Hats Off To Thom Browne and Stephen Jones For Some Seriously Strange Headwear.

Thom Browne's menswear collection for Fall Winter 2014 is both sartorial and satirical, to say the least. Ragged edge plaids, giant fat silhouette suits and autumnal leaf camo face make-up are topped off, literally, by unusual grey flannel and plaid hats and headgear in the shapes of animals. Rabbits as top hats, masks, caps and eyepatches, elephant heads, badger and frog caps, pinstripe bowlers as bears, hunting caps with antlers, driving caps with eyes and cage-like construction. There's even a Bear with a salmon in its mouth as a hat. Designed by Browne, the hats were made with the help of well-known milliner Stephen Jones.

A Sol Lewitt Modern Art Yarmulke For Artsy Fartsy Jews.

Not that it's on the top of everyone's shopping list, but it ain't easy to find an interesting Yarmulke or kippah (the skullcaps that are worn by Orthodox men or other jewish men in synagogue or during prayer). Most of them are the familiar navy blue velvet with metallic stitched stars of David or, if you want to be a rebel, there's the creepy colored hippie-like crochet ones. Once upon a time Jonathan Adler carried a pretty cool one, but he no longer carries it nor is it sold anywhere else.

But now you can be sporting an original piece of contemporary art by the late Sol Lewitt on your capi (that's Yiddish for 'head').



This four-panel leather kippah features a digital print of the Star of David that is inspired by the ark doors Lewitt designed for the Connecticut synagogue Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek in 2001.



Lewitt co-designed the Connecticut synagogue with architect Stephen Lloyd and the synagogue tried repeatedly to translate the radiant, geometric design the artist made for the ark doors into the convex form of a yarmulke. When the design was finally achieved it sold out almost instantly and since then there have been six more editions including this one which is the 7th and final.



Each edition varied in trim color and the color of the inside fabric, but all shared the same six-pointed star design, a common motif in the late artist's work. The 7th edition design features a bright blue trim and a gray interior with the edition details in gold lettering. It is an open edition.

$36, buy it here

It's Monday. So, Here's A Three-Legged Kitten Wearing Tiny Paper Hats.

Author, illustrator and now miniature milliner, Adam Ellis recently adopted a three-legged kitten/cat named Maxwell.

Cozy Cuteness for Little Noggins. Neff's Yo Gabba Gabba Winter Beanies for Kids.

Neff's officially licensed Yo Gabba Gabba winter hats are an adorable way to keep those little keppies (keppie is yiddish for 'head' in case you were wondering) warm this winter.

The 100% acrylic stretch-to-fit beanies come in 7 youth styles, the five fun characters from the wacky children's show (Muno, Plex, Toodee, Brobee and Foofa) and two general versions (boombox and all the characters).

Muno:

Brobee:

Foofa:

Plex:

Toodee:

Boombox:

Characters:


Buy them here.

Millinery Gone Mad. Wild Hats, Headbands, Masks and More by Piers Atkinson.

Romantic, tropical, alluring, mysterious, macabre... I could go on and on with adjectives when it comes to describing the imaginative millinery and head gear by Piers Atkinson.



Every style and genre from sweet and sexy to outrageous and irreverent, Piers's hats, masks, headbands and berets are wearable art. Made with unusual materials like neon, found objects, giant bugs, gold-plated spikes, even barbie dolls, his hats are head-turning fashions that warrant a closet of their own. Take a look at some of these hats, balaclava (ski masks), headbands and more from the past few seasons.

A few selections from his most recent Spring /Summer 2012 "Hot Voodoo" Collection:




Selections from the Autumn/ Winter 2011 "Paris" Collection:






The neon hats were made with the help of icneon and the above left hat with Andrew Logan

A few selections from the Spring/Summer 2011 "La Belle Au Bois" Collection:





A few selections from the Autumn/ Winter 2010 "It Is Later Than You Think" Collection:



And finally, a few wild and wacky ones from Autumn/Winter 2009 "The Frog and The Princess" Collection:




About Piers Atkinson:
Piers Atkinson has worn nearly as many hats as he’s made. Artist, illustrator, milliner, costume designer, party organiser, fashion editor and now DJ! – his creative energies only seem to be matched by an insatiable curiosity.


Photography by Thomas Lohr
He grew up in Norfolk with three generations of women – his mother, the theatrical milliner Hilary Elliott, at whose knee he learned hat-making; his sister Lucy, the long-suffering photographic model for his teenage reconstructions of Grace Jones and Art of Noise record covers; and his grandmother, the artist / writer / horticulturalist and illustrator Lesley Gordon, from whom he took his multi-disciplinary cue.

After studying graphic design and photography at the University of Bristol (where Stephen Jones made a brief but memorable visit to his grad show), Piers moved in 1995 to London. He helped out at that year’s Alternative Miss World, the brainchild of artist Andrew Logan, now an occasional collaborator and constant inspiration to Piers: ‘He helped me see the rich possibilities of free-form events and a ‘just do it’ attitude.’

In 1999, Piers started with iconic fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, whom he assisted with art direction and in-house PR. ‘She instantly cured my conservative approach to colour!’ says Piers. When Rhodes became a client of PR powerhouse Mandi Lennard, Piers took a post there assisting Mandi, who gave him many of her unique insights into the fashion world.

Piers launched his first collection of hats in February 2008 and has created collections every season since. He has collaborated with designers Ashish, Ashley Isham and Noki for runway presentations and has dressed such celebrities as Anna Dello Russo, Kate Moss, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kelis, Cate Blanchett and Paloma Faith. The Princesses of York and Dame Shirley Basey have worn his hats at Ascot and he has had pieces in the V&A’s ‘Hats: an Anthology by Stephen Jones’ and ShowStudio’s exhibition ‘The Café’.

Piers’s creations regularly appear in the pages of Vogue, Italian Vogue, V Magazine, Tatler and the London broadsheets. His hats are available across the globe – from Sister in Japan to Fenwick’s in London, via Joyce in Hong Kong and Alan Journo’s famous store in Milan.


all images and information courtesy of Piers Atkinson