HEADWEAR Hats become heady new fashion accessory

Millinery shops find that personalizing hats is a snap.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
CHICAGO -- You could plop a Von Dutch cap on your head. Or pull some striped knit number down over your eyebrows.
But that would be so predictable -- particularly when so many have personalized their look with a newsboy cap, Stetson, cloche or beret.
Or maybe a black-and-pink fedora dubbed "teardrop" by Chicago milliner Linda Campisano, a jewel-toned shearling bucket hat from Burberry, a baby blue fedora by Eugenia Kim, or an ear-flap trapper hat -- maybe the posh magenta Karl Donoghue number from Saks or an earth-toned version from the Gap.
So many women are wearing hats these days that the Headwear Information Bureau, a New York-based trade group, estimates they will have spent $992 million on them in 2002-03, up from the $972 million in 2001-02.
Frigid temperatures fuel the trend, of course.
But hat-wearing incentives go beyond protection from the cold -- and the sun -- says Ellen Goldstein, head of the accessories design department at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. She points to such hat-sporting forums as MTV and movie/music award shows as well as "actors and actresses wearing hats every day as part of their garb."
Flip through any glossy celeb-heavy mag: There are Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige sporting fedoras, Colin Farrell and Usher wearing similar toppers, while newsboy caps show up on Cameron Diaz and Hilary Duff.
Hats instantly kick a bit of character into a world of clothing that may appear so homogenous.
"Hats are a great way to accessorize," said Judy Yin, manager of p.45 in Chicago. "They bring out personalities."
Cosmetic aid
Hats also can serve unofficially as a cosmetic, said New York-based milliner Eugenia Kim, whose hats can be found atop the heads of celebs across the country.
"I don't wear that much makeup," she said. "But wearing a hat really brightens up your face."
They also fit well in a less-than-robust economy.
"Maybe you cannot afford a new coat, but you can afford a new hat because it usually (costs) less than a coat," said milliner Eia Radosavljevic, an instructor in the fashion department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
In fact, personalizing hats is so popular at Linda Campisano, a custom hat shop within the Westfield Shoppingtown North Bridge building in Chicago, that the milliner is making the shape "timeless" and putting snaps on exterior bands.
"A lot of people are asking for detachable trims, so we're putting snaps on the back so they can change the color of the ribbon, or add a flower, or maybe a brooch," Campisano said. "That way, one hat can be many hats."
The popular choices for women? One of three fedora styles and a cloche, said Campisano, whose team makes each hat using one of the 5,000 wooden forms and high-grade felt.
Men tend to stay in a narrower range. They are opting for "a classic fedora with a 2-inch brim and in dark colors -- dark charcoal, navy and black," she said.
Crowning glory
Expect hats to turn more heads in 2004.
In March, the Goodman Theatre brings "Crowns," a much-praised musical based on the book celebrating black women and their church hats, to Chicago.
And in April, National Geographic is publishing "Hats," a photographic look at the evolution of headgear from "purely functional garments of protection to highly individualized statements a tribute to the wonder of human expression."
One look at the hats on Michigan Avenue is testament to that.