August 23, 2011 |
FROM THE VAULT (SUMMER 2011)
The hat – or to use the French, chapeau – is back. Which, in about six months or so, will be rather good news as it’s gonna get colder and since you lose whatever percent it is of your body heat through your head you’re going to need all the protection you can get. Especially if thinning on top. How may licks does it take to get to the centre of that bald spot? Too few. That Regaine isn’t working. Yes, it has a new innovative no-drip format and nine out of 10 men say they kept or re-grew their hair, but they lie. At this point, keeping what little you have is pointless, and while usually we’d fully endorse the purchase of some rainbow-coloured weave that you can whip, we realise that such statement hair is not for everyone, hence why we are so excited at the re-emergence of hats. Or to be more specific, THE HAT. The hat at Dior Homme. Yes, there were others, practically every show we saw featured some sort of head covering, but no other called out to us in quite the same way. Soft, black, bonded felt, wide brimmed, small and rounded. Plain. It is the hat that Amish dreams are made of. In fact, the Amish, it would appear, are like Kris’s very own trio of Greek muses. Notice how everything that falls from the cut of his scissors is simple and unfussy in shape. Plain. Or to use the fashion term: minimalist. Notice how there are never any buttons, or if there are, they are hidden. That is because buttons are proud and vain not plain and therefore have no place in the upper echelons of minimalist fashion. The truth of the matter is that the hat has been neglected. It’s very versatile, very apt at communicating to the world at large exactly who you are. Hence its popularity amongst the people of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. There are only so many witty one-liners you can come up with when asked for the 100th time how many candles you need to light up a barn. By wearing your hat you get some peace. Tourists snap from a respectable distance and then move on to the next, similarly attired person. Anyway, we feel that as homage to Mr Van Assche for all he has done to further the acceptance of the Amish people on the world stage, in a manner that is intelligent and full of compassion, not mocking in the manner of Amish: World’s Squarest Teenagers, or the endless parodies of Witness, the Amish should adopt the hat they have inspired. Accept fashion in the manner that fashion has accepted them.
by Natalie Dembinska
Photograph by Gaëtan Bernard
