Ooh! Ooh! The V&A exhibit “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones” is going to be touring the US! The schedule isn’t finalized yet, but I know I’ll be keeping tabs on this story to see if this will be anywhere near me. Learn more about the exhibit itself from the V&A’s website or see an online gallery of some of the hats in the exhibit.

At left: a straw hat from London featured in the exhibit, dated to around 1912.

If the ratings are any sign, probably not, but Pan Am promises to bring more 60s fashion to the small screen. There’s a nice interview in TV Guide with Ane Crabtree, fashion designer for the series. I especially liked this quote about the hats:

What kind of time goes into constructing one the hats? They look very polished.
Crabtree: They’re such works of art.  The actors are so freaked out by the hat. I’m talking guys and girls are like, “Oh please, please let me try on the hat!” They are so precise and built in the old style of millinery standards. There is one guy in L.A. who makes them. There are tiny, tiny trapunto stitching, rows and rows that I hope you’ll be able to see on camera, that form this beautiful shape. The fabric has to be dyed this very, very specific Pan Am tunis blue because it doesn’t exist anywhere.  And the buttons have to be hand-cast. Starting with Episode 5, we have the very beautiful hatpin on the back of the stewardess cap that was fashioned after stewardess Sheila Riley’s personal Pan Am pin she wore on the flight to Berlin.

I wonder if the current fad for the glamorous mid-century is going to lead to the return to favor of a more polished look generally and more hat-wearing specifically. Here’s hoping!

The Headwear Association has announced their 2012 “Headwear Hall of Fame” inductees, “stylish individuals renowned for wearing hats.”

This year’s picks:
Lady Gaga
LL Cool J
Kid Rock
Victoria Beckham

And posthumously:
Marlene Dietrich

Fred Astaire

I’m curious what your reaction is to these nominees; for me, this is a mixed bag. Dietrich’s gender-bending style was iconic, and she wore an incredible range of hats. Lady Gaga appears to be trying to single-handedly bring hats back into the center of the fashion universe and simultaneously broaden the definition of “hat” to include everything from fascinators to sculpted wigs to lobsters. But while LL Cool J, Kid Rock, and Victoria Beckham often wear hats, I don’t see anything spectacular or revolutionary about their hat choices. I’m also not sure where I stand on Fred Astaire — sure, he wore hats, and wore them well, but he’s so well remembered for so many other things that honoring him for his hat choices seems to pale in comparison.

Oh well, at least they didn’t include Princess Beatrice.

Who would you pick for your personal hat hall of fame?

Admittedly we hadn’t launched yet back in March, but I’m still not sure how I missed this story: The Headwear Association named Johnny Depp their “Hat Person of the Year.”

Even though I’m more than a few months late, I still wanted to pass this on for one very simple reason: I really like Johnny Depp. He’s a remarkable actor, and his haphazard (you might even say “vaguely reminiscent of a hobo”) personal style somehow works; I suppose when one is good looking enough one can pull off virtually anything. I never really noticed until now, but Depp is a consistent hat wearer, which is rare in this day and age.

HuffPo has a great writeup from back in March, featuring a slideshow of Depp’s many hats.