THE HAT'S OUT OF THE BOX

Why the somewhat forgotten accessory is making a bold return to the runways and the streets.

- EMILIA PETRARCA

It was Greta Lee who did it. When the actor appeared on the red carpet at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival back in October 2023, she was wearing the Row’s Xhefri hat, which has a pillbox shape in the front and a Kangol-style folded brim in the back. “Greta just looked so cool and great,” says Laura Reilly, a former e-commerce writer and editor, as well as a founder of the popular shopping newsletter Magasin. “She was wearing the hat, it wasn’t wearing her, and I was like, I want to feel like that.” So she called the store and put it on hold.

Reilly wore the occasional baseball cap when she was younger, but she only really started to experiment with hats in the last year. Her gateway was a vintage black felt biretta-style hat with a “twisted nib” that pokes up at the top. It resembles a design by the beloved milliner Amy Downs, who has been designing since 1982, and another recent style by the Row called Penelope.

Reilly is one of many influential and stylish people who’ve started embracing hats as an everyday accessory. In March, writer Leandra Medine Cohen declared on her Substack newsletter, “We have entered the era of the personality hat,” noting that the accessory had popped up in many of the Spring and Autumn 2024 collections, including Prada, Maison Margiela, Jil Sander, Giorgio Armani, Missoni, Loro Piana, Saint Laurent, and Christian Dior. “It is basically any topper that has the power to transform your outfit into something more delectable,” she offered as a definition. “I think you step into a bit of a persona,” Reilly adds.