Brimful of personality: the rise of fashion's 'silly little hats'

"Here goes – an order for a million hats," wrote Jackie Kennedy to Bergdorf Goodman before moving into the White House in the early 1960s. It's a line that could have been uttered by any number of people working in fashion today, because the hat – and not just the ubiquitous baseball cap – has been enjoying a very characterful resurgence. 'Showing off, but only a little bit' … A Chloé sailor hat, Paris fashion week. Photograph: Gonzalez Alain-Gil/Abaca/Shutterstock This season at the turbo-high-end brand Loro Piana, whose clothes are beloved by tech bros and Kendall Roy, almost every model was wearing a hat. At Thom Browne, straw boaters came shrouded in colourful mesh. At Chloé there were see-through hats to match see-through trenchcoats and white sailor hats atop all-white outfits. Courrège's hats were space-age, Burberry had big buckets, Bottega Veneta had hats brimming with charisma. Some are calling them "personality hats", others, affectionately, "silly little hats", but hats that foreground character over practicality are enjoying time spent on heads from Milan fashion week to the shops. It's not about a sou'wester in a storm but a creative punctuation point to an outfit, meant to draw the eye upwards. Hats are a great expression of personality. According to David Long, the author of The Hats That Made Britain: A History of the Nation Through Its Headwear: "Excluding beanies and baseballs, hats are a rare opportunity for display, so I think the wearers are trying to say: 'I'm not like everyone else, even though we all wear the same clothes nowadays.' They're showing off, in other words, but only a little bit." Noel Stewart, a milliner who has created hats for Mulberry, JW Anderson and Valentino, said: "Hats can be a major signifier of personality and intent, whether it is shouted or whispered is up to the wearer." Jackie Kennedy arriving at Love Field in Dallas in 1963. Photograph: AP Consumers of high-street fashion have also been "showing off a little bit", as personality hats have trickled down to Asos and H&M, where iterations of wool and pillbox hats are on sale, giving off Jackie Kennedy vibes. As part of John Galliano's new collaboration with Zara, there are Napoleonic-style bicorne hats, as well as one hat that looks like a fashion take on the millinery of the woman feeding the birds at the end of Mary Poppins. At Copenhagen fashion week, pillbox hats were a common sight on the streets of the Danish capital. "People want to be chic without being too forced (and expensive) about it. This soft pillbox is a very good way of doing that," said Stewart. Some might see these "personality hats" as a way to stand out from the baseball-cap-wearing masses. For those fluent in hat, such as Stewart, there's a time and a place for all hats: "I am wearing a baseball cap at the moment, but it's not all I wear and we all need different hats for the different moments in our lives." But for many, such characterful hats will still take some bravery to wear on a random Tuesday. Even Kennedy, arguably the most famous pillbox hat wearer of the 20th century, once wrote: "Oh dear, it was so pleasant when I didn't have to wear hats! They will pauperise me and I still feel absurd in them."