Hats Off To The Movies: Costume Design

A few weeks ago I bought a cloche that I found at a thrift store for $7.  Just what I needed-- another hat.  I love hats of all kinds.  I own baseball caps, newsboy caps, a couple of fedoras and cloches, knit caps, skull caps, stocking caps, and a few decorative headbands that "almost" qualify as hats.  I even taught myself how to crochet, just so I could make my own hats.

I wish all of us could go around wearing hats like British royalty.  But people just don't wear hats much like they used to.  I think that's a shame.  Hats mix things up.  They add a spark to your personality, an element of style to an ordinary outfit, an air of mystery to your personal image. 

In the twenties and thirties, people wore hats.  It wasn't just "playing dress-up."  It was called "getting dressed."  See, hats were for everyday wear.  People were far more formal (and stylish) back then.

I always notice costuming-- especially usage of hats in movies.  Here are some of my favorite hats from motion pictures.  Some are as iconic as the characters that wore them.  Some you may have forgotten about.  And there are a few hats so intertwined with the movie star that we may forget where and when it was worn.

Pretty Baby (1978)

Costume Designer: Mina Mittelman

~ I love this straw hat with added floral elements ~

 Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961)

Principle Wardrobe/ Miss Hepburn:  Hubert de Givenchy

Sabrina (1954)

~ It's almost unfair to include Audrey Hepburn in this category.  Her work with costume designers like Givenchy and the unique fashions she was able to pull off in her movies are in a category all her own.

 Mad Men (2007-)

~ The distinguished Don Draper sports a fedora in an early episode of AMC's Mad Men. There are a boatload of people working in costuming on this series and I can see why.  All the details matter.  And there are so many details to keep track of.

 Carmen Miranda

~ Not everyone can get away with carrying a fruit basket on her head, but would Carmen Miranda be remembered without it?  I think not.  (Sorry, Carmen. The fruit is most of your appeal. No pun intended.)

Changeling (2008)

Costume Design: Deborah Hopper

~ This is totally my style and very similar to the aforementioned cloche I recently purchased.  (Although mine is grey with a dark blue flower.)  Cloches were all the rage in the '20s.  They are still one of my favorite styles.

 Dick Tracy (1990)

Costume Design:  Milena Canonero

 ~ I wanted to be Tess Trueheart, but I'd take Warren Beatty's banana yellow fedora anytime.  It fit perfectly into the comic-book, gangster world of Dick Tracy.

 Top Hat (1935)

~ What would this movie be without Fred Astaire's top hat?

 It Happened One Night (1934)

Costume Design: Robert Kalloch

~ There is something so simple about Claudette Colbert's black beret.  Nearly anyone can pull off this look, but Colbert does it with her eyes closed as Clark Gable looks on. 

 Legally Blonde (2001)

Costume Design: Sophie de Rakoff Carbonell

 ~ OMG!  Has it really been this long since Elle Woods first graced the silver screen?  Yes, I'm afraid, it has.  However, that cute crochet hat with the lilac flower?  You don't need a law degree, a chihuahua or a Beverly Hills address to know that hat's a style to snatch.

 Batman Returns (1992)

Costumes: Bob Ringwood and Mary Vogt

 ~ I know there have been other Catwomen, but Michelle Pfeiffer's version was always my favorite.  To let the cat outta the bag, I'd love, love to own this costume!  It's black, sexy, and skintight, but still has cut-outs large enough to reveal Pfeiffer's best facial features.  Hello, Cat-Eyes!

 Gone With The Wind (1939)

Hat Designer: John Frederics

~ I'd be willing to don a hoop skirt and pantaloons to bustle around in some of Scarlett O'Hara's frocks.  Beginning with the straw hat she wears to the Wilkes' barbecue, hats are very much a part of Scarlett's wardrobe.  Two of my other favorites seen below:  The emerald green, French bonnet Rhett gives her (and she "accidently on purpose" puts on backwards) and the green velvet, feathered cap made from curtain remnants at the family's plantation home, Tara.

 The Artist (2011)

Costume Design: Mark Bridges

~ As The Artist proves, everything old is new again.  The sophisticated Peppy Miller, now a bona fide star, dons a spectacular hat-- complete with netting-- as she goes to save George Valentin from his own demise.

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