The Washington Post / Rachel Tashjian 13:08 JST, May 20, 2024 Who wears a hat anymore? More than half a century after hats disappeared as an essential part of the American ensemble, they reappeared at the most recent season of fashion shows, with designers from Altuzarra to Chanel showing models with 1950s-inspired pillboxes and oversize portrait hats. Hats have become a funny little fashion gesture – a signal of personality, but mostly of dottiness. (Ha-ha! Look at this large arcane thing on my head!) They seem unlikely to permeate the world outside the bubble of fashion influencers and celebrities on the red carpet.
When most of the world dresses in athleisure, why in the world would you risk standing out in a hat? Melania Trump presumably knows why, but her odd styling leaves her motives a mystery. On Friday, she made one of her rare appearances, attending her son Barron’s high school graduation in a dark Christian Dior bar jacket, a white skirt, heels and a subtly sparkly gold Gucci boater on her head. (Her husband, despite protesting that his Manhattan hush money trial would keep him from attending the ceremony, also was there.
) While e-commerce ads of the Gucci hat show it perched on the model’s head with hipster-on-the-Riviera panache, Trump yanked the crown down, shading her face and making her eyes disappear. You see a brim, a shadow and her grin beneath. Combined with the strictness of the Dior’s hourglass shape, the hat, rather than conjuring carefree summe.
