby.jones@wsj.com

interesting article about linen by Christina Passarillo curtesy of WSJ

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By CHRISTINA PASSARIELLO

Le Neubourg, France

Linen has become a high-end staple on the designer-clothing racks. This year has seen Stella McCartney's blue silk/linen blazer for $2,145, a denim-like cotton/linen Valentino dress for $2,290, and a nouveau trench coat from Derek Lam for $1,450. Lanvin is selling brides a wedding gown made of cotton and linen for just under $6,000.

From Farm to Fashion

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Emmanuel Fradin for The Wall Street Journal

1: Two-thirds of the world's linen originates in a belt of land stretching from northern France to the Netherlands. Farmers here are skilled at turning flax into fabric. In the fields of Normandy last month, flax was ready for harvest, after its blue flowers gave way to dried pods that rattled in the wind. Unlike cotton, which comes from the boll, or seed pod, of a cotton plant, linen is found in the stem.

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Emmanuel Fradin for The Wall Street Journal

2: Farmers let the rows of cut flax lie in the field, propagating a fungus that helps linen fibers in the stems separate from their husk.

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Emmanuel Fradin for The Wall Street Journal

3: Next, the linen fiber is separated from the plant. At a facility in Le Neubourg, France, a worker inspects the quality of linen fibers.

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Emmanuel Fradin for The Wall Street Journal

4: Linen emerges from combing machines, which prepare it for spinning, as one long stream of brushed fibers.

Lanvin

5: This Lanvin gown in a linen blend sells for just under $6,000 at net-a-porter.com.

Yet these thousand-dollar linens have humble roots. Two-thirds of the world's linen originates in a narrow belt of farmland that stretches from northern France to the Netherlands. Mixed in among wheat, sugar-beet and corn crops are 200,000 acres of flax fields. "It's the muddy part of fashion," says Bertrand Coulier, head of Le Neubourg farmers' cooperative in Normandy, which begins the process of turning flax into fabric.

The savoir-faire in the region has helped elevate linen to a high-fashion fabric. Linen, the garb Egyptian mummies wore to their tombs, has long been synonymous with wrinkly weekend wear. Now, a more modern linen—woven into a jersey, blended with Spandex, or vintage-looking in its raw state—has become an environmentally friendly alternative to the old standards of cotton and wool. The latest linen blends are less wrinkly, less transparent and more versatile.

"Linen is like a rare wool," says Eric Vanfleteren, who runs La Linière Saint-Martin, comparing the niche fabric to alpaca or cashmere. La Linière Saint-Martin, also in Normandy, combs and grooms linen fibers to prepare them for weaving. (He also supplies short linen fibers that are used in U.S. dollar bills.) Céline's influential designer, Phoebe Philo, has used linen in several collections since taking over the label three years ago. Linen made it into the fall haute couture runway show of French designer Maxime Simoens last month.

Fashion brands are telling consumers more about the origins of their clothes. Linen, because it comes from such a limited region, is able to ride this movement. It is often marketed in the U.S. as "Belgian linen." Earlier this year, Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo sold a linen line in that was identified as grown in France. Serge Bensimon, founder of the French casual-wear brand Bensimon famous for its linen canvas sneakers, recently visited the northern French linen fields. Linen makers also tout the facts that all parts of the flax plant are used, including the edible seeds, and that linen doesn't require chemicals in its basic production.

Recent volatility in cotton prices has closed a historical gap with linen prices. Cotton prices more than doubled in the past year, hitting a high of $2.30 a pound in March, according to the National Cotton Council of America, though last month they returned to last year's level of around $1 per pound. Le Neubourg, one of France's biggest linen cooperatives, sold linen at $1.27 a pound on average last year.

Unlike cotton, linen isn't traded on a commodities market. Its price depends merely on the supply from a more or less bountiful harvest and the demand from linen spinners. Last year, at the Normandy cooperative, one hectare's worth of linen—enough to make 4,000 shirts—sold for 2,500 euros (about $3,550). Yet to produce one pound of linen requires twice the land and twice the manpower cost of cotton.

"It takes up 15% of my fields and 50% of my worries," says farmer Pascal Prevost. "We're like wine makers who put their souls in the bottle."

Flax is a high-maintenance fiber—one reason its production is so limited around the world. Each summer, about three months after sowing, the slender stems grow waist-high and a blue flower blooms on each plant. When the plants dry out and turn golden in the sun, the flax is ready for harvest. There's a sound that also tells farmers when flax is ripe for picking: The linseeds inside each dried pod make a hushed rattle when the wind whips up. Large machines pluck the plants from the soil, unearthing even the roots, which contain linen fibers.

"The quality of the linen starts in the fields," says Jean-Baptiste Voisin, a farmer and president of the Le Neubourg cooperative.

Flax Facts

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Emmanuel Fradin for The Wall Street Journal

Bundles of dried flax are delivered to a facility in Le Neubourg.

• Flax is among the oldest fiber crops in the world, dating back many thousands of years.
• Linen was the most popular fabric for sails until cotton took over in the mid-19th century.
• The U.S. and many other countries print currency on paper of linen and cotton.
• Researchers are developing linen fibers as a substitute for carbon fibers. Skis, tennis rackets, a violin and a bike are in the works.
• Linen thread is stronger than cotton but not as elastic; its inability to spring back to shape is why the cloth wrinkles easily.

The maturing of harvested flax is what makes the process so specific to northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Farmers let the rows of plucked flax lie in the sun and rain for several weeks. The alternation of sun and rain in this European coastal climate propagates a fungus that grows on the flax stems, rotting them to help separate the linen fibers from their husk. In warmer countries such as Egypt, this step—called retting—can be done in water, but it results in polluted water.

The dried flax is rolled into large bundles and delivered to the cooperative in Le Neubourg. The cooperative belongs to the 350 farmers who deliver their flax for scutching, when machines extract the linen fibers. The flax goes into one end of the long machine looking like hay and emerges as long strings of raw linen.

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A Derek Lam trench coat in a denim that is 68% linen.

Mr. Voisin grabs a handful of linen fibers and squeezes it. "When it wrinkles, it's because it's rich in oil, a sign of good quality," he says, opening his fist to show the creases. At the end of the scutching line, the cooperative uses five criteria to measure quality: oiliness, color, strength, fineness and homogeneity. The longest fibers can measure three feet.

Since China began building linen-weaving companies 20 years ago, the bulk of linen fibers have headed east to be turned into various textiles. The Le Neubourg cooperative has teamed up with two other nearby cooperatives to sell fibers to weaving companies, giving them greater bargaining power. Together, the three cooperatives account for 30% of the world production of linen fibers. Chinese companies buy 80% of their supply.

Yet the cooperative keeps the finest tresses for European weavers, Mr. Voisin says. The European spinners—Safilin and Linificio, based in France and Italy, respectively—sell much of their fabrics to high-end fashion.

"This will go into a postal bag," Mr. Voisin says, handling two different bunches of linen strands, "and this will go to Cerruti," the high-end Italian weaver.

Write to Christina Passariello at christina.passariello@wsj.com