Durban - One of the most instantly iconic cultural moments of the past year has to belong to Pharrell. No, I’m not talking about the evergreen producer’s global hit Happy or its obsessive 24 hour music video. It’s the hat he wore at this year’s Grammys.
The civil war style hat designed by Vivienne Westwood in 1982, was such a simultaneously bizarre and inspired fashion statement it inspired memes (as do most things these days), magazine articles and even its own Twitter account. But Pharrell is not the first artist to make an irreverent choice in head gear – and he certainly won’t be the last.
Erykah Badu has for the last decade been the international hat MVP. From the blue and black top hats to Akubras and everything in between. Here is a little guide for those wanting to choose a hat that goes with your personality, or if you want to make fun of your friends for their odd choice in head coverage.
Bucket hat
The bucket hat is probably the most versatile piece of headgear in the world. It works for everyone regardless of age or style sensibility. Most people who wear this hat are very likely to be chilled. The bucket hat serves as filter for unnecessary noise and has an implied, almost passive coolness like no other fashion item.
The bucket hat is also adaptable. For instance, Pantsulistas wear it with their All-star high tops before they go jamming and hip-hop heads put it on just for control. The fact that it also looks like an updated version of the Kangol hat that the likes of LL Cool J used to wear in the ‘80s also gives it a cool nostalgic feeling without being too attached to the past.
Pork pie hat
This is the most daring form of headgear you can wear. It’s so badass, so utterly disregarding of consequences that any man, woman or child who wears it must get a slow handclap on every street corner and diplomatic immunity from all kinds of crimes. It’s such an iconic hat that people have even written songs about it. No, for real. Joni Mitchell wrote a really great song about the loss of a lover and how all she could remember was his pork pie hat. The pork pie hat evokes a sense of mystery and decisiveness. It’s the hat Walter White wore in Breaking Bad just as he gave cancer the finger and all societal rules along with it. The pork pie hat is not headwear for people who take half measures.
Fedora
The fedora which used to be a distinguished form of headgear for working class men is now the emblem of hipsters, with their foreign coffee, organic food and urban regeneration podcasts. Its design is ambiguous which, in many ways, is the symbol of manhood at its height. It gives the illusion of a personal sense of style without making too much of a statement.
There is a kind of smugness that comes with wearing this hat. Don Draper anyone? This is especially true if the fedora in question is of the folded edge variety. But what’s the point? It serves no practical purpose such as blocking the sun or keeping out the cold Also, this headgear is not made for the bulky ones among us.
Baseball hat
The baseball hat as a fashion item and an extension of personality has come a long way. Not too long ago it was most closely associated with the stigma of hip-hop opulence and lack of a personal sense of style that also gave us Doo rags and basketball jerseys. The less said about the mid-’90s and early 2000s the better. The one man we have to thank for the evolution of the baseball hat is Jay-Z. When he wore his Yankee hat on the The Double Black Album cover he wiped the floor with life and established baseball hats as hip-hop’s most definitive piece of headgear. Most people who wear baseball hats are very meticulous. They take time to coordinate their outfit to the headpiece. Because it’s such a casual item a significant amount of thought needs to go into pulling it off. For the particularly carefree wearing it backwards in a comfy pair of jeans is a good way to live life. The baseball hat is also perfect for those who have obsessive habits – from the way they try and keen the top flat to keeping all the stickers on it, all very OCD.
Beret
This is the most revolutionary hat of all time but there is a specific intellectual and socially conscious attachment that seems to come with wearing this hat. It’s the hat of quiet confidence, because every time you put it on you are not just wearing a hat, you are essentially competing with Che Guevara. How brave is that? Any takers?
Sihle Mthembu, Sunday Tribune